Lightfoot for Lovers
Rodney Brown’s Valentine’s Concert
Story by Maya Ekman, Photo by Shannon Lepere
“It’s going to be a very romantic night out,” Rodney Brown says about Lightfoot for Lovers, his “prelude to Valentine’s Day” Gordon Lightfoot dance and concert on February 7 at the Italian Cultural Centre. The concert will run from 7:30 to 9:30 pm, and Brown’s full band and string quartet will play Lightfoot’s love songs, including “Early Morning Rain,” “Sundown,” and “If You Could Read My Mind.”
“[Lightfoot] has very powerful love songs; he stands out in love songs more than any other artist,” Brown says. “People have all kinds of stories about falling in love to Gordon Lightfoot songs.”
“He has songs about meeting somebody, about being in love and how wonderful that is,” he adds. “And then you have ‘If You Could Read My Mind’ or ‘Baby Step Back,’ where you’re having problems. And then there are the goodbye songs, like ‘Sundown.’ He has all the different phases of a relationship that people go through.”
Brown was born and raised in Thunder Bay, and is the city’s most well-known folk musician. He has been creating music since the age of seven, and has released 12 albums since his debut in 1977. Brown serenades his hometown with both his own music and his covers of prolific folk singers like Bob Dylan and Neil Young. He says that fellow Ontario-born folk singer Lightfoot is perfect to cover for Valentine's Day because “you can’t help falling in love with Gordon Lightfoot when you hear him. […] He’s got songs that have helped people out in their lives. People are comforted by him.”
While this is the first Lightfoot for Lovers Valentine’s event, Brown has been performing his songs for many years. “I have done Lightfoot songs in the past with the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra, and then for a while I had a trio together, and we did some Lightfoot songs. I’ve been with this band for the Lightfoot stuff for a while now,” he says. The band consists of Dan Zadkovich, Dave Isherwood, and Chris Plater, as well as four Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra string members, Thomas Cosbey, Michelle Zapf-Bélanger, Geena Salway, and Michelle Kay Chen.
Other future plans of Brown’s include a Bob Dylan event in April 2026.
Tickets are $40 and are available at Fireweed at 182 Algoma Street South, or online at Eventbrite.
