Lightfoot honours Dobson with award at Mariposa
Mark Clairmont and Lois Cooper | MuskokaTODAY.com
ORILLIA — The legends live on at the Mariposa Folk Festival.
Gord Lightfoot and Bonnie Dobson, who were at the first festival in Orillia 58 years ago, were back on the stage Saturday afternoon.
Orillia native son Lightfoot sang a couple of songs, as has come a tradition of his at the festival now.
And this year he received an even larger round of applause from several thousand fans who raced the stage when the surprise(?) announcement came that he was going to play about just after 6:30 p.m.
And the multi-award-winning star stuck around for major award of the night.
He presented Dobson with a Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame award for her song Morning Dew, which she wrote and performed at Mariposa in 1961.
And the British-based singer now sang it again this afternoon before accepting the award from Lightfoot, who she said she “adored.”
Lightfoot told TODAY that his three dates last weekend to close Massey Hall turned out great.
He said Massey is such a great place, because “it’s so in tune.”
And he says “it wasn’t my last time there.
“They want me back in two years when they open again.”
So will he be back at age 81 in 2020.
“I don’t know, if I’m still walking, I’ll be there,” Lightfoot said as he and his wife, Kim, left back stage surrounded by friends from Orillia and fans from across all over Ontario who he stopped to chat with and have photos with.
Lightfoot and Dobson were followed up a couple of acts later on the Main Stage by Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets.
The former producer for Elvis Costello, who just announced this week that he is battling (prostate?) cancer, told TODAY that he had spoken to Costello.
Costello is the husband of Canadian jazz singer and pianist Diana Krall.
Lowe said between sets that his friend “just needs some rest.”
Saturday night’s Main Stage acts, including Joel Plaskett and his dad Bill, Lisa Leblanc, Larkin and Poe, and headliner Alan Doyle followed a day of music for all tastes, not just folk, but blues, country and pop.
The festival opened Friday night headlined by Burlington’s Walk of the Earth.
Sunday night, following another day with hundreds of musicians taking a half dozen other smaller stages, wraps up with Buffy Sainte Marie and Bahamas.
