At the Troubadour Saturday night, they’d all come to look for Americana… or, make that America, but close enough. The Americana Music Association was putting on its annual Grammy Eve tribute to a legend, with this year’s honoree being Paul Simon, one of the most influential and least imitable of poet laureates. It went — yes — late in the evening, even though more than half of the artists taking the stage were Grammy nominees who were due to be downtown the following afternoon for the pre-telecast awards proceedings.
Milling on the floor of the West Hollywood club during rehearsals, one of the singer-songwriter greats on hand, Rodney Crowell, had thoughts about Simon’s place in the pantheon. “It’s like, if you’re gonna have Mt. Rushmore, it’s Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan, the Beatles — as one — and Paul. There’s some people I listen to their music for entertainment, which I do for Paul, too, but he’s one that I listen to for education. Because there’s a lot to be learned there, constantly. I don’t want to be like him, but I want to access what he accesses to do what I do. So it’s almost like a meditation, to pay attention. And he just gets better.”
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