Paul Simon Plots Expansive Tour Ahead of New Album 'Stranger to Stranger'

Paul Simon will kick off an extensive North American tour after performing at Jazz Fest in late April. He played arenas on a co-headlining run with Sting in 2014, but hasn't played the United States on his own since 2011. The tour focuses largely on indoor theaters, though it will wrap up June 30th at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, New York. The historic stadium, which reopened for concerts in 2013, is just blocks away from Simon's childhood home.

There was no mention of a new studio album in the official tour announcement, though an advertisement for the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium concert states that a new album entitled Stranger to Stranger will be released this spring. A spokesperson for Simon confirmed the new album. Stranger to Stranger will be Simon's first new studio LP since 2011's widely acclaimed So Beautiful or So What.

Simon last played Forest Hills Stadium in July 1970 on Simon and Garfunkel's tour in support of Bridge Over Troubled Water. Art Garfunkel also grew up in Forest Hills, Queens and the duo became friends in the sixth grade, attending Forest Hills High School together. They haven't performed in public together since vocal problems derailed a planned tour in 2010. Garfunkel's voice has recovered, though last year he vented his frustration over Simon's reluctance to launch another reunion. "How can you walk away from this lucky place on top of the world, Paul?" he said. "What's going on with you, you idiot? How could you let that go, jerk?"

Paul Simon Tour Dates

April 29 – New Orleans, LA @ Jazz Fest
May 3 – Atlanta, GA @ Fox Theater
May 4 – Birmingham, AL @ BJCC Concert Hall
May 6 – Tulsa, OK @ Hard Rock Hotel & Casino – The Joint
May 7 – Thackerville, OK @ Winstar Casino
May 8 – Dallas, TX @ AT&T Performing Arts Center
May 10 – Austin, TX @ Bass Concert Hall
May 11 – Austin, TX @ Bass Concert hall
May 14 – Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium
May 15 – Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium
May 18 – Des Moines, IA @ Civic Center
May 19 – Lincoln, NE @ Pinewood Bowl Theater
May 20 – Denver, CO @ Bellco Theatre
May 22 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Maverick Center
May 23 – Boise, ID @ Botanical Gardens
May 25 – Portland, OR @ Schnitzer Concert Hall
May 26 – Vancouver, BC @ Queen Elizabeth Theatre
May 28 – Woodinville, WA @ Chateau St. Michelle
May 29 – Woodinville, WA @ Chateau St. Michelle
June 1 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl
June 3 – Berkeley, CA @ Greek Theatre
June 5 – Santa Barbara, CA @ Santa Barbara Bowl
June 11 – Kansas City, MO @ Starlight
June 12 – St. Louis, MO @ Fox Theatre
June 14 – Minneapolis, MN @ Orpheum Theatre
June 19 – Rochester Hills, MI @ Meadow Brook
June 21 – Toronto, ON @ Sony Centre
June 22 – Montreal, QC @ Place Des Arts
June 24 – Boston, MA @ Blue Hills Bank Pavilion
June 25 – Philadelphia, PA @ Mann Center for the Performing Arts
June 30 – Forest Hills, NY @ Forest Hills Tennis Stadium

Inside Paul Simon's Genre-Bending New Album 'Stranger to Stranger'

Paul Simon spent the past five years painstakingly crafting his new album Stranger to Stranger (out June 3rd), knowing he'd have to create something extraordinary if he wanted it to stand up to the best work from his past. "There are a lot of preconceptions [about my new work] because I have been familiar to the public for 50 years," he says. "They go, 'Is it going to be Graceland? It is going to be 'Me and Julio Down The Schoolyard?' Simon and Garfunkel? The Capeman?' To get people to listen with open ears, you have to really make something that is interesting because people are prepared for it not to be interesting."

The end result is Stranger to Stranger, an experimental album heavy on echo and rhythm that fuses electronic beats with African woodwind instruments, Peruvian drums, a gospel music quartet, horns and synthesizers. "I don't set out to make each album different than the last one," he says. "It's just my natural inclination."

Italian electronic dance music artist Clap! Clap! provides beats on the tracks "The Werewolf," "Street Angel" and "Wristband," the latter of which is now streaming. They met up in July 2011 when Simon's So Beautiful or So What tour touched down in Milan, Italy. "My 23-year-old son Adrian is a composer and he told me about him," says Simon. "He takes African sound samples and puts digital dance grooves behind it. His newest album is a masterpiece. He makes music sound new and old at the same time."

Most of the album was recorded at Simon's home studio in Connecticut, with Clap! Clap! and Simon communicating via e-mail But in 2013, the sessions briefly moved to Montclair State University where unique, custom-made instruments, such as the Cloud-Chamber Bowls and the Chromelodeon, created by the mid-20 century music theorist Harry Parch, are stored. "Parch said there were 43 tones to an octave and not 12," says Simon. "He had a totally different approach to what music is and had to build his own instruments so he could compose on a microtonal scale. That microtonal thinking pervades this album."

The subject matter of the songs ranges from the ridiculous to the tragic. "Wristband" tells the hysterical tale of a rock star prevented from entering his own concert because he doesn't have the proper wristband. "It's not a true story," says Simon. "But I know plenty of people with this story and there have been times where I've been stopped backstage and asked to see a pass." "The Riverbank" was inspired by a visit to wounded veterans at Walter Reed Hospital and the funeral of a teacher Simon knew that was murdered in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. On a brighter note, "Proof of Love" and the instrumental "In The Garden of Edie" are tributes to his wife Edie Brickell.

Opening track "The Werewolf" got its title when Simon and his band blended the sound of the Peruvian percussion instrument Cajón with hand claps and the one-string Indian instrument gopichand. When he slowed the tempo way down, it sounded like someone was saying "the werewolf." Simon turned that into a song about a mythical werewolf as an angel of death coming to eventually kill us all. "The fact is most obits are mixed reviews," he sings. "Life is a lottery/A lot of people lose."

For the first time in his career, Simon introduces characters in songs that appear on different tracks later on the album. For example, the central charter from "Street Angel" pops up again in "In A Parade." "The idea of finishing one song and having the character appear in another song appeals to me," he says. "I don't see why characters shouldn't appear more than once."

Two instrumental guitar tracks, "The Clock" and "In The Garden of Edie," were originally written for John Patrick Shanley's play Prodigal Son, which ran at New York's City Center last year. "I decided to insert them in the album just to give a little space after songs," says Simon. "It lets the mind stop hearing words for a while."

The album is co-produced by 81-year-old Roy Halee, whose working relationship with Simon goes back to the original Simon and Garfunkel demos in 1964. They went on to collaborate on all five Simon and Garfunkel albums along with Simon's self-titled solo debut, Graceland and Rhythm of the Saints. "He retired, but I always liked working with him more than anyone else," says Simon. "He has great ears. He didn't know anything about ProTools, so our producer Andy Smith helped with that. But nothing compares with his knowledge of how to create echo."

Simon has no plans beyond his summer tour in support of Stranger to Stranger, though he does hope to revisit a duets album he began with Brickell a few years ago. "We're empty-nesters for the first time so we like to fantasize about where we'll travel," he says, "I do think about retirement. I want to see if I'll get bored and what will happen with the bit of unborn creative impulses if I stop writing songs, which I've been doing since I was 12. But I just don't know. Philip Glass is one of my role models and he just keeps going. He said to me, 'If you don't do it, who will write a Paul Simon song?'"

Same here. I'm going for the deluxe version.

Stranger to Stranger
Paul Simon

“Oh! You don’t know me?
O.K. I don’t know you, too”
— “The Werewolf”

For anyone who’s been listening to great music during the past half-century, Paul Simon is certainly no stranger. So one of the most remarkable things about his extraordinary new masterpiece, Stranger to Stranger—Paul Simon’s 13th solo record—is that it conjures a vivid and vital new context to his well-established genius as a singer and songwriter. Full of thrilling textures that feel fresh and modern, while still offering subtle and artful allusions to our shared musical past, Stranger to Stranger presents the perfect opportunity to get to know Paul Simon in a new way.

“Most obits are mixed reviews,” Simon sings with dry wit on the album’s thrilling and darkly funny opening track, “The Werewolf.” Here, Paul Simon’s strong voice and conversational lyrics usher us into a brave new musical world where expectations are defied and exceeded, as they were thirty years ago with another masterpiece, Graceland.

Stanger to Stranger’s distinctive sonic textures allow the listener to experience Simon’s singular voice with the shock of the new. The album’s visceral and ever-changing musical palette allows us to recall what we have loved about Paul Simon in the past; at the same time we feel passion for this new music that artfully speaks to the good, the bad and the ugly in our jittery world, here and now.

“That’s the bar you have to reach,” Paul Simon says. “In a sense, an artist’s past is an obstacle that has to be overcome with each new work. You have to convince listeners that the new songs can be as rewarding as the past. The problem is, it’s hard to do, and that’s why it often takes so long.” Trying to live up to his own high standard—and create something new that is worthy of attention—is partly what keeps Simon working so hard at this stage in his illustrious career. “The idea is not to just make another album,” Simon explains. “It’s to make something that’s really worth a listen.”

By any standard, Stranger to Stranger is well worth repeated listening—and not just by those who have loved Simon’s body of work, but also by a whole new generation of music lovers who will find an album that is wildly relevant, and, at times, just plain wild.

The adventurous sonic spirit of Stranger to Stranger—made abundantly clear right from the bitingly humorous first two tracks, “The Werewolf” and “Wristband”— has led Simon to so many interesting places. Following Simon’s collaboration with Brian Eno for his 2006 album Surprise, he began to think about how to create intriguing soundscapes beyond the use of keyboards and synthesizers. So on his last album, 2011’s acclaimed So Beautiful Or So What, Simon experimented further with echo, using bells and the aftertones of bells, as well as placing instruments in the distance, to create new sounds and a more expansive musical environment.

On this record, Stranger to Stranger, Simon worked with old friend and collaborator Roy Halee—a name familiar from countless recordings now rightly considered classic. “Roy was the engineer when we did the Simon & Garfunkel audition tape for Columbia Records,” Simon recalls. “That’s how long I go back with Roy. He did Bridge Over Troubled Water, and Graceland, too. He is absolutely still at the top of his game, and knows more about using echo than anyone else on Earth. I’m totally comfortable collaborating with him, and I trust his taste and opinions—it’s a partnership.”

Together, Simon and Halee took this sort of experimentation even further. “It’s about getting you to actually hear something in a new way. It’s about making music that sounds old and new at the same time; music with a sense of mystery,” says Simon. “You’re trying to create what your ear imagines—what you can barely hear, just over the horizon—and you’re not exactly sure what it is, but you think you can get there.”

Another significant breakthrough on Stranger to Stranger came when Simon wrote “Insomniac’s Lullaby,” and found himself reminded of the musical possibilities first suggested by Harry Partch—the 20th Century American composer and theorist who created custom-made instruments in microtonal tunings. Through his longtime guitarist Mark Stewart, Simon came to know musician Dean Drummond, who was the custodian of the original Harry Partch instrument collection then housed at Montclair State University in New Jersey. “We had to bring our equipment to record the instruments in their laboratory,” Simon says of capturing such unusual instruments as Cloud-Chamber Bowls and the Chromelodeon. “We couldn’t take the Partch instruments to our studio.” Ultimately, Simon grew so fond of the Chromelodeon that he bought one.

“Until then, I didn’t know that Harry Partch was dividing octaves to anything from 30 to 43 notes,” Simon explains. “But I understood that our ear goes beyond the European definition of intonation, about what’s in tune or not. An easy example of this would be when you hear a great R&B horn section and they’re playing fantastically, but slightly out of tune. Now, if you gave that same part to members of the Philharmonic, it would sound lousy. Sometimes the thing that’s just a little bit off is just right. And I think the ear is telling you something.”

For Simon, one of the key realizations he gathered from exploring the musical world of Partch was the early composer’s observation that singing in music is akin to human speech. “The voice doesn’t go from one note on a staff to the other, it slides and glides through them,” Simon explains. “That was a big bit of information for me, and I started to shape vocal lines on the album that way. So many people use autotune these days to get perfect pitch, but I find there are more interesting places to be than right in the middle of a note.”

Simon’s collage of sounds for Stranger to Stranger also included the Italian electronic dance music artist Clap! Clap!, who had made an album called Tayi Bebba, blending African field recordings and EDM. “I went looking for Clap! Clap! and we met up in Milan,” Simon recalls. “I played him a work in progress, and he ended up putting his sound on three of the tracks (‘The Werewolf,’ ‘Wristband’ and ‘Street Angel’).”

“Stranger to Stranger is like an album from the 20th Century, set in a 21st Century sonic landscape. I can reconstruct song forms and break rules—let a song go this way and that, just as conversations do,” Simon explains.

Paul Simon’s Stranger to Stranger reminds us of the surprising things that can happen when we stop to listen to the world around us. It’s a record that’s more rewarding with each listen, continually offering new things to discover. Perhaps this is a characteristic of Paul Simon’s music, and why so many of his songs have proven to be timeless.

“Sound is the theme of this album as much as it’s about the subjects of the individual songs. If people get that, I’ll be pleased,” explains Simon. “I never say, ‘Now I’ll write a song about mortality, or a song about social inequality,’ or anything, really. So, in a sense, the songs write themselves—they lead; I follow. The right song at the right time can live for generations. A beautiful sound, well that's forever.”

after listening to "wristband," i'm on the fence.
the music is terrific and his voice is impeccable, BUT THE LYRICS ARE TRULY HORRID!

Listening to and enjoying the new Paul Simon album. Great lyrics and some strange new instruments. I'm glad Paul keeps experimenting and exploring.

paul simon is one of those artists that, for me, doesn't intrigue me and i don't know why.

all signs of the music that i love point to the fact that i should like everything by him, but it doesn't.

even the simon and garfunkel stuff doesn't blow me away like i think it should.

i like the hits, bot S&G and simon solo, yet i rarely listen to him at home or in the car.

i own all 5 S&G albums and i have simon's box set and one of the best of's, but i follow the completist avenue with him.

is it me, or do others have artists that they feel this way about?

and

why do i feel this way about him, i sure can't figure it out?

I certainly don't feel this way about Simon, but there are artists that I do have this experience with. Probably number one is Bruce Springsteen. I simply do not get it. I own all of his albums and finally saw him live a couple of years ago as everyone said I would be converted once I saw him perform. I was actually bored as I sat watching him. I have actively tried to get into him, but there is no connection at all.