Songbook

Amazon.com essential recording

An institution north of the Canadian border, Gordon Lightfoot is practically the living embodiment of what many think of as the national character. Stoic, weathered, and hard-working, Lightfoot practices a husky brand of folk music that's as timeless as the Canadian landscape that seems to loom above his most memorable melodies. This overdue four-disc retrospective stretches all the way back to 1962, when the Ontario-born performer tried to make it in Nashville, up to 1998; 16 previously unreleased tracks and another 17 previously available only on vinyl add meat to its frame. Yes, the familiar tunes are here--"For Lovin' Me" (a hit for both Peter, Paul & Mary and Ian & Sylvia), "Early Morning Rain," "If You Could Read My Mind," "Sundown," "Carefree Highway," and the oft-parodied but truly evocative "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald." But Songbook, like the artist it commemorates, isn't defined by radio staples. It's about the splendid expanse that is the decades-long career of a true musical workhorse. --Steven Stolder