On the Troubadour Saturday evening, they’d all come to search for Americana… or, make that America, however shut sufficient. The Americana Music Affiliation was placing on its annual Grammy Eve tribute to a legend, with this 12 months’s honoree being Paul Simon, one of the vital influential and least imitable of poet laureates. It went — sure — late within the night, regardless that greater than half of the artists taking the stage have been Grammy nominees who have been on account of be downtown the next afternoon for the pre-telecast awards proceedings.

Milling on the ground of the West Hollywood membership throughout rehearsals, one of many singer-songwriter greats readily available, Rodney Crowell, had ideas about Simon’s place within the pantheon. “It’s like, in case you’re gonna have Mt. Rushmore, it’s Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan, the Beatles — as one — and Paul. There’s some folks I take heed to their music for leisure, which I do for Paul, too, however he’s one which I take heed to for training. As a result of there’s loads to be discovered there, consistently. I don’t wish to be like him, however I wish to entry what he accesses to do what I do. So it’s virtually like a meditation, to concentrate. And he simply will get higher.”

Crowell was referencing the truth that, at 82, Simon remains to be writing and recording new music, and certainly, his newest album, “Seven Psalms,” was up for finest folks album on Sunday, putting the bard within the firm of all these Grammy nominees who have been paying him homage the evening earlier than.

Jackson Browne, who was additionally on the invoice Saturday, known as Simon’s newest launch “one in all his nice albums; ‘Seven Psalms’ is one in all my two favourite albums from this previous 12 months, together with ‘Weathervanes’” — that being the most recent from Jason Isbell, yet one more main identify sharing the tribute invoice with Browne and Crowell. “His motivation is one thing to behold. He actually continues to do actually robust, necessary work and by no means relaxation on his laurels.”

Simon didn’t go on to win the people album award Sunday; it went as an alternative to a dwell album by woman-of-the-moment Joni Mitchell. However the Troubadour lineup did embody eight artists who went on to prevail of their respective classes: Isbell, Allison Russell, Gaby Moreno, Molly Tuttle, Natalia Lafourcade, Bobby Rush, Larkin Poe and Blind Boys of Alabama. (One other winner, Brandy Clark, was scheduled to carry out on the Troubadour however needed to bow out.) Others who have been nominated this 12 months and got here to the membership to pay musical homage to Simon included Crowell, Rufus Wainwright, Madison Cunningham, Silvana Estrada, Ruthie Foster, Sean and Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek, and Ketch Secor of Previous Crow Drugs Present. Rounding out Saturday’s forged of singers: Dwight Yoakam, Andrew Chook, Marcus King, Brett Dennen, John Vincent III, Johnnyswim, and Susanna Hoffs with Grace Bowers. 

It’s a deep bench, to say the least, that Americana can declare when the affiliation that bears the style’s identify can pull primarily from a listing of present Grammy nominees in roots classes and have greater than sufficient extraordinary skills to do Paul Simon full justice. Simon’s catalog runs deep, too, clearly. This wasn’t simply one of the best of all of the tribute exhibits the Americana Music Affiliation has placed on yearly on the Troubadour since 2013; it’s very a lot within the working for one of the best all-around tribute present I’ve ever seen. That’s a testomony to the acumen of the producers and forged, but in addition to the likelihood that Simon is likely to be the best and most necessary songwriter alive. (A hedging emphasis on the phrase would possibly.) You would possibly want to take heed to the data of the opposite nice rock, soul and nation recording artists, however nobody actually compares to Simon once you’re trying on the very particular class of world-class poets who play music and occur to have a populist streak. It takes a really specific village to get the interpretations of that proper, and AmericanaFest had simply such an in a position congregation on the prepared.

The Americana Music Affiliation has been placing on these annual pre-Grammy tribute exhibits since 2013, with previous honorees together with John Prine, Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn, Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Glenn Frey and Phil Everly, all of them as spectacular as they’ve been laborious to get a ticket for. If Saturday’s tribute to Simon bested all of them, it’s not simply due to the honoree’s catalog towering above even everybody else’s, or the shortage of the draw on this specific crop of visiting Grammy nominees.

It additionally had one thing to do with Americana increasing its already huge tent. Often, the Grammy classes for the artists that fall below its aegis are nation, blues, folks, American roots and roots gospel. However this 12 months, there have been three artists who’re finest identified within the Latin music world — Moreno, who’s an outdated good friend to the Americana world, and two extra who haven’t been related to it till now, Lafourcade and Estrada. These three ladies supplied highly effective highlights throughout Saturday’s Simon tribute. The most important ovation of the evening went to Estrada, who sang a model of “El Condor Pasa (If I May)” that was bone-rattling in its quantity and soul-shaking in its nuance.

In the meantime, Lafourcade’s rendering of a latter-day Simon album reduce, “You’re the One,” might need been essentially the most strictly enjoyable quantity, as she handled it with the sense of mischief it requires (aided by the home band’s drummer, Mark Strepo, who appeared capable of miraculously seize any of the million home or overseas rhythms Simon employed in his profession). Moreno participated in a call-and-response with Lafourcade on “You’re the One,” after which stepped in entrance on her personal for a “Late within the Night” that felt much more invitingly tropical than the insinuations Simon first baked into the tune.

Latin Americana? After seeing these three have their border-crossing method with Simon, there was little doubting that that is actually a factor, or must develop into one shortly.

However the extra anticipated types of Americana have been additionally on highly effective show through the present, beginning with the show-opening Blind Boys of Alabama reviving the gospel of “Loves Me Like a Rock,” adopted by Isbell, 400 Unit guitarist Sadler Vaden and fiddler Sara Watson making “Kodachrome” right into a bluegrass quantity it’d by no means been earlier than, or at the least not this good, if anybody had ever tried it.

Later, Ruthie Foster and Bobby Rush led the troupe in R&B or blues variations of “Slip Slidin’ Away and “50 Methods to Go away Your Lover” that represented the fruits of Simon at his most groove-alicious. Rufus Wainwright turned “Bridge Over Troubled Water” into one thing that felt like an aria, or else an awesome Broadway 11:00 quantity.

And one of many present’s different nice climaxes got here from Yoakam’s attractive studying of “The Boxer.” Taking it from Latin-tinged folks to the sting of hillbilly music sounds prefer it is likely to be a recipe for one thing campy, however after all Dwight doesn’t do camp. And it’s laborious to precisely describe how his turning the refrain into barely extra of a yodel, and the addition of some metal guitar, made a rustic “Boxer” really feel like one thing so proper.

The present was produced, as ever, by Michelle Aquilato and Jed Hilly, the Americana Music Affiliation’s govt director. Hanging within the famed Troubadour bar after the present, Hilly (who oversees the AMA from Nashville) talked concerning the historical past of the pre-Grammy tributes, and what gave this one some totally different flavors.

“Yearly Michelle and I sit down and discuss what we’re doing with Ken Levitan,” the Vector Administration determine who has an enormous hand within the Americana world and is among the founders of the annual present. “One factor we persistently attempt to do to enhance the Grammys, and Paul’s nominated for a Grammy, deservedly so, so we wished to honor him. Having Dwight and Rufus and Jackson and Rodney, that help that they’ve at all times given us makes for a very nice group. Simon’s catalog is past reproach, and the great thing about tonight was that everyone selected their very own music.”

Hilly continued, “One thing that was lovely about tonight was how Natalie Lafourcade reached out to us and wished to do a Paul Simon music. In fact that impression that he had was really world, or at the least spanned the Americas. And having her was implausible, and together with Gaby and Silvana, this was a really contemporary take a look at what the Americana Music Affiliation does. As Gaby stated, these are main league stars that my world doesn’t know. And it was so attention-grabbing that it really works the opposite method, too. There’s a gal right here with Silvana who didn’t know who Jackson Browne was, similar to. in contrast, somebody within the Latin American group can be like, ‘How do you not know who Natalie Lafourcade is?’ She’s a Grammy winner, Latin Grammy winner… I imply, she’s a fucking main star! I like the cross-exposure, and I like that each one of them wished to be a part of this. That’s the best praise.”

Within the bar earlier within the afternoon, Yoakam and Chris Hillman have been holding court docket at a short lived recording setup for his or her SiriusXM applications (together with co-interviewer Invoice Bentley), grabbing the visitor singers as they handed by means of for rehearsals, for Q&As to run sooner or later.

On a break from recording episodes, Yoakam defined what Simon means to him, and it wasn’t the same old “bard for a technology” reply.

“As a lot as I like his songwriting, I like his consideration to element in how he made his data. The ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ album is among the seminal moments of recording ever, by way of the magnificence of that album and delivering music in a profound method at that second in time. … So for me, it’s additionally Paul’s genius in manufacturing. Even the opening of ‘Cecilia’ with the bizarre tape loop that he had, from what I perceive, there was a reel-to-reel tape recorder that he and Artwork had been recording on whereas they have been out in L.A. writing some songs. He obtained again to New York and evidently the tape head was out oif sync and so it created this out of part factor that, after they performed it again, it was ineffective as a bit of audio. However he used the meter and it turned the loop for ‘Cecilia.’ So anyway, I’m an enormous fan of all of the sonics that Paul Simon delivered to American rock-pop music.”

Out on the ground, Jackson Browne talked about what the music he’d picked for the evening, “I Am a Rock, meant to him. “That music meant loads to me when it first got here out. It simply modified all the pieces,” he stated, “as a result of the acoustic guitar and due to the economic system of the lyrics. It was a very robust concept, to painting any person that’s barricaded on this form of false concept of energy, and to do it so sensitively. It’s a neat trick.”

In a while, Browne remained simply as impressed. “You understand, ‘Graceland’ — what the hell! ‘Rhythm of the Saints’— these are wonderful forays he made into the world, the place completed artists from the USA keep of their world that they’ve succeeded in.” He remained stunned by the ability of 2023’s “Seven Psalms,” regardless that its reflections on mortality made it removed from industrial fare. “It’s due to the topic, due to that peering over the sting of the abyss. However they’re all astonishing songs.”

Considering Simon’s capacity to talk poetically, and but attain the common music fan — one thing that’s felt in his personal work, too, after all — Browne stated, “His melodies and his grasp with the language are simply unparalleled, you already know? However he creates and inhabits characters that he can converse from. He doesn’t speak down and none of his characters are hokey. I feel there’s only a vulnerability in his voice and his singing and his strategy that belies his mind.”

Full setlist for “An Americana Pre-Grammy Salute to Paul Simon” on the Troubadour, Feb. 3, 2024:

Blind Boys of Alabama, “Loves Me Like a Rock”

Jason Isbell and Sadler Vaden, “Kodachrome”

Molly Tuttle and Ketch Secor, “Mrs. Robinson”

Natalie Lafourcade, “You’re the One”

Bobby Rush, “50 Methods to Go away Your Lover”

Ruthie Foster, “Slip Slidin’ Away”

John Vincent III, “The Solely Dwelling Boy in New York Metropolis”

Brett Dennen, “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard”

Larkin Poe, “Paranoid Blues”

Susanna Hoffs with Grace Bowers, “Hazy Shade of Winter”

Gaby Moreno, “Late within the Night”

Silvana Estrada, “El Condor Pasa (If I May)”

Sean and Sara Watkins, “Hurricane Eye”

Madison Cunningham, “Kathy’s Music”

Andrew Chook and Alan Hampton, “American Tune”

Johnnyswim, “Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Canine After the Conflict”

Marcus King, “America”

Allison Russell, “The Sound of Silence”

Dwight Yoakam, “The Boxer”

Jackson Browne, “I Am a Rock”

Rufus Wainwright, “Bridge Over Troubled Water”

Rodney Crowell, “Graceland”

Finale, “You Can Name Me Al”