Simon watches YouTube like everybody else, and after watching some clips of the band Quicksilver on the tube, he contacted them to record some tracks with bluegrass instruments. The band is now hoping to tour with him in the future, may be they think they are the new Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
In any case, the frontman of the band, Doyle Lawson, declared on a bluegrass blog that ‘he had never in all of his years working with so many legends and musicians been so impressed as he was working with Paul Simon’, adding that ‘Paul was down-to-earth, one of the guys’, and that ‘with all he has done in 31 years in the business, this was the high water mark of his career.’
There were a few other details regarding the recording sessions, which Lawson described as very challenging, whereas Josh Trivett, Doyle’s manager, said that ‘one song had a sort of Afro-Cuban beat, but with bluegrass instruments in the mix.’
Bluegrass, Afro-Cuban, but also Indian influences, since mridangist Karaikudi Mani is also on the album (according to www.thehindu.com), as well as saxophonist Andy Snitzer (Eric Clapton, Beck, Aretha Franklin,…) and fantastic percussionist Steve Shehan, who was already featured on ‘You’re the one’, and has toured with Simon several times.
On the other hand, Simon, who recently previewed the album at Rolling Stone Headquarter, has declared that the record is ‘fantastic’ and that ‘it’s the best work he has done in 20 years,’… so his best since ‘Graceland’ apparently.
His two last albums ‘You’re the one’ (2000) and especially ‘Surprise’ (2006) never got close to what he had accomplished with ‘Graceland’ (1986) or even ‘The Rhythm of the Saints’ (1990), but with so much confidence on his part, a rare thing for him, we can expect the best.