Harper Simon, 'Harper Simon'

Release date: October 13, 2009
Record label: Tulsi
Official Web site: http://www.myspace.com/harpersimon

The buzz: Harper Simon has clearly been in no rush to follow in his father Paul’s footsteps. At 37, the singer-songwriter has released a smattering of solo material and a mostly overlooked collaboration with his stepmother, Edie Brickell (under the name the Heavy Circles), but never a proper album—until now. Years in the works, “Harper Simon” was recorded in Nashville, Los Angeles and New York, and features collaborations with everyone from fellow showbiz kids Sean Lennon and Inara George (daughter of Little Feat’s Lowell George) to old man Paul himself.

The verdict: Simon’s vocal resemblance to his father is uncanny, but he clearly inherited more from Paul than just a delicate, conversational tenor. The songs here range from good to brilliant, and sit comfortably within everything from quirky chamber-pop (“Ha Ha”) to twangy Southern rock (“Shooting Star”) to the kind of winsome, starry-eyed folk music his father used to excel at (the very Simon and Garfunkel-ish “Berkeley Girl”). Despite the album’s lengthy gestation period, nothing feels overworked; if anything, songs like “Wishes and Stars,” with its almost childlike lyrics (“I’m as simple as a bee, as a melody in C”), are so straightforward they could be mistaken for naïve—if not for the undercurrents of loneliness and self-doubt that run through them. Family legacy aside, this is a striking debut from a smart, disarmingly honest songwriter.

Did you know? Harper is the “traveling companion” referenced in the lyrics to Paul Simon’s 1986 classic “Graceland”—although he has since told interviewers that he never actually visited Elvis’ estate with his father.

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