BURLINGTON - When Carter Lancaster was 11-years-old, he walked into the backyard of his Mount Forest Drive house and heard a neighbour playing guitar.
Lancaster ran back inside, asking his mom to buy him his own instrument for his birthday, or for Christmas, or as a combination of the two. That year, there was a Saturn guitar from Sears under the tree.
Decades later, the Burlington resident took over as the guitar player in Gordon Lightfoot’s band.
“Gord was going on a TV special about icons of Canadian music,” Lancaster said. “Gord’s guitar player was quite ill at the time, so he needed a replacement for this one gig.”
Lancaster was recording an album with Bob Doidge, when he walked into the studio to check something. Doidge was on the phone, but quickly hung up – saying only ‘I think our answer just walked through the door.’
The producer questioned Lancaster, pulling sheet music off shelves and having him play it as quickly as he could. The two repeated that process a few times, before handing him a sheet of paper with eight or so songs on it.
“That was The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, If You Could Read My Mind, and the hits,” Lancaster said. “I recognized they were all Lightfoot songs, and I said I could probably squeak through most of these. Bob told me I needed to be able to play them like I’ve known them for 40 years. I said I need at least a day per song then.”
Originally thinking this project was for a cover band, Lancaster was told Lightfoot’s longtime bass player Rick Hatnes would be in touch. The two got along well, and Lightfoot himself called the next day.
Lancaster was invited to Lightfoot’s Toronto home shortly after to start rehearsals. Though Lancaster was not actually part of the TV special, he joined the band full time when guitar player Terry Clements died in 2011.
“I started coming down for more rehearsals, and I was invited to go on two tours with the band, including shows at Massey Hall, so I was all in for that,” Lancaster said. “About a week before we left, his guitar player passed, so I just sort of moved into Terry’s position.”
In that time, Lancaster toured Canada and the world with the band.
On the band’s final round of shows, it was getting clear that the 84-year-old was facing the curtain.
“Gordon was still booking tours, but he was cancelling them for health reasons,” Lancaster said. “He loved it so much, he was booking, we were getting together for rehearsals, but it didn’t look that hopeful that we would get back out on the road.”
Having spent so much time on the road, each member of the band had their own roles and responsibilities – outside of staying in the groove on stage.
Lancaster, along with drummer Barry Keane and keys player Mike Heffernan, would go to the hotels after getting off the planes – which the band always took to travel – while Gordon and the others made their way to the venue.
When the bags were unloaded and the room keys picked up, the trio made their own way to the venue. Lancaster always made a point to find Lightfoot’s dressing room, to go in and let him know they’d arrived. Lightfoot always responded “great, thanks man!”
“When I saw him at the funeral, and I still didn’t believe this was really happening, I went up to the open coffin and said we’re all here, man,” Lancaster said. “And he didn’t say anything. That’s when I realized it had really happened. That this wasn’t a dream. He was dead and I was at his funeral.”
The band took a few months to themselves after Lightfoot died in May 2023. The members later met up at a Mississauga restaurant just to catch up, and see how one another was doing.
Lancaster said there was an overwhelming response from each member that if there was a way to keep the music playing, they ought to be doing it. Singer Andy Mauck was brought on to fill in on vocals with The Lightfoot Band, given he had grown up on Lightfoot’s music and could match that ‘Gord timber’ as Lancaster put it.
“We organized a rehearsal at Mike Heffernan’s house, and Andy came down – it was pretty rough,” Lancaster said. “But there was hope. The timber that he had was scary, it was so much like Gord. But Andy didn’t have any formal musical education so we had to get to the nitty gritty and really work with him hard. He was up for the challenge.”
Lancaster said when they’re on stage now he can close his eyes and find it unbelievable.
As a Burlington resident, Lancaster is particularly excited about the band’s upcoming show at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre on Friday, Oct. 25. It’s on the very same spot as BPAC where he learned to play guitar in his old teacher’s house.
“My original guitar instructor, Lloyd Peach, rented a house a street or two west of Brant in Burlington, exactly where the Performing Arts Centre is now,” Lancaster said. “For me, that’s hallowed ground. That’s where I took lessons from him. When I first played there with Gord five or so years ago, I was driving to the gig and saying this is Lloyd Peach’s house! They knocked down Lloyd Peach’s house! I walked in and said this is exactly where his living room was.”
He added that for a Burlington guy to go all the way around the world playing with Gordon Lightfoot, and coming back home, it’s quite a feeling of accomplishment.