Local duo brings national road show to Old Settler’s Park

By Linda Alice Dewey

Sun contributor

If you were at least 12 years old in 1981, lived in the United States, and were hooked up to major media, you surely heard about it. After a decade’s hiatus, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel agreed to reunite for a free New York City concert to save Central Park, which was in danger of being closed. In an effort to save it, the city put on a series of concerts.

On a cool September evening, a record-breaking crowd sat on blankets and listened to favorites like “Mrs. Robinson,” “The Sound of Silence,” “Homeward Bound,” and “Scarborough Fair,” crooned by the iconic ’60s duo who made them famous to the tune of an eight-piece backup band.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime event, and everyone there knew it.

In a way, that may no longer be true, if Nick Foresman and Jason Elsenheimer have anything to say about it. The two, who also sing locally as the Boone Doggies, have recreated that show down to the exact same musical arrangements and dialogue, and have taken it on the road across the country.

It’s coming to Glen Lake’s Old Settlers Park on July 27, and it will be a free concert, just like the original.

Tribute shows began with Elvis impersonators, and even before that, Big Band shows that went on the road. Then came “Beatlemania.” Now they’re a “thing,” says Foresman, one of the two singers. “We just got back from a huge show in Colorado, where there were eight tribute bands.” They included the Allman Brothers, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Bruce Springsteen. “It’s definitely a growing trend.”

Foresman, Elsenheimer and most of the band are now residents of Grand Rapids, but the duo grew up in Traverse City and return to the area to perform “all the time.” The 1987 grads from TC Central (it was just Traverse City High School then), have been singing together since they were 14 or 15.

Foresman found that junior high and high school choir opened him up to different types. Evidently, Jason felt that way, too. Although they liked the music of their day, Foresman says “[h]e and I had a strange deep appreciation for songs with [vocal] harmony—folky bluegrass songs, Everly Brothers, Kingston Trio, Seals and Crofts, England Dan and John Ford Coley, the Eagles. All these bands from the 60s and 70s knew how to write a song. And the biggest of these was Simon and Garfunkel.”

They started singing their tunes. At family parties, says Nick, “they’d ask us to get up, and we’d sing ‘Homeward Bound’ or ‘Sounds of Silence,’ and it just kind of worked.”

For over 35 years, the two have performed in various music groups together, so much so that, on the rare occasion over the years that they do perform separately, “if someone sees me,” Nick says, “he asks where the other one is.”

When Jason came up with the Simon and Garfunkel tribute band idea, they tossed it around for a year, then brought in an old friend, keyboardist Al Jankowski.  “Once we brought Al aboard – a genius with a great ear—we were able to figure out our direction,” Nick recalls. “We decided to focus on the perfect, the biggest, the best, the most memorable, the most iconic Simon & Garfunkel (S&G) show ever…the 1981 Concert in Central Park.”

Back in 1981, Nick explains, Central Park had gone down and was dangerous. “People were talking about closing it and turning it in to condos,” he states. Instead, “[t]he City decided to do concerts to save Central Park.

“Art and Paul,” he continues, “were New Yorkers, and the City asked if they would do the concert to raise money to save the park. So on September 19, 1981, they got together for the first time in ten years for a concert. They did 22 songs and played all the Simon and Garfunkel hits, ‘Mrs. Robinson,’ several of Paul Simon’s slow stuff, ‘50 Ways to Leave Your Lover,’ as well as one song from Garfunkel’s solo album.” Because Simon’s hands hurt, and he couldn’t play guitar, they hired an eight-piece band.

Although the city marketed the upcoming concert, Foresman continues, “[n]obody knew if anyone would show up.” It was 1981. Music had moved on to favor bands like Van Halen and Journey. Who would be interested?

It ended up being the biggest concert in U.S. history up to that time and remains one of the largest ever. “Huge,” Foresman comments. “They filmed it and put it out on a double-vinyl album.

“I bought it in 82. Jason bought it. We were probably the first two 15-year-old kids in Traverse City to own the first edition double vinyl album.”

HBO bought it and played it four times a day. “As a kid,” he says, “we had HBO. We watched the concert and were blown away. Simon’s black Ovation guitar – it was mesmerizing, an iconic show.

“That’s also what makes it so special for us. This album was so inspirational for both of us. Musically, it shaped what we were doing and where we were going.

“[So] when Jason had this idea to do a Tribute show, we thought, let’s recreate the greatest concert of all time…To be able to take people back to 1981 and recreate one of the greatest rock concerts of all time, that’s what we wanted to do, and that’s what we do.

“We recreate every song in the show in the exact order with the exact arrangements—we have all of them. This concert is the only time it was performed this way. Paul Simon set the arrangements…All of them were done differently [than any other recording or performance.] That’s also what makes it special. We dress like them… Jason has a wig—looks just like him. I have the same year, make, and model guitar as Paul Simon.” Nick is Paul, Jason is Art.

Here in Leelanau County, Jason, Nick, and old TC Central friend Aric Beyer have been playing as The Boone Doggies at Boonedocks for several years.

The name is no coincidence. “We played for Bob Ewing 23 or so years ago, when he was food and beverage manager at the Homestead, every Monday or Sunday. When Bob bought Boonedocks from Barry Boone, he asked us if we would play. We didn’t have a name. Bob kept hounding us to have a name. Finally, Bob named us “the ‘Boone Doggies.’…We’ve stuck with that. We’ve played there for 20 years since he opened,” on summer Sundays and Mondays with Aric on bass and Nick on guitar, while Jason sings. Like Art Garfunkel, he never plays guitar live.

So far, Nick and Jason have performed what they are calling the “Old Friends, a Simon & Garfunkel Tribute” show 39 times in venues across the country. The title honors the S&G song of the same name and Nick and Jason’s friendship. “It just fit,” says Foresman.

It’s the only dedicated S&G tribute band around. “There might be a million Beatle tribute bands, Stones tribute bands, or Elvises, but there’s only one of us,” Nick says. “That’s what makes us unique.…People have found out about the show, and we’ve just taken off.”

Now, the Glen Lake Community Reformed Church (GLCRC)l brings the 90-minute show to Old Settlers’ Park on Friday, July 27 at 7 p.m. Church members have taken on raising the estimated $6,000 it will cost to produce the show. Anderson’s Market has stepped up to sponsor, with Cherry Republic and Northwoods Hardware also supporting the effort, in addition to private individuals who are chipping in. Donations given ahead of time are greatly appreciated, so that funds taken in at the event can go directly to these three area charities:

• Neighbors Helping Neighbors (NHN), a ministry of area churches that helps area residents with physical chores that they can neither do themselves, nor pay, to have them done. NHN was formed to clear downed trees after the August 2015 storm and has continued to provide services ever since.
• Empire Area Food Pantry, which is open every Tuesday at the Glen Lake Community Reformed Church
• Glen Lake Young Life, also a ministry of area churches now in its third year at the Glen Lake Community Schools.

 

If you go:

Bring blankets or chairs.  Like the original at Central Park, this will be an “open seating concert.” You may make your tax deductible “free will offering” in the form of a check made out to “GLCRC,” or use cash, credit card, PayPal, or Venmo as the songs, harmonies, mood and magic resound across the lake.