Singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot dead

Iconic Canadian folksinger Gordon Lightfoot has died.

Lightfoot died Wednesday night, according to his friend and fellow musician Ronnie Hawkins.

"He died last night, I’ve had a couple of phone calls already," Hawkins said Thursday from his home in Peterborough, Ont.

Born in 1938 in Orillia Ontario, Lightfoot began his singing career at the tender age of five by performing I’m a Little Tea Cup at his local church.

He would later take up piano and the drums, and sing in a variety of bands, including a barbershop quartet – all of which would lead to a career as one of the world’s most beloved folk-rock singers and a Canadian icon.

In a career that spanned over six decades, Lightfoot became famous for his deep, distinct voice and poetic lyrics. He emerged as one of the premier singer-songwriters of his generation and was heavily influenced by the likes of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen.

Some of Lightfoot’s most famous songs include If You Could Read My Mind, Sundown and The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

He was 71.