If You Could Read My Mind - written by Gordon Lightfoot - performed by The Unsung Heroes

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Released in 1970, this was the first Gordon Lightfoot song to reach number one on the Canadian Billboard charts, along with hitting number five in the US. While Gordon was well known in the folk music circles since the mid sixties, this song opened up a much larger audience to both his earlier music and the material that followed after. This song really was a giant milestone in his quest to build upon his audience.

On a personal note, I was a huge fan of Lightfoot before this song came out and went to see him a handful of times in small concert venues near my home town of Philadelphia. Holding two to three hundred people maximum, these relatively intimate concerts were soon replaced by 2500 plus audiences at the Philadelphia Academy Of Music, but the music and the presentation remained the same. His concerts were simple but flawless, presenting a three or four person acoustic band, with him backed by a lead guitarist and a bassist (and sometimes a pedal steel). To be sure, Gordon Lightfoot was a major inspiration and influence on the kind of music I preferred in those days. Although I grew up playing a lot of piano standards from the 40's through the 60's, Gordon's sound and songwriting was a primary motivator for me to learn to play acoustic guitar and also to start singing.

Between Gordon Lightfoot, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Cat Stevens, Jackson Browne and a number of other great folk/rock artists of that era, my musical path was altered dramatically from the music of my younger days and this genre, era and these artists still resonate as strongly for me today as they did back then. It also opened up my ears and motivated me to dig deeper into a number of other artists and musical styles including bluegrass, blues, classic country, Irish and others styles and stylists.

One of the biggest reasons I feel like it's important to keep some of this amazing classic music alive is because it's important to me to not forget the songs and songwriters that led me on my path to the wide variety of music I love and perform today.

@GordonLightfootOfficial