About the Gordon Lightfoot Show

After sellout performances in the United States and Canada commemorating the 50^th Anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, the hit theater production of The Gordon Lightfoot Tribute featuring Mike Fornes will return to the road in 2026. The immersive concert-style tribute show recreates the magic and authenticity of the Canadian icon live on stage and chronicles the amazing journey of Lightfoot’s life, loves and world-famous song-writing.

    The Gordon Lightfoot Tribute covers the minstrel’s humble beginnings as a tavern folk artist to his incredible success as one of the most loved singer-songwriters of the ‘60s and ‘70s.

    Featuring Lightfoot’s identical Martin and Gibson guitars, the show features a set list of nearly 20 songs backed by huge projection photos and original film footage coupled with Fornes’ personalized storytelling of the songs and the inspirations of how they were written.

    Whether booking Mike’s five-piece band or their own custom recordings of Lightfoot’s instrumentation to back him in a solo act, performances feature all Gordon’s radio hits including “Sundown,” “Carefree Highway,” “If You Could Read My Mind,” “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” and many more that will transport audiences down memory lane.

    The year 2026 marks the 50^th Anniversary of the release of Lightfoot’s mesmerizing shipwreck ballad.

    With standing ovations at every performance, you won’t want to miss this international sensation. Book the full band or Mike Fornes as a solo act in theaters, casino showrooms, or amphitheaters.

Mike performs

Live with full band or high‑quality backing tracks. Contact us for details about lighting setup, scheduling, and pricing. Costs vary by location.

 Optional dinner‑show packages available.

 Mike takes you back to that storm, that ship, and the mystery that refuses to fade.

Mikes Bio



MIKE, Performing as Gordon Lightfoot, Live in Concert Retired from a radio and television play-by-play career that spanned 26 years and more than 1,500 broadcasts in the National Hockey League and professional baseball, Mike’s musical interests now blend the woods, the water and the wildlife with the North Country music you’ll hear in his shows. His portrayal of Gordon Lightfoot is simply an honest effort to entertain with an accurate representation of a Lightfoot concert. Mike plays the role of “Gord” in first person, yet avoids saying “I” or “me” in his storytelling of the songs and the circumstances of how they were written. His tireless research and personal interaction with Lightfoot have lead to accurate mannerisms, speaking patterns, clothing, and of course identical guitars used by the Canadian icon on stage. Rarely does he break character, usually only to introduce the band or give a personal message before the end of the show. He has performed for more than a decade at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum’s annual bell-tolling ceremony for the lost souls of the Edmund Fitzgerald at Whitefish Point, Michigan. His interaction with surviving family members of the lost crewmen, and Lightfoot himself, generate many first-hand accounts of the tragedy and of how the iconic song was written. If you have read Mike’s newspaper work, heard him on the radio, seen him on TV or read any of the five books he has written about Michigan’s Mackinac Bridge, Grand Hotel or the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Mackinaw, his love of the Straits of Mackinac area is clear. On stage, he demonstrates his love of a genre of timeless music that captured millions during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. His catalogue of Gord’s music includes 76 songs that he chooses from in concert. The Gibson B-45 12- string and Martin D-18 6-string guitars used in his show are identical to the ones used in Gordon Lightfoot’s live performances. Mike tours annually and plays more than 60 shows in seven states and Canada.