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The person on stage the most during the concert will be the extraordinary multi-instrumentalist J.P. Cormier. He'll back up both MacNeil and the choir as well as playing his own solo set with his wife, Hilda Chiasson-Cormier. At 35, he'll also probably be the youngest person on the stage. Cormier -- considered a guitar prodigy at the age of nine in his Cape Breton home -- was one of the most sought-after sidemen in Nashville during the late '80s
and throughout the '90s. He played the Grand Ole Opry many times as well as working with star power such Waylon Jennings, Vince Gill, Earl Scruggs, Alan Jackson, Travis Tritt and Kitty Wells. About six years ago, he returned to Nova Scotia to focus on his own songwriting and recordings.

This year he released J.P. Cormier X8, a masterful collection of traditional mandolin songs in which he plays all eight instruments featured on the album. Despite all the great people Cormier has played with, his favourite artist has always been Gordon Lightfoot. Since returning home, Cormier has spent his spare time arranging and recording his favourite Lightfoot songs for his own personal enjoyment.

Next month, he's releasing a tribute CD of 18 Lightfoot songs and one song he wrote for Lightfoot called The Poet. Again, Cormier plays every instrument (and sings all the vocals) on the album, called The Long River. "I didn't even mean to do it really," Cormier says. "I was just doing it as a release, as a vent to get into some other material that wasn't my own and that I loved better than anything else." Cormier had originally planned to release it two years ago, but held it back when Lightfoot fell critically ill with an abdominal aneurism. He waited until Lightfoot was fully recovered before deciding to release it. "If he had died it would never have seen the light of day," he adds. Cormier also waited until he got Lightfoot's permission. The only other tribute which Lightfoot has approved was a compilation put together by Colin Linden of more than a dozen artists, many of whom Lightfoot admired. There was also a compilation culled from 30 years of albums by the great bluegrass guitarist Tony Rice. That was issued by Rounder Records in the U.S. without Lightfoot's knowledge. "He's never, ever approved another songwriter doing a complete album of his stuff," Cormier says.

Cormier's album focuses on the early Lightfoot years with gems such as The Circle is Small (done with a touch of bluegrass), Bitter Green, Home From the Forest, Early Morning Rain and Canadian Railroad Trilogy. So far,
Cormier has shied away from playing Lightfoot material on the MacNeil tour. He's saving it for a series of tribute concerts he'll be performing in January (including three nights at Toronto's Hugh's Room, Jan. 14-16) with other artists like Lynn Miles, Jenny Whiteley and Aengus Finnan. "It seems kind of strange to play a Lightfoot song when you're playing with another one of the greatest Canadian songwriters that ever lived (Rita MacNeil)," Cormier says.