'Beautiful-A Tribute to Gordon Lightfoot'---a joint venture of Borealis and Northernblues Records---provides clear evidence that Lightfoot's oeuvre can certainly hold its own with that of any other singer/songwriter over the last fifty years (his work has been covered by hundreds of other artists). This 15-track tribute, however, is only partially successful, as the task of providing significantly new interpretations seemed to overwhelm about half the contributors.
Searching for the elusive ingredients missing in the oft-attempted salute recording is a difficult proposition. For a myriad of reasons, these ventures often never catch fire and never live up to their expectations. Material quality is never the problem: Lightfoot's material has superbly passed the test of time. But outweighing this upside, the aura of justifiable reverence often produces stagnant and uninspired re-makes of the originals.
One of the rare tributes that met my hopes was 'Johnny's Blues'-a blues tribute to the late Johnny Cash. In retrospect, a lot of its success had to do with the cross-pollination of two genres: Country and blues yielding a distinctive hybrid. Adding spice to the mix, a lot of the blues cats had only a perfunctory exposure to Cash. Put simply: The passions unleashed from the first listen had not been quenched by too many repeat listens. Interestingly, a couple of artists featured on 'Johnny's Blues' have two of the more successful tracks on 'Beautiful'.
Blackie and the Rodeo Kings do a convincing job on "Summer Side of Life". Lightfoot's two major international hits---"Sundown" and "If You Could Read My Mind"---suffer in comparison, as respective versions by Jessie Winchester and Terry Tufts never manage to emerge from the "paint-by-numbers" cocoon. Another 'Johnny's Blues' alumnus, Harry Manx, however, further solidifies his reputation as one of the most edgily interpretative voices out there on "Bend In The Water".
Also on the positive side of the ledger is "Ribbon of Darkness", to which Bruce Cockburn affords a particularly haunting rendition. Cockburn has been around for as long as Lightfoot, so any reluctance to step outside the box got brushed aside decades ago. Pop sleuth Ron Sexsmith turns in a somewhat flaky but still interesting version of "Drifters", and Maria Muldaur is right on the money with "That Same Old Obsession".
"Song For A Winter's Night" is another primo example of Lightfoot's wonderful flair for weaving a catchy melody. Tackling it with visionary aplomb, Quartette (Sylvia Tyson, Cindy Church, Caitlin Hanford, Gwen Swick) bestow it with an arrangement that highlights both the individual and the group's vocal strengths, while Kevin Breit adds instrumental heft via ultra-tasty work on national steel and mandolin.
'Beautiful' is better than 90 percent of the tributes out there, which is an endorsement-- but not a ringing one. While you always sense the love and admiration for Lightfoot emanating from all the performers, about half of them decided to play it a little too close to the vest, choosing the path of least resistance. A little more risk-taking would have produced an even worthier effort.
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