Northland Community Reflects Canadian Singer-Songwriter Gordon Lightfoot

DULUTH, Minn. — We pay our respects Tuesday to Canadian Singer and Songwriter, Gordon Lightfoot, who passed away Monday.

Lightfoot had recently just canceled his 2023 concert schedule due to health issues a month before his passing. He was best known for his song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” which is the haunting story of the Lake Superior shipping disaster.

He was a bigger star in his home country of Canada but had a strong hold in America with people such as Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash making covers of his songs.

“I actually saw him here at the DECC in 1974, I was 13 years old,” said Colleen Ferrian, Lightfoot fan. “I just liked his music and continued to like it you know. And then when the Edmund Fitzgerald, when he wrote that wonderful song about that tragedy. I think it just resonated with everybody and especially with people that live by Lake Superior.”

Lightfoot was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and was bestowed one of his country’s highest civilian honors.