Hometown Hockey Tour - Gordon Lightfoot - SUNDOWN featured and Ron Maclean talking about Gordon/his.birthday tomorrow in Kelowna BC..awesome..VIDEO link to part of the story: Nice bit on Hometown Hockey tonight with Ron Maclean: THE LIFE LESSON I LEARNED IN KELOWNA BY RON MACLEAN ON NOV 16 2014 VIDEO at bottom of post: Hometown Hockey in Canada - tonight from Kelowna BC - In 1980, I was 20-years-old and vacationing in Kelowna. I had been there many times before, but this was the first time I travelled there with my then-girlfriend Cari, now my wife of 30 years and counting. Back then we felt so sophisticated simply going for pizza and ordering a bottle of Summit Rouge from Calona Vineyards. I likely should have been taking inventory of “All the Things I Wasn’t “(a song by Grapes of Wrath, a wonderful Kelowna band), but the Okanagan can remove anvils from one’s shoulders with its endless spa landscape. That bliss did however come to an abrupt end one morning as Cari and I were driving to the Capri Mall to shop for a few beach items. I was about to make a left-hand turn to park when I suddenly noticed a better spot ahead, so instead of parking I stepped on the gas and accidentally struck a pedestrian. A local resident had stepped out from the passenger side of my Accord. She had gone up over the hood and onto my windshield before falling back down in front of my car. The ensuing moments were a blur as I checked to see how she was, before racing across the street to call 911, all the while being yelled at by everyone around for my recklessness. In the end, the woman was bruised and shocked but she was fine. She was also gracious throughout. I meanwhile, was all over the local news. “Alberta man causes accident in downtown.” I will always be grateful for two things that day: The victim surviving unscathed and the work of the attending police. The police were an incredible comfort to Cari and me. We were scared. I recall a senior officer looking us straight in the eye and saying, “Look, it could always be much worse. Learn from it. Get over it.” For me, gratitude is the most tear-inducing emotion. Cari and I have spent nearly every summer in Kelowna and our favourite painter, Kelowna’s Rod Charlesworth, fills our home with art. To help paint an image of Okanagan’s spell this week, I asked for and received permission from Gordon Lightfoot to play “Sundown” at the outset of our show this week. At midnight Nov. 17, Gordon Lightfoot turns 76. I can’t see Gordon perform without crying at the beginning and bawling at the end. It’s pure gratitude. He is our song laureate. He’s the man who first sang about what life in Canada looks and feels like. By the time he recorded his 19th album, “A Painter Passing Through,” he had won 17 Junos. In 1966, Prime Minister Lester Pearson wanted a television extravaganza to celebrate the nation’s centennial. Pearson thought that there should be a song or a sketch about the National Dream, the railway upon Canada came together. CBC producer Bob Jarvis asked Lightfoot to compose a song for the New Year’s Day show, 100 Years Young, so Gordon wrote “The Canadian Railroad Trilogy.” I recently saw Gordon play at Jack Singer Concert Hall in Calgary and I could tell the simple act of seeing him stride out onto the stage had the same impact on everyone there. To see Barry Keane, the drum engine, and Carter Lancaster, the guitar virtuoso, poised to accompany a legend, was to instantly recognize how blessed the scene was. It’s a quintet with Rick Haynes on bass and Mike Heffernan on keyboards. As in hockey, five sticks are better than one with Gordon, the captain, standing arrow-straight, shining in humility. For tonight’s opening essay I borrowed a written depiction of a live performance of Lightfoot’s Sundown, by Calgary singer/songwriter Lorrie Matheson. On Feb. 7, 2010, Matheson wrote on his web site a masterful account of the Lightfoot experience. Lorrie grew up in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan. He listened to Edmonton Radio station 630 CHED for his rock and roll and watched Hockey Night in Canada for his favourite game, just like me. The touchstones from childhood are powerful. So in addition to CHED and Hockey Night, I would like to add Kelowna, and thank Kelowna. It’s no accident I offered up Gordon Lightfoot on the eve of his 76th birthday. hometownhockey/news/m...ed-in-kelowna/
Posted on: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 23:35:08 +0000
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