AWmusic

Don’t you just hate it when the child of a famous musician or actor tries to ride their parents coattails to fame and fortune? An awful lot of these offspring tend to fade back into deserved obscurity after a couple of mediocre albums or movies but some rise to the top and become household names in their own right. Harper Simon, son of Paul Simon (Simon & Garfunkel), is one guy who could easily earn stardom on his own merits. His self-titled album is a gorgeous showcase filled with dreamy melodies (The Audit, The Shine), country-folk standards (Tennessee, All I Have Are Memories) and pretty tunes that are firmly planted in the folk roots of his father (Berkeley Girl, Wishes And Stars, Ha Ha). Although he told the L.A. Times that, “A lot of darkness and turmoil went into this album”, you would never know it by the melodies alone. They are up-beat and, at times, lush and lyrically, given the subject matter is about broken hearts and heart-ache, never go down the bad side into melancholy and existential angst.

Harper Simons strength lies in his belief in the album format. He has been quoted as saying, “The long playing album is not just ten songs thrown together randomly. It has an arc. It has a structure. It is the attempt to make ten songs that are all as good as each other…” And it is this attention to detail that makes this album stand out. The songs are as good as each other and the album, which is a total of thirty minutes, seems to end much too fast. There is nothing here that drags or that is an automatic skip, although I have to admit that Cactus Flower Rag is my least favourite song. It has a highly catchy chorus and a danceable melody but I wasn’t captivated by it. In contrast Tennessee, written in collaboration with his father, is a foot-tapping, singable, three minute tune that is more fun than anything I’ve heard in some time. Tennessee is Harper’s version of his fathers travelling tune, Graceland. It is written in a narrative form much like Graceland and is a song of self-discovery as well. It is interesting to note that Harper is mentioned in Graceland “my travelling companion is nine-years old, he’s the child of my first marriage” while Tennessee is about Harpers mother, Peggy Harper.

Generally the songs are well-written, there are a couple of awkward rhymes and turns of phrase but mostly the lyrics are smart and observant. My favourite lyrics come from “Ha Ha” where he says, “…laughing is all I do, but you’ve only known me since I’ve been lonely so you don’t believe it’s true”. The whole song is intelligently written with a simple vocal/guitar melody supporting the words. While it’s true that this song sounds vocally the most similar to Harpers father – the phrasing, tonation and even pronunciations are frighteningly comparable – it is a very pretty tune with a perceptive outlook on a budding relationship. All the songs are like this, they have an astute and often wry look at the male/female equation and are written with conviction and a perceptiveness that is often lacking in other peoples songs. These tunes have something to say and don’t hide behind the worn out platitudes found in so many pop songs today. In All I Have Are Memories Harper lets us feel the vulnerability he feels missing a love left behind. “They’ve got fine port wine but all I have is the memory of her kindness.” The first single, Shooting Star shows that Harper just isn’t trading on sounding like his father. This song shows that Harper is more than a capable songwriter in his own right. I have to say I’m rather angry at Harper over this song because I was quite happy in my dislike of most country songs and then he goes and writes one that is so captivating that I have it on repeat.

This album is a lot more than just a collection of well-crafted song-writing, Harper has had the help of such notables as: Sean Lennon; Petra Haden; Inara George; his father; producer Bob Johnston; pedal steel guitar player, Lloyd Green; Al Perkins, and mixer, Tom Rothrock, just to name a few. It is released on Harpers own music label, Tulsi Music and was self-produced (with help from Johnson). I always try to listen to the music I am going to review on different players because, face it, most of us aren’t audiophiles and don’t have state-of-the-art equipment, and I found that this sounded good on all of them. Sometimes a CD can sound really good on my car stereo but not so good through my headphones, which admittedly aren’t the best but are close enough, or vice-versa. This CD sounded great on both, of course the dreamier tunes such as Wishes And Stars sounded gorgeous through the headphones, all lush and rich.

You can buy this album from Amazon, or “Heavy Circles”, a collaboration with his step-mother Edie Brickell and the single from that album, Hands On from iTunes and as always you can find more info at Harpers MySpace. Friday, Dec. 4, NPR named Shooting Star its song of the day. You can check it out here and Harper starts a west coast tour tomorrow, details of which can be found on his MySpace page.

Here are three songs for your perusal, the first is a reworking of a traditional gospel tune, the second is the lead off single, and the third is my personal favourite. I hope you enjoy them as well, and as always support the musician by purchasing the music (and it doesn’t matter who’s son he is, he still worked hard to produce this album and deserves compensation).

Harper Simon – All to God
Harper Simon – Shooting Star
Harper Simon – The Audit