Monday Music: Early Morning Rain (Eva Cassidy)

"Early Morning Rain," written and recorded by Gordon Lightfoot, was a hit on the folk music scene in the mid-1960s. It was recorded by many other folk artists, including Ian and Sylvia, Judy Collins, and Peter, Paul & Mary.  Here is Eva Cassidy's superb rendition released in 2002 (six years after her death) on the album, Imagine.

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Monday Music: Ring Them Bells (Gordon Lightfoot)

Gordon Lightfoot has had a long and successful career as a singer-songwriter. An early contributor to the folk music scene in the 1960s, his hits included "Early Morning Rain,"For Loving Me," and Canadian Railroad Trilogy." In the 1970s he had hits on the Billboard Pop charts with "If You Could Read My Mind," "Sundown," and "Carefree Highway," among others. He continued to record and perform through the 1980s and 1990s, recording this Dylan song in 1998.

"Ring Them Bells" was first recorded by Bob Dylan on the album, "Oh Mercy" in 1989. It has been feature on this blog twice before with Ron Sexsmith, Sheryl Crow, and Elvis Costello in a post titled, T.S. Elliot and Bob Dylan Ring the Bells; and later with a young artist named Hope Waits.

Lightfoot had a life threatening aortic aneurism in 2002 and a light stroke in 2006, but has continued to perform. His most recent recording was "All Live" in 2012.


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Monday Music: Early Morning Rain

 

This is Peter Paul & Mary at the top of their game appearing on the BBC TV program, "Tonight in Person." The year was 1966 and they are singing a song written by Gordon Lightfoot, "Early Morning Rain." Dick Kniss is the upright bass player off to the side. A self-taught musician, he played bass for PP&M for over 40 years and was sometimes called "the fourth member of the trio."

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Monday Music: The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Last Saturday, November  10, marked the anniversary of the wreck of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, a freighter ship full of cargo on Lake Superior in 1975. The sinking of the huge vessel led to changes in shipping regulations on the Great Lakes.

Gordon Lightfoot had made his mark on folk music with songs like, “In the Early Morning Rain” and “For Loving Me.” He would later help to define the folk-rock sound with such songs as “Sundown,” Carefree Highway,” and ‘If You Could Read My Mind.” In 1976 he helped to immortalize the SS Edmund Fitzgerald and her fate when he wrote and recorded, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”  You’ll see that the video below uses Lightfoot’s song to memorialize the 29 crewmen who lost their lives on that fateful night.