After having suffered an abdominal hemorrhage in 2002, which left in him a coma, a paralyzing stroke in 2006, and then having been declared dead on the Internet in 2010, Gordon Lightfoot will be performing in Jacksonville in January of 2012.

Gordon Lightfoot hit it big in the 1970s with hits like 1974’s “Sundown”, which went all the way to number one. In addition to the songs that he has written and sung himself , he wrote a number of well-known songs that have been performed by many of the more iconic performers of the 1970s, 80s and 90s. In fact, the list of singers that have performed songs by the Canadian folk singer/songwriter reads like the directory to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Artists who have performed Lightfoot songs include John Mellencamp, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, and Olivia Newton-John.

While folk music has long since declined in popularity, Lightfoot has continued to tour and to perform in the years since, traveling on an H1-B visa that allows him to work in the US but live in Canada. He was still a significant draw throughout the 1990s, playing 50 concerts a year and releasing two acoustic albums. He returned to performing in 2004 after the illness that sent him into a coma. Today, at age 73, he is still performing hits such as “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”, “Rainy Day People”, and “If You Could Read My Mind”.

Gordon Lightfoot will be performing at Florida Theater on East Forsyth Street on Sunday the 22^nd of January.