Gordon Lightfoot “Waiting for You”<i> Reprise</i>

Ask most rock fans to name the key folk musicians of the ‘60s and you’ll probably get a list that begins with Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs and Joni Mitchell, continues through the likes of Joan Baez, Judy Collins and Paul Simon and, if the person’s really sharp, also includes Tim Hardin, Tom Paxton and Tom Rush.

But Canada’s folk laureate, Gordon Lightfoot, often is overlooked, his songwriting underrated. One big reason: The quiet sophistication of Lightfoot’s recordings made them perfect fodder for MOR radio--the elephants’ graveyard for old folkies. Also, he wrote less about topical political issues that gave voice to a restless generation, and more about matters of the heart and spirit. Through the ‘70s, he turned out several excellent albums, but his flame seemed to flicker in the ‘80s when he released just four with successively diminishing returns. The good news now: Not only is Lightfoot back with his first album in seven years, but stylistically, he sounds like he’s only been away for seven weeks.

The old familiar elements all are here--the steely voice and craggy enunciation, the cleanly picked acoustic guitar lines, the ever-tasteful backing from longtime associates, including lead guitarist Terry Clements, bassist Rick Haynes and drummer Barry Keane. Alive and well, too, are Lightfoot’s love for the great outdoors, wild geese and bygone days of schooners and scrimshaw. His interpretive skills are on display in a forceful reading of “Ring Them Bells,” Dylan’s call to moral renewal. In his own “Welcome to Try,” Lightfoot touches on what life is like when you’re down and out, but he keeps things in perspective with “Wild Strawberries,” a sendup of those besotted “lonely at the top” laments:

People often ask me just the way it must feel

To be standing up here with you down there.

Let it now be known that throughout all of these years,

I’ve have been wearing polka-dot underwear.

Some songs are less than memorable, but overall this is a happy reunion with an old friend.