Less than a year after the American cargo carrier SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank in the Great Lakes in November 1975, the late Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot released a folk-rock ballad titled

Jeremy Messersmith’s idea to rerecord Gordon Lightfoot’s epic 1976 song for the shipwreck's 50th anniversary became “all-consuming.”

The ship, commanded by renowned Great Lakes Captain Ernest McSorley, left from Superior, Wisconsin on November 9 carrying a load of iron ore to the steel mill on Zug Island, Michigan. But the next day, gale-force winds moved into the Great Lakes, and snow reduced the ship’s visibility even further.

Honoring the haunting legacy of the Edmund Fitzgerald, the Turnpike Troubadours performed a reverent cover of the Gordon Lightfoot classic.

Cleveland musician Jerry Popiel combines his maritime experience with musical talent to honor the 29 crew members lost in the 1975 Lake Superior disaster.

With spare time in the studio, Gordon Lightfoot peeled off a commemoration to a modern tragedy that's 50 years old today: “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”