Gordon Lightfoot greeted a throng of well-wishers yesterday at a Massey Hall celebration to launch his new album, Harmony, which comes out today.

The legendary 65-year-old singer/songwriter is still recovering from a stomach aneurysm that struck him in September 2002 and resulted in a three-month hospital stay and several bouts of surgery since -- the most recent in February.

"I was playing in Orillia and the next thing I knew I was lying on the floor," he told the crowd. "I woke up six weeks later and said, 'What the hell am I going to do now?' "

The answer was to keep working. So he combined some songs he'd written with some live recordings to make up the new album, and worked away on it through the illness.

"Some of the lyrics might sound like they were written after the illness, but I wrote them in 2000, during one of life's rollercoaster dips," he said. "The death of a relationship is like a death -- almost.

"And for all the armchair guitarists out there, everything on this album is capo second position," he added with a laugh.

Among those lining up to shake Lightfoot's hand were Blue Rodeo's Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor, The Good Brothers and their sons The Sadies, Tom Cochrane, producer Gavin Brown, Joel Kroeker and singer Adam Mitchell, who has known Lightfoot since their Yorkville days in the '60s.

Although Lightfoot looked remarkably healthy, his touring plans are on hold, although he will perform a one-off benefit for the Hamilton Health Sciences Centre later this year.

"I said if I ever got a tour, I'd include a benefit for them," he said. "The next day all the papers had announced it, so I said OK. They gave me a goal of being ready to perform by November 23 and 24, so that's exactly what I'm going to do. It'll be a test for me, and also for the people who worked on me."