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Early Morning Rain
Music + lyrics by Gordon Lightfoot
4:02 | :30 soundbite

Early Gordon Lightfoot songs still tickle me in the right place — tunes like “Did She Mention My Name?,” “I'm Not Sayin’,” and “Song for a Winter Night.” They’re not musically complicated or lyrically ponderous, but they’re smart and melodic and they leave a lasting impression.

I do “Song For a Winter Night” at gigs (usually on winter nights). And I’ve been performing “Early Morning Rain” for longer than I can remember. It’s one of the all-time great road songs, in my opinion, and since the Ubatuba CD is about roads of one kind or another, it seemed natural enough to include it. I tweaked the original a bit — my version is finger-picked in G with a new guitar riff I came up with, while Lightfoot’s is strummed in D. But I didn’t fix the song too much, ’cause it wasn’t broken.