THE PRESS RELEASE: “Canada’s most celebrated songwriter and international folk legend Gordon Lightfoot has announced his new album Solo. The album sees Lightfoot returning to the studio to release his first album of new music since 2004’s Harmony. Solo showcases Lightfoot at his most pure, alone in the studio with his guitar. In the making of Solo, Lightfoot discovered a treasure trove of unreleased material in his Toronto home. Two CDs of songs he recorded nearly two decades ago were tucked away in his office. The songs were written in late 2001 and early 2002, just before he suffered a near-fatal abdominal aortic aneurysm later that year. After discovering the songs, he went into Grant Avenue Studio in downtown Hamilton with his guitar to create this beautifully minimal work. Of the new work, Lightfoot says, “I thought my fans would be interested in hearing what songs sound like when first written.”
MY TWO CENTS: Gord, his plugged-nose vocals and his rich acoustic guitar. It doesn’t get much better (or more Canadian) than that — even if none of these numbers are going to displace Sundown, If You Could Read My Mind or Black Day in July from your playlist. But you do have to give him points for being pretty timely with that title.
