Stateside readers probably spent this past weekend lighting fireworks and chomping barbeque for Independence Day, but, as you probably know, our friends up north had a different holiday: Canada Day! To celebrate, one Nova Scotia blog curated a free new tribute album to Gordon Lightfoot, one of the country’s national treasures.
“Gordon Lightfoot has been making music for decades and his stories are passed from generation to generation,” the Hero Hill bloggers wrote by way of introduction. “Unfortunately, when asked about the greatest Canadian songwriters, Gordon is often left off the list.”
Though that’s undoubtedly true, it’s more a testament to the legion of great songwriters Canada has produced than an indictment of the man’s ability. Still, tributes to Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell abound, so Canada Day offers a good opportunity to collect three dozen new covers of Lightfoot’s work as Turning Back the Pages of My Sweet Shattered Dream: A Tribute to Gordon Lightfoot. As you might expect from the source material, the covers unite around a mostly-folk sound and are all by Canadian bands. With 36 songs to choose from, the tunes include both the obscure and the well-known. Before you ask: Yes, someone does cover “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”
Check out a few samples below, then head to Hero Hill to download the full set.
MP3: Adam & the Amethysts – Walls (Gordon Lightfoot cover)
[audio: News0711/07Walls.mp3|artists=Adam and the Amethysts|titles=Walls]
MP3: Folly and the Hunter – Steel Rail Blues (Gordon Lightfoot cover)
[audio: News0711/07SteelRailBlues.mp3|artists=Folly and the Hunter|titles=Steel Rail Bars]
MP3: Slow Down, Molasses – Early Morning Rain (Gordon Lightfoot cover)
[audio: News0711/07EarlyMorningRain.mp3|artists=Slow Down Molasses|titles=Early Morning Rain]
Download Turning Back the Pages of My Sweet Shattered Dream: A Tribute to Gordon Lightfoot at Hero Hill.
I really like Gordon Lightfoot