A year later, Mr. After signing with Albert Grossman, manager of Dylan and Peter, Paul and Mary, Mr. Lightfoot released his debut solo album “Lightfoot!” The album was warmly received by critics in Canada in 1963, with performances of “Early Rain”, “For Lovin’ Me”, “Ribbon of Darkness” and “I’m Not Saying”.
Real commercial success came when he moved to Warner Bros., initially recording for the company’s Reprise label. “Around 1970, when I moved to Warner Bros., I was reinventing myself,” he told the Savannah Connect newspaper in 2010. That way I can have some music that people want to hear.
Mr. Lightfoot, on an acoustic 12-string guitar, gave spare, direct accounts in a voice that often trembled with emotion. He sang of loneliness, troubled relationships, wandering erosion and the majesty of the Canadian landscape. As the Canadian writer Jack Paton said, he was “journalist, poet, historian, humorist, short storyteller and reminiscer of times gone by.”
His popularity as a recording artist began to wane in the 1980s, but he maintained a busy touring schedule. In 1999 Rhino Records released “The Songbook”, a four-disc survey of his career.
Mr. who lived in Toronto. Lightfoot, his older sister, Beverly Ayers; and his children, Fred, Ingrid, Miles, Meredith, Eric and Galen. Both his marriages ended in divorce.
In 2002, before going on stage in Orillia, Mr. Lightfoot collapsed when an aneurysm burst in his abdominal aorta, leaving him near death. After two years of recovery, he recorded the album “Harmony” and resumed his live performances in 2005 with the Better Late Than Never Tour.
“I want to be like Ralph Carter, Stompin’ Tom and Willie Nelson,” said Mr. Lightfoot told the CBC in 2004. “Do it as humanly as possible.”
Vjosa music Contributed report.
