Gordon Lightfoot - Now Playing

Canada's great balladeer gets a fresh spotlight on Now Playing, a 2023 single-LP collection that gathers songs from Gordon Lightfoot's remarkable catalog.

Born in Orillia, Ontario, Lightfoot came up through the Toronto folk scene of the 1960s and became one of the defining songwriters of the decade that followed. Artists from Bob Dylan to Elvis Presley recorded his songs, and his own records turned quiet reflection and patient storytelling into chart success on both sides of the border.

His music lives in the details: a rich, burnished baritone, crisp twelve-string guitar and lyrics that move from heartbreak and wanderlust to sweeping tales drawn from Canadian history and life on the water. Arrangements stay warm and uncluttered, giving every verse room to land, and even his biggest songs feel like they are being sung to one person across a kitchen table.

Lightfoot died in 2023, and a collection like this is a fitting way to revisit the craft that made him a national treasure in Canada and a songwriter's songwriter everywhere else. His influence runs through generations of folk, country and singer-songwriter acts.

Put it on during a quiet evening, pour something warm and let one of folk music's finest storytellers carry you down the highway for a while.