Feelin’ Groovy

Aztec Two-Step pays tribute to a folk-rock legend with the Simon and Garfunkel songbook.

By: Susan Van Dongen

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AZTEC TWO-STEP


   Life must be good for Rex Fowler, one-half of the duo Aztec Two-Step. Reached on a bucolic golf course in Maine, he says he’s out there pretty much by himself. Mr. Fowler, who along with Neal Shulman is marking 35 years in the music business, reflects that Aztec Two-Step might be more famous if he liked golf less.
   "Simon and Garfunkel don’t play golf and that’s probably why they’re more successful than we are," Mr. Fowler says. "I started playing golf when I was about 10 and it’s led me down the road to ruin. I’ve been working on my slice since then. I wonder what life would have been like — if I could have achieved great things in music — if I had been working on my chord changes instead."
   Speaking of Simon and Garfunkel, Aztec Two-Step is on the road with the Simon and Garfunkel songbook, interpreting the timeless songs and harmonies of the duo, with whom they have sometimes been compared. Aztec Two-Step will bring such Simon and Garfunkel chestnuts as "59th Street Bridge (Feelin’ Groovy)," "America," "Mrs. Robinson," "The Boxer," "Bridge Over Troubled Water," "Sounds of Silence" and "At the Zoo" to Grounds For Sculpture in Hamilton July 13.
   Perhaps because Mr. Fowler and Mr. Shulman spent their formative years in folkie clubs in Boston and Manhattan, they related to Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel.
   "Like us, they had that introspective thing going on and especially with the first album, people sometimes connected us," Mr. Fowler says. "We were the quintessential singer-songwriter duo. We all came from the same branch of the musical tree — folk guys."
   He explains that Simon and Garfunkel’s first record, Wednesday Morning 3 A.M. (Columbia, 1964), was very much a folk album, one that defined the folk era but didn’t garner wide popularity. Then the duo added bass and drums to its next recording, Sounds of Silence (Columbia, 1966), and got a lot more attention.
   "Simon and Garfunkel, then the Byrds, launched the whole electric (singer-songwriter) thing and we followed in their footsteps," Mr. Fowler says. "It wasn’t like we planned it, like we said, ‘We want to be the next Simon and Garfunkel,’ it’s just that we were influenced by their harmonies and artistic sensibilities. At the same time we were also listening to Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Lennon and McCartney. We were teenagers in the ’60s and absorbing all this music led to us making our own records in the early ’70s."
   Meeting at an open mike night at a Boston folk club in the spring of 1971, Mr. Fowler, a native of Maine, and Mr. Shulman, a New Yorker, found they could harmonize well and decided to join forces. The duo’s name comes from a line in Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s "A Coney Island of the Mind."
   For the Simon and Garfunkel songbook concerts, the duo digs deep into the catalog, for surprises like "Punky’s Dilemma."
   "I’ve always loved that song," Mr. Fowler says. "There’s also ‘Overs,’ one that you don’t hear too often. We also do ‘Bleecker Street,’ which is from Simon and Garfunkel’s very first album, in the folk tradition. We could do another 10 or 15 songs if we had the motivation.
   "I love them all — I don’t think they ever made a bad song," he continues. "For us, we did our own music for 35 years and someone suggested learning Simon and Garfunkel’s songbook, just so we could add a little something to it, like Tony Bennett doing Cole Porter. It was like, ‘OK, you have your own identity but wouldn’t it be great to pay homage to Simon and Garfunkel?’ We took it on as a project after years of playing so many years of original music."
   So far Mr. Simon and Mr. Garfunkel haven’t commented, but they haven’t complained either.
   "No cease and desist letters from their lawyers, not yet," Mr. Fowler jokes. "We’ll be in Amagansett and I know Paul lives out there, maybe he’ll come to the show. I hope someday one of the guys will hear about it. We do some interesting arrangements, for example, sewing a couple of songs together. Like ‘Sounds of Silence’ goes right into ‘Scarborough Fair.’ It’s a little different from what they did."
   Just as British crooner Bryan Ferry has won new fans with Dylanesque (Virgin) — his recording of Bob Dylan’s material — and various artists have recently taken on Joni Mitchell and John Lennon’s music, the familiarity of the songs opens doors for less familiar artists. You may not know Bjork too well, but listen to her do "Boho Dance" from A Tribute to Joni Mitchell (Nonesuch), and you might seek out her own stuff. Same with Aztec Two-Step.
   "We figure about 40 percent of the audience will come out because it’s Simon and Garfunkel, but our fan base will come out as well," Mr. Fowler says. "We’ll be in front of some people who otherwise might not come to hear us so they’ll get to know our originals. We’ll play about 20 things by Simon and Garfunkel and about five of ours, so people can get a sense of what we do."
Aztec Two-Step presents the Simon and Garfunkel Songbook at Grounds For Sculpture, 18 Fairgrounds Rd., Hamilton, July 13, 8 p.m. Tickets cost $22 non-members, $17 members. (609) 586-0616; www.groundsforsculpture.org. Aztec Two-Step on the Web: www.aztectwostep.com