TOUR SUMMARIES

2011 Tour Summary


Gordon Lightfoot logs one more long and impressive year on the road. Bob Dylan's touring schedule since the mid-80's has been dubbed "The Neverending Tour". Lightfoot, for his part,  has been on his own Neverending Tour since the mid-60's. Considering only a brief respite in 1972 to recover from Bell's Palsey, the entire year of 1986 to record East Of Midnight and 2003 and most of 2004 to recover from serious illness - other than that, Lightfoot's Neverending Tour is just business as usual where he is concerned!

For the first time since 1971, Lightfoot's touring band travelled without their lead guitarist extraorindaire, Terry Clements.  In February, a few short weeks before they were to hit the road, Terry passed away suddenly in Toronto. Terry will be forever remembered as an unsurpassed musician and an integral component of the Lightfoot sound. His recordings with Lightfoot will stand the test of time and allow him to live on in our hearts and minds.

Carter Lancaster takes Terry's place on stage and filled in more than admirably, making the transition virtually seamless, all the while adding his own unique touches to the songs we all know so well. Welcome Carter!

In total in 2011, Lightfoot played 64 concerts in 59 cities throughout the US and Canada in 2011, eighteen fewer concerts than in 2010. There 9 casino style concerts of one extended set, while the remaing 55 were two sets with intermission. He began the year again in March in the US southeast and northeast, then an Ontario tour culminating at Massey Hall in May. He was off for the summer, returning to the road in September in the US northeast and midwest. In November he headed west, first in the US, then western Canada, working his was east to Ontario, finishing up in early December.

Openers included Sweet Guinevere, Did She Mention My Name and Triangle. Encores were quite varied, but the ever reliable Old Dan's Records was limited to only 3 performances. Red Velvet was performed twice in Alberta in honour of Ian Tyson. Another song played less frequently over the year was Triangle.

There were no new or previously unreleased songs performed in 2011. Not since the pre-illness days of 2002 has new material been introduced in concert.

The album Shadows was once again the most drawn upon source for material, both in terms of different songs utilized and total unique plays.

There were 43 different songs performed over the course of the year, harvested from eighteen of his twenty studio albums, leaving only two studio albums entirely shut out, that being Back Here On Earth and Salute.


SONG SUMMARY BY ALBUM
Here are how the setlists break down by album.

All of this information is based on a sample of 37 complete setlists. If anyone heard a song that isn't listed here, I'd be more than happy to add it to the list.  In brackets following the song is the number of times the song appeared in the 37 setlists to give you an idea of their frequency.

LIGHTFOOT! (57)
Early Morning Rain (20)
Ribbon Of Darkness (37)

THE WAY I FEEL (49)
Canadian Railroad Trilogy (18)
Home From The Forest (17)
Song For A Winter's Night (14)

DID SHE MENTION MY NAME (19)
Did She Mention My Name (19)

BACK HERE ON EARTH (0)

SUNDAY CONCERT (0)
IF YOU COULD READ MY MIND (43)
If You Could Read My Mind (37)
The Pony Man (2)
Minstrel Of The Dawn (4)

SUMMER SIDE OF LIFE (37)
Cotton Jenny (37)
DON QUIXOTE (101)
Don Quixote (34)
Christian Island (13)
Beautiful (37)
Alberta Bound (17)

OLD DAN'S RECORDS (3)
Old Dan's Records (3)

SUNDOWN (106)
Sundown (37)
Carefree Highway (37)
The Watchman's Gone (32)
COLD ON THE SHOULDER (53)
Rainy Day People (33)
Fine As Fine Can Be (20)

SUMMERTIME DREAM (89)
The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald (37)
Never Too Close (37)
Spanish Moss (15)

ENDLESS WIRE (67)
Hangdog Hotel Room (22)
Sweet Guinevere (10)
If Children Had Wings (14)

DREAM STREET ROSE (34)
Sea Of Tranquility (17)
Make Way For The Lady (17)

SHADOWS (157)
14 Karat Gold (32)
In My Fashion (32)
Shadows (36)
Blackberry Wine (14)
Baby Step Back (37)
Triangle (6)

SALUTE (0)

EAST OF MIDNIGHT (37)
Let It Ride (37)

WAITING FOR YOU (60)
Restless (37)
Ring Them Bells (3)
Waiting For You (20)

A PAINTER PASSING THROUGH (58)
A Painter Passing Through (36)
Ringneck Loon (20)
Red Velvet (2)

HARMONY (21)
Clouds Of Loneliness (19)
Couchiching (2)


UNRELEASED (0)