ATHABASCA — Fans of Canadian music icon Gordon Lightfoot will have a chance to relive old memories of his early years and even create new ones in Athabasca this April as John Hewitt and Second Sunset Productions bring another Lightfoot tribute act to town.
Picking up the Pieces: The Songs of Gordon Lightfoot can be caught at the Nancy Appleby Theatre Saturday, April 5, and similar to Jack Semple’s show in November, producer Hewitt said audience members can expect an authentic showcase of Lightfoot’s musical legacy.
“If anybody at home remembers Gord’s Gold, if they remember his early trio, if they’ve ever seen him in his heyday, I truly feel that they will leave the show feeling like they got to see him a second time,” said Hewitt.
While MC Hewitt and on-stage musicians Benjamin Williams, Patrick Hughes and Connor Miskiman aren’t aiming for an exact replica of a Lightfoot performance, a shared appreciation for the late singer/songwriter’s discography, especially for Williams, inspired them to bring the experience to fans across the province.
“We’ve had people come up and say, “I wanted to see Lightfoot before he passed away, but then the pandemic hit and he didn’t come through at a time where we could go see him,'” said Hewitt.
“As much as we’re not trying to imitate Gordon Lightfoot, we want to respect the songs, the catalogue, and the arrangements, and I think the audiences are seeing the quality and the skill and the attentiveness we’re trying to put into the music.”
Hewitt and Williams started Picking up the Pieces a year ago, driven a desire to get back into bigger shows following the COVID-19 performing stalemate, and by Williams’ passion and admiration for the artist who came long before his own time.
“The lead singer and performer, he started basically studying Gordon Lightfoot’s music when he was 12 years old, and he’s now 25, so he’s still a young pup,” said Hewitt. “I always tell people if Gordon Lightfoot wrote 500 songs, he knows 480 of them, and he plays them with pristine accuracy.”
Hewitt describes his own musical influences as more Tom Petty and The Beatles, but growing up in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., not far from the setting of one of Lightfoot’s most iconic pieces, meant he was introduced to the legendary troubadour’s work from an early age.
“The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is very close to home, it was really across the river and up the road 20 miles where it sank,” said Hewitt, who remembers listening to Lightfoot’s music, and specifically the ballad about the historic shipwreck every November with his parents.
“It was sort of like a regional folk tale; my parents always said that when you were listening to the song, you felt like you were on the ship, and they remembered that night vividly,” he added. I’ve had a close connection to the Canadian aspect of Gordon Lightfoot, and that hit me at an early age.”
Hewitt and the trio will be hitting eight communities across the province for their Alberta Bound tour between Mar. 31 and April 29, making stops in Red Deer and Grande Prairie before ending their travels in Hinton.
And while Picking up the Pieces began before Canadians’ recent embrace of a shared national identity in the face of sovereignty threats from the Trump administration, Hewitt said he hopes both regional artists and the Canadian impact on music history has a place in the ongoing solidarity surge.
“The term ‘Americana’ was basically invented because of the band The Band, and four out of five of those members were Canadian,” said Hewitt. “That’s a really interesting way to look at the shape of music right now and the history of music.
“We’ve had so much of a bigger part of it than I think the world fully understands, and now might be a perfect opportunity to say, ‘Hey, we were part of this and this is what we’ve done over the last 50 years.”
Tickets to see Picking up the Pieces can be purchased in advance of the show through Eventbrite, and will also be available at the door ahead of showtime. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the performance starts at 7:30 p.m.
Those looking to reserve a seat ahead of time and avoid online booking can email Hewitt for tickets at [email protected] before 6 p.m. on April 5.
