Simon & Garfunkel’s career might have been relatively short-lived and full of ups and downs — the duo only released four studio albums between 1964 and 1970, with a few reunion tours and concerts over the years and almost no new music after that. However, it was enough for them to create a loyal following.
One of these fans is Edward Williams, a songwriter from Nashville, who now tours the U.S. as Scarborough with fellow musician Ashley E. Norton. The two met in Nashville and started performing original folk music as Whitherward. As they played more and more concerts, the band noticed a certain set of songs was especially popular with audiences. Simon & Garfunkel hits like “Mrs. Robinson” seemed to be the crowd’s favorite, more so than those huge names such as the Beatles and Tom Petty.
And so Scarborough was born. More than a live show, the duo created a performance in which they play songs from all eras of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel’s career and tell the story of how they met, became successful and eventually disbanded. Williams and Norton are bringing “The Music of Simon & Garfunkel” to Sedona on Thursday, June 27, at 7 p.m. on the Goldenstein Stage at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre. The band talked about their start, life on the road and gave insight on how they bring Simon & Garfunkel back to life in the performance.
- When did you start playing music together?
Williams: Ashley and I met in Nashville, Tenn., about nine years ago. Ashley had been doing writer’s night there, getting collections of artists to play. We met through that and a few years later, we found out that we lived not too far away from each other in a place called Germantown and we started hanging out more, becoming good friends and writing music together.
We decided to start Whitherward and hit the road to tour full time. The Scarborough project that we are doing at Sedona, we started maybe three years ago. In our Whitherward project we would play a lot of covers and we had played a number of Simon & Garfunkel songs and we noticed that they got such a big response from the crowd it didn’t matter what age people were that heard it.
The people in their 60s loved it and people in their 20s loved it. So, we decided [to] just put together a show that is strictly Simon & Garfunkel songs and start performing that in addition to our original music. We live on a permanent tour whether its Whitherword shows or the Simon & Garfunkel, Scarborough shows. We travel around this country and we also travel internationally. We are leaving for Europe in about two weeks and we will be there for most of the summer. We don’t really have a home base to go back to, we just keep playing music in a new location every week.
- Why Simon & Garfunkel?
Norton: We love Simon & Garfunkel, the show is really fun. We are songwriters first and foremost, but we would play covers and it wouldn’t really do anything for us. But when we started a tribute band, that was a whole other thing. We felt like we had this purpose and we absolutely love the music and we love the harmony. It feels like we’re putting on a concert. We get to put new life to this music when Simon & Garfunkel don’t. We absolutely love it. Ed grew up listening to Simon & Garfunkel and he’s always been a huge fan. The crowd reaction was just a plus because we loved the music.
- What can you tell me about the performance? It is not just you playing the songs, right?
Williams: What we try to do is replicate how Simon & Garfunkel performed in their songs when they were first starting out where it’s just two voices and a guitar. It is very low key, and we try to bring in a little education as well and talk about their career in a bit of detail in chronological order. We start with their first album and play a few songs, then we go album by album. They had a fairly short career together. We try to make it fun and educational at the same time.
Norton: We don’t take on a role. It’s not like he’s Simon and I’m Garfunkel. It just depends on the harmony. We want to keep it fun too for us as well. As long as we are having fun, the audience is having fun as well.
- Is there anything you can share ahead of the show?
Williams: One of the things we highlight is the story behind the album cover “Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.” We play a video of Garfunkel making the decision on choosing the album cover, which I personally never knew. It is a fun story and it is fun to hear him tell it too. If you’ve never heard that story before and you come to the show, you get to hear stories like that … just little nuggets like that that we found in our research.
Norton: We have found some really fun quotes, too, that play into their breakup and that’s something that baffles people the most. In [their Rock and Roll] Hall of Fame induction… [Norton starts telling the story, but cannot remember the exactly quote].
Williams: I’ll tell it. So, shortly before Paul Simon took the stage, Art Garfunkel had done a speech that said “yeah, you know, I’m so grateful for Paul Simon, he has enriched my life greatly… So, Paul Simon takes the stage and he says “Art and I agree about almost nothing but it is true, I have enriched his life greatly.” So, you get a glimpse into Simon’s psyche at that point during their break up.
Norton: And he really closed the chapter, it was like, these two are never going to reunite again. We start at the works of their very first album and we end on their very last. … We just really focus on the history of Simon & Garfunkel as a duo and what happened during the magical time that they were together.
- How do you build the setlist? Do you have to play just audience favorites or do you also throw in some of the songs you like?
Norton: You’d be surprised, every song is an audience favorite. I mean, people at our shows are really singing along to every single one, especially if they were around during that time, that music was so unbelievably popular then, it just defined generations. I say we keep most of the hits for sure, but we also throw in a few rarities that people are singing along to and that they often say “Oh, I forgot that I knew that song.” We have so much fun with it and it’s so cool to bring it back to people. I mean, we had people balling for the entire show because it brings so much nostalgia back to their lives
- What’s the difference between performing your own music and cover songs?
Williams: I don’t know, when we’re performing our own music, sometimes you can be more emotional, more connected and when we perform cover songs it’s sort of an homage, like “Ok, here’s a song I always loved.” [But] sometimes it can go as deep as an original song.
Norton: And I think the Simon & Garfunkel show is somewhere between that. We’re connecting with the audience, it’s a concert, it’s not just playing the songs. So we do feel the emotional connection more so in the Simon & Garfunkel concert than we would with any given cover song because also we’re bringing all these songs to the audience and we really connect to our audience…
Williams: And to us as well, because, like Ash said, I grew up with this music and I have a lot of the same feelings about it than our audience who is usually 20 to 30 years older than me will have as well, and a lot of them don’t believe me when I say I grew up with this music too.
- Is there anything else you’d like people in Sedona to know?
Williams: Just be ready to sing along because we really want people to do that.
Norton: And then be prepared to laugh, there’s a lot of laughter in our show.
“Scarborough: The Music of Simon & Garfunkel” starts at 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 27. Tickets for the show are $20 in advance and $25 at the door, which include a meet and greet with the band. Visit SedonaFilmFestival. org or call 282-1177 for tickets.
Natasha Heinz can be reached at 282-7795 ext. 117, or email at nheinz@larsonnewspapers.com
