Change In The Lineup For The Lightfoot Band
By John Swartz
The Lightfoot Band is playing the Opera House Thursday evening as the opener to this year’s Lightfoot Festival. Let’s start with a road story.
The new guy, Bill Bell, showed up for his 4th gig with the band only 20 minutes before showtime. The Lightfoot Band had a gig earlier this year in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. Bell had a gig with his other band, Tom Cochrane’s, in Medicine Hat, Alberta the night before. Barry Kean will start this one.
“We said, ‘What are we going to do? Bill obviously can’t make our show.’ Bill found a way, ” said Keane
Bill gets to tell the rest of it.
“Getting a work visa right now with the current U.S. administration is a bit daunting and the paperwork is getting backed up. Unfortunately we didn’t get our visas until the day before we were supposed to leave. I was on a show with Tom Cochrane in Medicine Hat, Alberta the night before we were supposed to play in (Boothbay Harbor) Maine. I was going to fly into Boston and drive three hours up to Maine to make the show. I was in Medicine Hat when the paperwork came through, so it was emailed to me, but I didn’t have a hard copy of the visa. I finished playing with Tom Cochrane in Medicine Hat, we finished at 11 p.m. got into my rental car, drove to Calgary for a 5 a.m. flight to Montreal to connect down to Boston. I had all the paperwork that was emailed to me, but because I didn’t have a hard copy, immigration was giving me a really hard time and they weren’t going to let me go through,” Bell said.
“Rick gave me the number of this great woman (Mary) at the New York office of the musicians union. She got on the phone with immigration and said, ‘listen, here’s the number, if you look in your files online, he’s approved and everything is good to go,” So they looked and let me through within 5 minutes of missing my flight.”
“I landed in Boston, I was supposed to rent a car, but I didn’t have time so I got an Uber driver and he took me on the 3 hour trip up to Maine and I slept in the car. People were lined up at the venue because they were holding the doors until I arrived. The audience clapped when my Uber driver showed up and some of them helped me with my guitars into the venue. That was my 4th Lightfoot gig. I just couldn’t believe how kind Gordon Lightfoot fans are. They are some of the nicest fans out there,” Bell said.
This conjures variations of visions from dozens of movies, Bell diving into the back seat of car, tossing a wad of bills at the driver and saying, ‘get me to Goose Bay Harbor – and fast!’ Then there’s the question, how much was the Uber charge?
“It wasn’t that bad. It was 300 bucks U.S. For me that was reasonable for a three hour drive.”
“It just shows you the dedication and professionalism of our new lead guitarist,” Keane said.
It was with sadness fans learned in February Carter Lancaster was leaving the band.
“It kind of came out of the blue in a way. We knew he was dealing with some family matters, some family health issues, and it was taking up a lot of his time. It was hard for him to balance being away from home and having to be at home. We were, of course, sad. Then there was the emotion of what do we do now? Man did we ever get lucky,” said Keane.
Enter Bill Bell. At 61 he’s the youngest member of the band and would have spent his formative years listening to Gord’s music on the radio. He’s a respected guitarist being part of Tom Cochrane’s band, and associated with Andy Kim, Dan Hill and Jason Mraz as a performer.
“I had meet Bill 6 or 7 years ago,” Keane said. “I had been invited to be a guest percussionist at Andy Km’s Christmas show and Bill was the bandleader. I did every it year since and Bill besides being a fabulous guitarist, he was just a great leader. He’s such a nice fellow. He performed at the celebration for Gordon Lightfoot, he came with Tom Cochrane, so we all got to know Bill a little bit better. We were talking as a band saying, ‘who do you know, who do you think would be interested in playing lead guitar with us?’ I suggested Rick give Bill Bell a call to find out if Bill knew of anybody because of Bill’s contact. Rick called and Bill said, ‘yeah, me.’”
“He didn’t know if he would have the time to do it, but he has made the time and has been just a fabulous addition to the band. He just brings so much joy because he loves doing it. He has fit like a glove,” Keane said.
‘Tom Cochrane and I sat in with the band at Massey Hall a few years ago at Gordon’s tribute after he passed and Tom did the Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald; I was a little nervous to go and pay with the band because they are such legends, but of course as I know now, they are such wonderful human beings and such warm guys, they made it effortless and a beautiful experience, so when Rick called for me to replace Carter I said yes immediately. Then I said, ‘what the F did I just get myself into?’” said Bell.
Being familiar with Larnell Lewis’s infamous story of his introduction as a member of Snarky Puppy; he was asked to fill in for the band’s regular drummer, with only two days notice ahead of a major recording (sound and video) in Utrecht, Netherlands , Larnell learned the music on his flight over. So it was natural to ask Bell how long he had to learn the Lightfoot Band’s show before having to step onto a stage. He had the luxury of a month.
“I was really busy when Rick (Haynes) called so I took two weeks off of work. I just cleared my schedule and sat on my couch with my coffee table and laptop and engrossed myself into all of Gordon’s songs. I had to learn about 30 songs,”
“I started listening to material and it was way deeper than I thought it was initially.”
“I’ve grown to have such an appreciation and respect for all his work. Like Red Shea and Terry Clements, with Red’s parts he’s such a ridiculously good bluegrass player that I’m still learning. I’ll still learn from Red forever, there’s some things I have no idea what he’s doing.”
“I had the luxury of being able to read charts I had written for the first three shows with the band because there’s so much material. What I love about Gordon’s music is when you listen to it you might think there’s a lot of simplicity to it, but Gordon sticks in all these odd bars, so there’s a bar of 2/4 coming up, and in Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald there’s extra bars of 3/4, so if you don’t’ know the form, well, you’re going to mess it up.”
How was it the first time Bell played the songs with the band?
“When I showed up to the first rehearsal I was show-ready. I knew the show well enough, I am not going to be the guy that makes these musicians play them more than they have to, in a rehearsal context,” said Bell. Where there any songs especially hard to learn?
“I’m not sure. For me it’s more capturing the spirit, so I kind of put them all into one category. I didn’t really feel I had a handle on capturing the proper energy. When I came into the band I said to the guys, “I’m not really going to learn what Carter played, I’m going to go back to the original recordings and start fresh and try and try and capture the vibe of the original recording. I look at this almost like I joined the folk version of Led Zeppelin, because I look at Gordon as being the folk equivalent of to what Led Zeppelin did to rock music. I’m playing with the original guys, so I took this really seriously.”
The band noticed his hard work.
“We had one rehearsal with Bill before we played at the Brockville Performing Arts Centre toward the beginning of this year, and then we had one sound check. Bless his heart, Bill wrote out charts, he took so much pride in playing the guitar parts behind Gordon Lightfoot’s music and even he was amazed at some of the nuances and some of the skill level it takes to play these songs properly. Gordon Lightfoot songs are easy to play, they’re really difficult to play well. and Bill has learned that and he has done just an extraordinarily good job,” said Keane.
Bell has a few favourite tunes to play.
“I’m really loving Baby Step Back and Dave Parks, he’s an incredible session layer in Los Angeles, he played on the record; he does a great solo on the song. And I love playing If You Could Read My Mind. I just love that song so much. And the Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald, I get a chill, it’s like I’m playing Stairway to Heaven, I’m playing these incredible songs I grew up with, with the guys who recorded them.”
There is another side to Bill Bell, maybe you’ve seen him. Later in life he also became a model.
“That’s my side gig. I got into that when I quit drinking. I went gray when I was 30 and I’ve been dying my hair trying to stay younger. When I was 50 I quit drinking and changed my whole life and, ‘screw this’ I’m going to be natural and go gray. When I did that a friend of mine was like, ‘you know you can make some extra money in mature modeling.’”
“My first was I went to Jordan for National Geographic G Adventures and I shot a whole campaign. I went to Petra and the Dead Sea and I was also on the cover of a Harlequin romance novel,” Bell said.
That last one might just be the pinnacle for male models.
“That’s what my mom thinks. She was so proud.”
Aside from the excitement of having a new member in the band, Keane said they are excited for the concert here and all that goes with it.
Mayor Don McIsaac will proclaim Thursday as Gordon Lightfoot Day and Friday as The Lightfoot Band Day. That will happen at the concert.
“That’s exciting for us. We’ve been maybe the best ambassadors for Orillia that there has been in the last few years. It’s great to be recognized,” said Keane.
The band will be in town most of the weekend, except for Bell, He has to be in Vancouver for a gig with Tom Cochrane on Friday.
There are 35 tickets in the balcony available and you can get them online.
The rest of the weekend looks like this. Friday afternoon at Creative Nomad Studios there will be a Youth Singing Competition, followed by an informal in-person chat session with the Lightfoot Band and special guests. Friday night at Creative Nomad, Choir Revolution will be in to lead a sing-a-long of Gord’s music. There will be video shot and posted online, so put on a clean shirt and brush your teeth. There will also be performances by selected artists.
Saturday afternoon things shift to Qualye’s Brewery with a showing of, a documentary by John Corcoran, Lightheaded: A Gordon Lightfoot State of Mind. This was shown last year and it follows a group touring the U.K. alongside Gord and company during his first performance tour in the U.K. in 30 years. It also has interviews with band members and Gord.
Then it’s time for more music by Don James and Jack Nicolle, The High Steppin’ Strutters, Samantha Windover, and Mauck (as in Andy) and Martin (his guitar), plus the winners of the student competition and some cake. You can get tickets for each event online.
(Images Supplied) Main: The Lightfoot Band, with new guitarist Bill Bell, plays the Opera House October 29 for the annual Lightfoot Festival.
