It's a nice surprise to learn that Cormier and Lightfoot still keep in touch, and that The Long River was so well received by the quite private performer.

""Last time I talked to him, I asked him how his new big screen TV was. He asked, "What big screen TV?' I said, "The one you could buy with all the royalties I've been paying you,'"" chuckles Cormier.

On Saturday, the towering singer and multi-instrumentalist will step out onstage of the Rebecca Cohn, which is also the last place Lightfoot played in Halifax, in the early '90s. Cormier would like to make his appearance in the Dalhousie concert hall an annual event, like Lightfoot's regular stint at Toronto's Massey Hall. For the first of what he hopes will be many Cohn shows, tickets are $24 at the Dal Arts Centre box office at 494-3820 or 1-800-874-1669. They are also available online at http://artscentre.dal.ca/box.html.

But while Lightfoot's output has slowed to a record every five or six years, Cormier has a constant stream of material coming out of his home studio in Cheticamp. While The Long River is still doing well in stores, Cormier is getting ready to release a new pair of discs, Looking Back Volumes One and Two.

Volume One is 15 tracks culled from his six instrumental albums, while volume two is ""a completely different animal,"" with all-new interpretations of Cormier's own material. >> more