Dave Tuxford

I write on the day that Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel jointly receive the 2003 Lifetime Achievement Award (and, no doubt, perform together) at the Grammys.

The spats and squabbles which have punctuated an intermittent four-decade partnership are well-known but, despite pursuing successful independent careers for much of this period, neither has separately produced anything coming close to the genius which characterised the string of albums beginning in 1964 with Wednesday Morning 3am and ending six years later with Bridge Over Troubled Water.

As he harmonizes with Simon in a voice remarkably unimpaired by advancing years, Garfunkel will be looking forward to the imminent release of his new solo CD, Everything Waits to be Noticed.

Departure

It marks a new direction for the most instantly recognisable tenor ever to hit folk (and later popular) music.

Apart from contributing - albeit sometimes crucially - to Simon's songs, Garfunkel is scarcely known as a songwriter.

This fortnight, though, some of Garfunkel's poems are given musical life by Maia Sharp (compared with Bonnie Raitt and Christine McVie) and Buddy Mondlock (covered by Garth Brooks and Nanci Griffith), who both accompany him on this tour. Mondlock's 1996 Song of The Year Award winner, 'The Kid', is included on the album.

Garfunkel plainly has high hopes for Everything. "I haven't been this tight with another singer since the old days with Paulie." Sharp is similarly enthusiastic: "You wonder who's singing what and you make two voices sound like six."

Anticipate, then, a new sound with much new material. Don't worry, though; I expect he'll sing that song.

Art Garfunkel plays the Bridgewater Hall on March 17.

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