Lightfoot

He chronicles Lightfoot's early efforts--his school principal recorded a disc of "Gordie" singing at age 9--to his beginnings as a songwriter to his heyday in concert halls around the globe. Nobel Prize-winner Bob Dylan once listed "Sundown" and "If You Could Read My Mind" among his favourite Lightfoot songs, before adding, "I can't think of any I don't like." In addition to winning nearly every Canadian music award, in 2012, Lightfoot was inducted into the American Songwriters Hall of Fame alongside such luminaries as Leonard Cohen, Kris Kristoffersen, and Dylan; it honoured Lightfoot as a singer who helped "define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and '70s."      Biographer Nick Jennings has had unprecedented access to the notoriously reticent musician. Beloved by a devoted Canadian audience, Lightfoot's work has been performed and admired by musicians from around the world, including Joni Mitchell, Nico, Ronnie Hawkins and Robbie Robertson. At 63, he suffered an aortic aneurysm that nearly killed him and kept him in a coma for six weeks. Stuffed with anecdotes and the singer's own reminisences, Lightfoot is an exhilarating read.. But his amazing stamina helped him survive and miraculously saw him on stag

The author lives in Toronto. He was the music critic and feature writer for Maclean's magazine from 1980 to 2000. . For newspapers, he has written on music for The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, and, from 1992 to 1998, contributed the "Global Groove" column to Toronto's Eye Weekly. NICHOLAS JENN

They loved him. I think he probably still is to this day.” —Bob Dylan “An extremely fine piece of songwriting.” —Johnny Cash on  “Canadian Railroad Trilogy”  “What a song—that’s my favourite on the record.” —Neil Young, about covering “If You Could Read My Mind” on his A Letter Home album   “Gordon had a real loyal following all over the place, including over in Europe. It was a ritual that, whenever he’d do his tour, all these people would come and see him. Everytime I hear a song of his, it’s like I wish