Gary Edward Jones: Something About Simon, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

There is no such thing as the background, no place where silence can truly be the dominating factor, not when you are an artist. It matters not where the artist resides, their field, their chosen place of expression, what others may consider to be a place of no production, is in fact a factory of ideas being turned over, modified, refined, tested and worried over; just because you don’t understand the process in which the artist has to find that special muse, does not mean they aren’t being productive.

It is a label so many fight, the withdrawal from the neon lights and the beckoning applause, to come back with something utterly beguiling, so haunting that even the grizzled old soldier who has fought many a battle and heard the call of art a thousand times, will shed a trickle of tears and not be ashamed to let them run down their face and fall unabashed to their laps.

The last three years has been one of revelation for Gary Edward Jones, the Cabinet Maker, one of Liverpool’s emblematic voices of the 21st Century, one on which the quieter surroundings of a new life may have helped shape this particular project, to break down the words and music of arguably one of America’s most revered musicians of all time, Paul Simon.

The sound of silence is a comfortable place in which to while-a-way time, but it is in the adventure of exploring a musical Graceland that we come to appreciate fully what art and the artist suffer for, the possibility of revealing a wound, of performing a kind a harmonious surgery on themselves, an agreement between listener and musician which turns into a bond celebrated, and in this unshakeable embrace Gary Edward Jones held the Epstein audience with a captivated awe, a memory of what exactly Paul Simon achieved through one of the most extensive song books created.

The two men are suited, unlikely to ever meet, improbable to think they would ever record together, and yet the essence of one uncovered something of other, as crowds have always known, Gary Edward Jones is special, extraordinary.

In songs and well thought out analysis, Mr. Jones performed songs such as I Am A Rock, April Come She Will, Homeward Bound, Hazy Shade of Winter, Mrs Robinson, the exceptional America, The Boxer, Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard, Duncan, 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover, Still Crazy After All These Years and Hearts And Bones, as well as two of his own and most earnest and captivating songs, Oceans and Walk You Home, Gary Edward Jones proved that time away from those neon lights and deserved applause is time well spent, that in the pursuit of understanding another person’s art, you come to understand yourself. In is this mutual exchange in which we all should strive to seek empathy, compassion, with the world.

A beautiful evening, serene, powerful, it is everything that Gary Edward Jones and Paul Simon stand for. Something About Simon, more than stunning about Jones.

Ian D. Hall