Happy Birthday, Paul Simon. 

I can’t remember the first time that I heard a Paul Simon song. It was probably "Mrs. Robinson” or “Sound Of Silence”. However, I do remember the first time he flipped my idea of songwriting on its head. I was 17 and obsessed with his song “You’re Kind” and began to dig deeper into him as a writer. I read an extensive songwriting interview with him where he said that writing a song should be like driving down the road at 90 miles an hour and without notice to the passenger (or listener), you pull the steering wheel as hard to the left or right as possible. He has continued to pull the steering wheel on me as a listener over and over again. I swear it happens every single year. Right when I think I have heard every great Paul Simon song, I dive into the vastness of his catalogue and find some unknown (to me) gem that blows me away all over again. Recently, on one of my Paul Simon benders, I stumbled upon a song from 2011 called “The Afterlife.” It’s the story of a man who dies and goes to an enormous lobby where you have to fill out a form and wait in a line before you meet God. It’s brilliant. I was instantly inspired. I sent the song to everybody in the band and Dan Hannon (our long time producer). The next day we humbly went into the studio and started to create our own version. It only seemed fitting to release that song on the day of Paul’s 75th birthday. It’s our modest tribute to one of, if not the greatest, songwriter to have ever lived. Thank you, Mr. Simon, for your continued inspiration and for always doing what you wanted to do. Here is our cover of “The Afterlife." Turn it up! I hope you guys enjoy it half as much as we enjoyed playing it.

Andy

The Afterlife (Paul Simon Cover)

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