www.paul-simon.info 
The neck of my Guitar

No other Europe dates 2006?

from Bodo , 2006-09-04
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For some of you this could be one of the worst days this year.

A fan who visited the concert in Atlantic City told me she was speaking with Vincent Nguini (guitar player), and he told her that there will be no more other dates in Europe.

If you want to see Paul live in 2006 you definately now have to fly to Ireland or the British Island.
Ask in the forum if some people there would be so nice to help you on buying tickets.

So, let´s hope for 2007...


A few more shows and Jerry Douglas

from Ans , 2006-09-11
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Paul Simon sets up more ´Surprise´ shows

September 11, 2006 03:56 PM
by Jeremy Reed
Citysearch.com

As the late-September launch of his fall tour nears, singer/songwriter Paul Simon (tickets | music) has penciled in several more dates for the outing, which backs his first new album in six years, ´Surprise.´

New since last count is a September stop in Portland, OR, and October performances in Toronto, New York City, Boston and Philadelphia, those shows, as well as a number of previously announced stops, will feature The Jerry Douglas Band in the opening slot. Details are included in the itinerary below.

Douglas, who recently picked up his second Musician of the Year award from the Country Music Association, is backing his latest album, last year´s ´The Best Kept Secret.´

September 2006
26, 27 - Vancouver, British Columbia - Orpheum Theatre
29 - Seattle, WA - Key Arena (w/ Jerry Douglas Band)
30 - Portland, OR - Rose Garden (w/ Jerry Douglas Band)

October 2006
3 - San Diego, CA - Embarcadero Marina Park South (w/ Jerry Douglas Band)
4 - Los Angeles, CA - Greek Theatre (w/ Jerry Douglas Band)
6 - Berkeley, CA - Greek Theatre (w/ Jerry Douglas Band)
7 - Santa Barbara, CA - Santa Barbara Bowl
10 - Denver, CO - Magness Arena (w/ Jerry Douglas Band)
12 - Minneapolis, MN - Northrop Auditorium (w/ Jerry Douglas Band)
16 - Rosemont, IL - Rosemont Theatre (w/ Jerry Douglas Band)
17 - Detroit, MI - Fox Theater (w/ Jerry Douglas Band)
18 - Toronto, Ontario - Hummingbird Centre (w/ Jerry Douglas Band)
21 - New York, NY - Radio City Music Hall (w/ Jerry Douglas Band)
22 - Boston, MA - Agganis Arena (w/ Jerry Douglas Band)
24 - Philadelphia, PA - Tower Theatre (w/ Jerry Douglas Band)

Livedaily.com/news


Winner of a free concert ticket

from Bodo , 2006-09-21
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Congratulations to Mandi Munyikwa!

She has won a free ticket to see Paul Simon in concert next November in Dublin.

The ticket was sponsored by a fan who had so much fun at the last Paul Simon concert, that he/she decided to invite someone to a Paul Simon show who has never seen him in concert before, and can not afford it.

Mandi was selected from the fan-database together with 120 other fans (from staates where Paul will give a concert in the next months) who have never seen Paul Simon live. They have been asked to email us why they never had the chance to see Paul in concert, and Mandi then was selected as the winner.


The Email Mandi wrote:

To the People that are offering me the chance of a lifetime!!!

The reason i´ve never been able to see Paul Simon live is because his
masterpiece is older than me!!
I was born and raised in Zimbabwe, but when people ask, i say i was born and
raised on Graceland!
I´ve been a fan for as long as i can remember!Singing songs and quoting
lyrics like they were my mother tongue.
I am living in Dublin now, while i am studying in University, and the first
thing i did with my summer Paycheck was buy the new album! And it was worth the wait for me!
Paul Simon will be in Dublin on the 8th of November, and the thing keeping
me from seeing him this time round is the money! I am a student, and the
tickets are quite expensive (but worth it i´m sure!), but they are the price
of a weeks rent for me, and this is something i cannot afford.
I could not believe it when i saw that Paul Simon was going to be playing in
Ireland, i thought that i´d never get the chance to see him live!
I hope that it is possible for me to go and see him... this may be cliche,
but it would be a dream come true for me!!

Thank you so much for this opportunity!


Sorry for all others who wrote so nice and enthusiastic emails, only 1 could win...

Have a great time Mandi!!
And please report us from your first concert




Kelly Sweet

from Ans , 2006-09-23
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There is 1 concert scheduled with Kelly Sweet, October 7, 2006 Santa Barbara.


http://www.kelly-sweet.com/


Bridging the gap

from Pam , 2006-09-28
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From the San Diego Union Tribune:

Bridging the gap

Paul Simon promises old hits and a new ´Surprise´ on tap Tuesday
By George Varga
UNION-TRIBUNE POP MUSIC CRITIC

September 28, 2006

Music, like life, can be a balancing act, as Paul Simon knows all too well.

Now, on the concluding leg of his first solo tour since 2001, he is mixing in five songs each night from his superb new album “Surprise” with several decades worth of his hits and choice album cuts. The trick is to perform his best-known songs live in a way that keeps them as fresh for him as the more edgy selections from the aptly titled “Surprise,” on which he fruitfully collaborated with ambient-music pioneer Brian Eno.

“I don´t go out and say: ´I won´t play the big hits,´ ” said Simon, who performs here with his multinational band Tuesday at Viejas Concerts at Bayside. “Because if I went out to see some artist who I´ve liked for a long time, I´d want to hear the hits. My feeling is, however, that if the song is a good song, you can play it a lot of ways and it should still be a good song.

“But just because I´m not trying to suck up to an audience doesn´t mean I´m indifferent. I like it to be an entertaining night, I just want it to be interesting. That, for me, is the essence. So, since I´m giving myself what I want – in terms of the musicians I work with and how the songs are played and rethought – I feel like I should give the audience what I´m guessing they want.”

Both as a solo artist and as one-half of Simon & Garfunkel, whose most recent reunion tour played to a full house here at Cox Arena in 2003, this New York native has long been noted for his meticulous craftsmanship and artistic vision.

Simon´s albums, including “Surprise,” are finely honed works that showcase his stylistic versatility, artistic daring and lyrically refined explorations of love, alienation, whimsy and world-weary resignation. Yet, whether he is doing a solo tour or collaborating with on-again/off-again musical partner Art Garfunkel, he regards his concerts as a welcome chance to let his songs grow and evolve. He lovingly reshapes them, without losing touch with their emotional essence.

“I think what goes on in the case of Simon & Garfunkel, or any act whose work was done decades ago, is that there´s an emotional memory of what it sounds like, which may not be a true reflection of what it actually sounds like,” Simon, 64, said last week from the New York home he shares with his wife, singer-songwriter Edie Brickell, and their three kids.

“And I try, with Simon & Garfunkel, to imagine what that emotional memory was and stay true to that. And, for me, it´s two guys and a guitar. ... As long as (we) came back and touched on that, it didn´t matter if (we) changed a song a little, or reharmonized it a little, or took out the words (we) didn´t really feel like singing anymore, for whatever reason.”

Simon´s desire to keep his songs in a constant state of rebirth is a jazz-inspired aesthetic rarely heard in pop music, let alone from someone who has sold tens of millions of albums and scored 28 Top 40 hits (13 on his own, 15 with Simon & Garfunkel).

“It is a jazz aesthetic,” he said. “Except for the fact that the subtleties in my songs get worked out over time, and then they´re not improvisational every night, which would be a true jazz aesthetic.

“My thought about the nuances is they are usually things that help me sing, and help me (achieve) what it feels like to be in a rhythm that´s bobbing along, and it´s liberating. It means I can phrase (songs) differently, I can rethink the story and tell it in a different way.”

Thinking in different ways is precisely what Simon wanted to do by teaming with Eno, who first rose to prominence in the early 1970s as a member of the art-rock band Roxy Music.

Eno, who has produced landmark records by David Bowie, U2 and Talking Heads, co-wrote two of the songs for “Surprise,” on which his main credit is “sonic landscape.” Rhythmically speaking, “Surprise” is atypically straightforward and streamlined compared to Simon´s recent albums. But dig under the surface, and all kinds of aurally subversive treats are waiting to be discovered.

“What´s beneath the surface, however you may define the surface, that´s a crucial part of the songwriting process,” Simon said. “The way the tracks are built, and the shifts in the color and the rhythm, had an affect upon the writing. So, for me, probably more than for almost all listeners, what´s said right beneath the surface is as interesting as what the final layer produces, the final layer being the words.

“Now, if I did it again, I´d probably be inclined to reverse the process, just for the sake of clearing out that way of thinking. ... That would produce another kind of song, or give me a way of keeping the process fresh. And that´s one of the things I´m a little obsessive about. I guess I´m easily bored, so I really try to find a way I can look at the creative process from an angle that is interesting. And it´s interesting because it´s fresh to me. I don´t like doing an imitation of what I do.”

Simon´s commercial heyday with his pioneering “Graceland” album is now two decades behind him. And while he doesn´t plan to tour or record again with Garfunkel (although their friendship is back on track), he does expect to remain a perpetual work in progress.

“I can´t tell who my audience is when I make a record, but I can when I perform,” Simon said. “And what the audience is, that I can see, seems to be divided between an ´upper demographic´ – to use a euphemism – and 20-year-olds. And of the upper demographic, that group seems to be divided.

“There are people who would just like to hear Simon & Garfunkel songs and whatever the most famous hits were, and there´s the other group that´s kind of excited by the fact I´m still making new music. Because that´s their personality type, too, they haven´t yielded to inertia. They like the fact I´m changing, because they´re trying to change, too.”