Gordon Lightfoot isn’t one of the first names that springs to mind when compiling a list of important or influential artists, but that’s because, as the press release reminds us, the ‘Canadian singer-songwriter who helped define the folk-rock sound of the Sixties and Seventies’ is oft-overlooked. It’s perhaps for this reason, then, that Arbouretum have seen fit to cover four of his songs for their Latitudes session. And in context of their previous album, ‘Coming Out Of The Fog,’ it makes perfect sense.
Their rendition of ‘The Wreck Of The Edmond Fitzgerald’ is rich and earthy and captures the organic spirit and storytelling nature of traditional folk music, while ‘Carefree Highway’ brings to the fore the country leanings of ‘Oceans Don’t Sing’ from the album. A Celtic swirl drifts over a swelling drone on the final track, ‘Early Morning Rain’, revealing different facets of both the band and the original composer.
Unexpected, but good.
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