TORONTO - Gord mined some serious gold on Thursday night at Massey Hall.

That would be legendary Canadian folk singer/songwriter Gordon Lightfoot. He kicked off the first of four nights at the treasured venue (a tradition of his since 1967) with a sold-out show that he packed with hits and crowd favourites.

It was astonishing, really, to hear them all in one sitting: Rainy Day People, Beautiful, Carefree Highway, Sundown, The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald, If You Could Read My Mind, Early Morning Rain, along with Cotten Jenny, Alberta Bound, In My Fashion, Baby Step Back, and Canadian Railroad Trilogy.

And even if Lightfoot's voice and body weren't what they once were -- he turned 68 yesterday and got a night-before birthday serenade from the crowd -- the spirit was definitely still there.

Thin and frail-looking with a clipped, nasal, vocal delivery, Lightfoot has an easy smile. He had more than a few good stories to tell -- the one about Elvis Presley changing a word in his cover of Lightfoot's Early Morning Rain was repeated Thursday night -- and often delivered an infectious thumbs-up after a song ended.

Surrounded in a semi-circle by his four-piece band -- with a special shoutout to guitarist Terry Clemens -- Lightfoot stiffly played an acoustic guitar and seldom moved from his spot in front of the microphone.

There was a 20-minute intermission between his two 50-minute sets.

Still, for a guy who reportedly suffered a mini-stroke just over five weeks ago and survived a near-lethal abdominal aneurysm in 2002, he's doing pretty well. The audience couldn't get enough of him, bursting into clap-alongs, shouting out songs they wanted him to play, or just saying hello.

"Is the Don River up yet?" he asked, referring to Thursday's deluge of rain in the city. "God, what a night to come out to see a show!"

Lightfoot's run at Massey Hall -- there are still tickets left for tomorrow night's final show -- concludes his first national tour in seven years.

Next year will mark the 40th anniversary of Lightfoot's relationship with Massey, so expect him to return in high style.