Veteran musician, composer finds his way home for show honouring Gordon Lightfoot

Bruce Ley grew up in Hamilton, kicked off his musical career on a stage at Westdale high school and played in some well-known local bands. He returns to the city for  “Early Morning Rain.”

Hamilton native Bruce Ley, who has had a long and varied career in music, is returning to his hometown to perform in Early Morning Rain: The Legend of Gordon Lightfoot as the pianist/guitarist, band leader and musical arranger for Leisa Way & The Wayward Wind Band. 

The show kicked off the week Lightfoot died in May 2023 on the very stage named after him in his hometown of Orillia. The visitation for the legendary singer-songwriter, attracting fans from all over the world, was happening just a block away. 

Way, the show’s creator and lead singer, says it still gives her shivers to think about the first show. Since that night, the concert has been performed at more than 25 theatres in Ontario and the Maritimes.  

The show, featuring a five-piece band, will include hits like “Early Morning Rain,” “If You Could Read My Mind,” “Carefree Highway,” “Sundown,” “For Lovin’ Me,” “Canadian Railroad Trilogy,” “Ribbon of Darkness,” and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”

Way says the audience will see that the band plays Lightfoot’s tunes from their hearts.

“I created this concert to honour my dad,” says Way. “We had a camp way back in the bush in northern Ontario, and on every drive there and back, my dad would slip an eight-track into the stereo, and all the way up and all the way back down, I’d stand between the seats of this truck belting out Gordon Lightfoot tunes.”

Ley has arranged the music for 15 of Way’s shows, which have included productions dedicated to Dolly Parton, Patsy Cline, Peggy Lee, Canadian music and the British Invasion.

They aren’t tribute shows, says Ley. The dig into an artist’s catalogue – hits and deep cuts – and reimagine them. Way’s shows feature a lot of singing in harmony, theatrical storytelling and strong musicianship, he says.

“There are two young guitar players in the band that are both ridiculously good. I'm very serious about that. I’ve played with some great guitar players, and these guys are fabulous.”

The band will take a more bluegrass and country approach to Lightfoot’s music.

Ley’s musical life really began on a stage at Westdale High School. He had been forced into piano lessons as a kid, which he resented because the lessons and practising prevented him from playing sports with his friends. 

But when a classmate asked him to join a new band about a week into Grade 9, Ley jumped at the chance. When the girls in the audience screamed during his performance in the high school auditorium, Ley was hooked. 

“It was just such a great school. It was a lot of fun in those days, that’s for sure,” says Ley, who counted among his schoolmates the famous Westdale graduates Martin Short and Eugene Levy.

After high school, Ley played in popular Hamilton bands The Pharoah’s and The Rising Sons. They played dances in church halls and the long-gone Forum. 

He hit the road at about 20 or 21.

“I played about five years without stopping pretty much every night. Those were the days. And I didn't have a home anywhere. If I had a week off, I would come back to Hamilton, stay at a hotel. I still maintained friendships with people in Hamilton, but I wasn’t there very much.”

When he was about 25, he was asked to play on a recording session in Toronto and that blossomed into a full-time gig playing as a studio musician.  

All the while, Ley had been writing and arranging music. He acknowledges those hated piano lessons really paid off in a solid understanding of music. That led to a successful career as a composer for TV (Sesame Street, The Polka Dot Door, Telefrancais HCK) and movies (including The Painted Door that was nominated for an Oscar) that kept him quite busy for a long time.

He was nominated for a Gemini for best dramatic score.

He was the pianist for the Tommy Hunter Show on CBC and the Ronnie Prophet Show on CTV, playing behind some of the biggest country artists of the time, including Dolly Parton, Chet Atkins and George Jones.

“You know, it's funny. I had never played country music in my life. I had no idea how to play it and wasn't interested in it. I thought it was stupid. And then I got hired to play on the Ronnie Prophet Show and I actually really fell in love with the music.”

But his musical life goes well beyond country. He was lead guitarist and singer in the award-winning Trouble and Strife Blues Band and in the jazz world, he founded the Bruce Ley Trio.

About 35 years ago, he and his wife moved north out of Toronto, first to Caledon and then to Mulmur, about 50 km southwest of Barrie. 

Ley, 77, met Way through Theatre Orangeville about 17 years ago, when he stepped in to play guitar for a show that she was acting in.

“I feel so incredibly lucky that I met him when he had retired from the CBC and moved to Mulmur (near me in Orangeville). He has done just about everything in his career, and his experience has been invaluable to me as a creator – and his mentorship with my younger musicians has been a joy to watch.  He has so much to share and yet he is one of those people who is a student of life, constantly learning.”

Lately, Ley has been focused on more classical compositions. He finished a symphony last year, along with three string quartets and a woodwind quintet.  

“I've never been a lyricist. I mean, I think I've probably written in my entire life, maybe, maybe 10 songs that I wrote the words for. It’s the music that interests me. And, you know, there have been various times when I've liked different styles, I've written different kinds of music. Certainly, when I was writing film scores, I was very influenced by classical music, and I spent a lot of time listening to classical music at that time. And as a child, I listened to a lot of classical music, because that's what was in our house.”

Ley has released the first of what is envisioned to be three albums of original music. 

“I have this thought that the world is much in need of music as both a balm for the soul and a wake-up call for the spirit. There are many wonderful singers and songwriters who have offered up their creative work to the universe, and I think we are all better off for it,” Ley wrote in announcing his blues, soul and rock album Collection One: The Peacock, the Deer, and the Moon.

The album is co-produced by his wife Candice Bist, who also wrote the lyrics. The second album will feature country, roots, and folk, while the third will be lyrical jazz.

NEED TO KNOW

Early Morning Rain: The Legend of Gordon Lightfoot
Saturday, Nov. 23 at 7:30 p.m. 
McIntyre Performing Arts Centre at Mohawk College. 
Tickets are here or by calling 905-575-2231.