Lightfoot Tribute Band - Origins
The story of this band is an Internet story. For anyone who has any doubts about whether you can meet nice people on the Internet, this group is proof that you can. All of us met online, most of us from an Internet "newsgroup" service known as Usenet. There are newsgroups about every possible subject: not just music, but sports, television, hobbies, collecting, geographic areas, health topics, computer topics ... you name it. Most of us met at a newsgroup called news:alt.music.lightfoot . Now every "devoted" Lightfoot fan knows - or soon learns - that he performs "at home" at Massey Hall in Toronto every 12 to 18 months. And most of us on the newsgroup (plus many others who are not) have thought about making the trip to see him perform there. Several years ago, a small group of people from the newsgroup arranged to meet while in Toronto; that tradition quickly grew to what we now call a "convention". In May of 2001, there were more than 70 of us there, all of whom had met on the Internet. Many of these fans are also musicians themselves, and several brought their guitars to Toronto. And the group got together to jam, with 40 others crowded around to listen and enjoy. What happened was amazing. These musicians sat down to play together for the first time; in fact, none of them had even met before. And they played like a rehearsed band. It may be hard to believe, but when you hear them perform together at Caffe Lena, you will see that it is true. The Internet connection does not end with May, 2001 in Toronto, because all of the planning and much of the musical preparation is done on the Internet. Most of the musicians record their individual parts and send those recordings to the others so that they can plan their accompaniment. We use a chat room with "voice" capability. That allows us to have a "conference call" whenever we need to, plus we can even play and sing although only one person at a time. But the listeners can play along, and then demonstrate to the others what they are playing. The band rehearses as a group in Saratoga during the week preceding the concert. Cathy and Derek have performed as a duo on several occasions, including opening for David Mallett at a private concert in the Saratoga area in November, 2002. You can listen to recordings from that concert on the "music" page of Cathy's web site here. My name is Valerie Magee. I am not a musician, but I am a long time Lightfoot fan and I have a home on Saratoga Lake, so Caffè Lena is home to me too. I have a web site for Lightfoot at http://gordonlightfoot.com . I hope you visit it too, to learn more about his music. ©2001-2003 by Valerie Magee |
