Flashback: Harper Simon at the Cedar Cultural Center (24 Nov 2009)

Harper Simon 2009 Tour Dates 10/14/09 Los Angeles, CA @ the Echo - Record Release show 10/29/09 Philadelphia, PA @ World Café Live 10/30/09 New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge 11/3/09 Northhampton, MA @ Iron Horse 11/4/09 Boston, MA @ Cafe 939 11/6/09 Doylestown, PA @ Puck 11/ 7/09 Charlottesville, VA@ The Southern 11/8/09 Vienna, VA @ Jammin Java 11/11/09 Pittsburgh, PA @ Andy Warhol Museum 11/12/09 Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick 11/13/09 Lexington, KY @ Natasha's 11/15/09 Nashville, TN @3rd and Lindsley 11/17/09 Memphis, TN @ Hi-Tone Café 11/19/09 St. Louis, MO @ Off Broadway 11/ 20/09 Bloomington, IN @ The Bishop 11/21/09 Columbus, OH @ Rumba Cafe 11/22/09 Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall 11/24/09 Minneapolis, MN @ Cedar Cultural Center Read More Harper Simon It seems to me that Harper Simon tries his best to not be associated with his father, going so far as saying that he didn't learn how to play music from his dad. Even the way he dresses, the type of music he's making (note: not acoustic .…

Garfunkel and Garfunkel : Father And Son

As you know, we’re big Simon & Garfunkel fans, so we were pretty interested in the recent announcement that Art Garfunkel and his son, Art Garfunkel Jr., released a collaborative studio album – aptly titled Father And Son. The album came out last month, and was billed under the name Garfunkel and Garfunkel.

It got me thinking, Art has a son, and I know Paul Simon has a son… and, in fact, Harper Simon is a musician (although it’s been a while since we last heard from Harper Simon).

So why not have Simon and Garfunkel: The Next Generation?

We’ve seen Harper Simon a few times, and he’s good! The first time, it was touring in support of his self-titled album in 2009, making it to the Cedar Cultural Center as his last stop of the tour. The opener featured local band Peter Wolf Crier.

For Harper’s first tour, he hired some of the best musicians around: bass player Jeff Hill (Rufus Wainwright), drummer Russell Simins (Blues Explosion, Catpower) and multi-instrumentalist Gregg Foreman (Catpower). It sounds like the tour wasn’t going well, like there were some shows that they said they only played to a handful of people… but for the Cedar Cultural Center show, it was well-attended and they were just relieved and happy to end on a high note.

Harper Simon at Varsity Theater (28 June 2013)

When we saw Harper Simon in June 2013, “I noted in the audio reaction, Harper Simon had this irregular speech pattern, where he'll start a sentence and then sort of trail off or end it midway. I suspect he was on medication, recovering from a recent illness that had him cancelling out the first show at the last minute.”

Original Report:

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It seems to me that Harper Simon tries his best to not be associated with his father, going so far as saying that he didn't learn how to play music from his dad. Even the way he dresses, the type of music he's making (note: not acoustic harmonizing folk, but more like alt-country). It's a shame really, Simon sings just like his dad on the acoustic songs, and I wish he would sing more folk. I suppose he's got to find his own calling, right?

Most of the set for Simon was pretty mellow. The most rockiest song was a song I wasn't familiar with. I thought I heard that the song was written by "Tom Berlin Verlaine" (edit: see updated message below), but I could be wrong. Shortly after "Berkeley Girl", the guitar tuner guy came on stage to switch electric with an acoustic guitar.

Songs range from borderline country music to Dylan-type folk. The later is especially true when one of the band member breaks out the harmonica.

They ended their set with "Wishes and Stars", my favorite song from Harper that I've heard. Instead of doing that fake-leaving-the-stage, they just stayed on stage and played some encores. The last song is a cover of "A Message to You, Rudy", who you & I probably know as a ska song by the Specials (but it's originally by Dandy Livingstone).

So this was the last night of their national tour. It sounds like they've been very tired, some even looked relieved, but they were certainly very happy to be playing in front of an audience. The band admitted that this was one of the better crowds, considering that they've played a few shows to "five people".

Trivia: Touring drummer Russell Simins, best known for being in Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, is from Minnesota.

UPDATED 11/26/2009 19:42:54:

ArtsOrbit wrote: Nov 24, 2009 9:59 PM

@weheartmusic H. Simon's reference was to Tom Verlaine: the song was Television's "See No Evil." Agreed that H.S. is best with folk music!

Read more Flashback.

Harper Simon at the Cedar Cultural Center (24 Nov 2009)

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