Harmony

Gordon Lightfoot

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 11, 2004)
• Original Release Date: May 11, 2004
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Spin Art
• ASIN: B0002234YK
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #14,446 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #89 in

  Music > Indie Music > Country > Country Folk

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
The 20th album of Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot's rich career holds a special place in his heart: it's the album he very nearly didn't live to complete. Brought down by a catastrophic abdominal aneurysm during a September, 2001, show in his hometown of Orillia, Ontario, Lightfoot's recovery was long and arduous. He sought relief by turning to his band for help in fleshing out the handful of demos he'd recorded prior to his illness, playing long-distance collaborator from his hospital bed. While some of the vocals here may reflect the temporary, work-in-progress nature of the original performances, they also reveal a more intimate, vulnerable side of the veteran troubadour. But there's nothing tentative about the material--the core tracks here stand with the best of Lightfoot's 30-year canon. The lilting melodies of "Inspiration Lady," "Clouds of Loneliness," and the title track offer his familiar bittersweet takes on romance, while "River of Life" and "Flyin' Blind" musically invoke his love of nature and his fascination with those who challenge it, respectively. Live 2001 renditions of "Shellfish" and "The No Hotel" nicely round out the album, a personal ordeal turned warm, personally scaled artistic triumph. --Jerry McCulley

Product Description
GORDON LIGHTFOOT -Harmony

Songwriter Gordon Lightfoot will release his new CD Harmony, on May 11th, 2004. Harmony is Gordon Lightfoot’s 20th album. A stunning collection of new and previously unreleased songs which he has been working on over the last two years. Gordon was struck with severe health problems last year, almost losing his life, and has been steadily recovering for the past 12 months.

Gordon was felled, during a concert in his hometown of Orillia, Ontario by a burst artery, had emergency surgery and was in a coma for six weeks. Hospitalised for six months, Gordon began to process of finishing the album that he started prior to being hospitalised. Producer Bob Doidge and Gordon ’s band went to work on the recordings, overdubbing parts and bringing their work to Gordon in the hospital for his approval and changes. The result is Harmony. The title track is a truly haunting ballad, followed by the traveling tale of River Of Light. The first single Inspiration Lady is yet another inspiring ballad of love and adoration. The album ends on a song of hope and dreaming with the song Sometimes I Wish.

Harmony will be released May 11th, simultaneously in Canada on Linus/Warner and in the USA on SpinART/Ryko. Gordon just spent a day filming scenes for his new video Inspiration Lady which will be released to radio and television in March 2004. Following another round of reconstructive surgery, Gordon should be ready to continue touring again by the end of 2004.

Gordon sums up his thoughts about Harmony in the album liner notes: "In the final analysis, the job was what mattered. It was good being preoccupied in a very constructive way with a project in the works; one which would carry itself forward, right up through the artwork and editorial, until it's ultimate completion. A feeling of confidence was in the air. Meanwhile, the simple practice tracks had served us well, and for the first time ever, I had an opportunity to proceed with an album while lying on my back."

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lightfoot is back, September 18, 2004

By	Bruce Trinque (Amston, CT United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

As mentioned in other reviews of "Harmony", this album can make a serious claim to be Gordon Lightfoot's best in decades. Looking back through my collection, I might say that not since "Shadows" has there been a single album with such a sustained quality of songs. True, Lightfoot's voice is not what it once was, but I think he has come to terms with that and has found new roads to using it in the best way. I had a feeling with "Waiting for You" and to some extent "A Painter Passing Through" that he was to some degree forcing his voice a bit as compensation for its decrease in range and tone (a feeling, by the way, that I never had when seeing him in concert), and perhaps the balance between instrumentation and vocals had shifted too far towards the former. But in "Harmony" Lightfoot once again uses his voice as a fine instrument in itself. These thoughtful songs on this album stand as equalling in quality what he was writing two or three decades ago. I have already played the album several times over and cannot decide which cuts I like best -- there simply are too many good choices.

Gordon Lightfoot's recordings, like his concert appearances, are characterized not only by his distinctive lyrical sense but also by the particular style of his long-time collaborators in his regular backup group: Rick Haynes, Terry Clement, Barry Keane, and Mike Heffernan. These are musicians who have toured and recorded with Lightfoot not only for years, but literally for decades. (I think such loyalty, in both directions, must say something about the man.) They are present again on most of the cuts on "Harmony" but, pleasing to this longtime fan, there is also another familiar name: Red Shea, guitarist on some of Lightfoot's earliest albums.

Although this latest album represents something of a continuing evolution, it also reflects a pleasing continuity with what has come before. If you are a Gordon Lightfoot fan, you cannot miss this album.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Coo, Cha-Ching!, July 29, 2004

By	P. E. Marshall "Reference Guy" (Reynoldsburg, OH United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This CD is better than either Waiting for You or Painter Passing Through, both done years earlier. Passionate, folksy and funny, this group of songs does Gordon justice. Songs that bring to mind his native Ontario, like Couchiching, and a live rendition, No Hotel, that describes a trip to the Amazon with some tree huggers, are my favorites. The paternalistic romance of Inspiration Lady, is lilting and enticing. You might have to go back before East of Midnight, to find a Lightfoot album this well written and well produced. The voice has aged appreciably, but the guts of Lightfoot remain.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sweet, lovely, poignant, October 5, 2004

By	Susan G. Hodge (La Canada, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've been a Lightfoot fan for over 35 years and have seen him perform over a dozen times; in fact, we saw him perform just months before he was striken in 2001.Gordon performed "Shellfish" and "No Hotel" in his set, along with a great selection of old favorites. The decline in his voice was apparent then...the range and clarity are not what they once were...but the heart and soul of his beautiful songs remain and the evening was magical! I feel the same way about this album. My favorite songs are "Clouds of Loneliness" and "Sometimes I Wish" (and I think his voice seems stronger for these). The songwriting is Lightfoot at his best. For the longtime fans, it's a wonderful gift to have this gifted performer back!