{"id":1687,"date":"2025-03-06T14:52:28","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T14:52:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/?p=1687"},"modified":"2025-03-06T14:52:28","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T14:52:28","slug":"james-taylor-and-alison-krauss-took-the-stage-to-honor-paul-simon-with-a-hauntingly-beautiful-cover-of-the-boxer-and-what-happened-next-was-pure-musical-magic-alison-with-her-ethereal-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/?p=1687","title":{"rendered":"James Taylor and Alison Krauss took the stage to honor Paul Simon with a hauntingly beautiful cover of The Boxer\u2014and what happened next was pure musical magic. Alison, with her ethereal voice, didn\u2019t just sing; she elevated every note, every lyric, weaving a spell over the audience. James, ever the legend, stood beside her, his presence a testament to the song\u2019s timeless soul. And Paul Simon? The man himself watched in awe, his mouth slightly agape, eyes shining like a National Guitar. In that moment, it wasn\u2019t just a tribute\u2014it was a masterpiece."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The 2002 Kennedy Center Honors Gala was a mixed bag. The honourees were Elizabeth Taylor, James Earl Jones, Chita Rivera (actress, dancer and singer best known for roles in West Side Story, Chicago, and Kiss of the Spider Woman), conductor James Levine, and Paul Simon. Different reviewers had different favourite moments, but the critical consensus was that the highlights were Steve Martin\u2019s introduction of Paul Simon and our first video, James Taylor and Alison Krauss\u2019s take on Simon\u2019s The Boxer.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of the Kennedy Centre Honours events, the Washington Post observed: \u201cThe pattern is always the same: a speech by a colleague of the honoree, a short filmed biography, and then tribute performances by lesser stars \u2014 bracketed by two standing ovations for whoever\u2019s being honored.\u201d I would hesitate before saying that Taylor and Krauss are lesser artists than Simon, but they may be lesser stars in the sense of being less well known. Taylor and Kraus certainly did a fine cover of The Boxer:<\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-2\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"rll-youtube-player\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"James Taylor &amp; Alison Krauss - The Boxer: Paul Simon Tribute\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/i0RywKRPP28\" width=\"350\" height=\"235\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-origwidth=\"350\" data-origheight=\"235\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Isn\u2019t it great when Krauss and Taylor sing together? Jim Hansen comments on YouTube: \u201cI love James Taylor and Paul Simon with every fiber of my being, but Alison Kraus, wow. Every song she sings she makes it sound like it was made just for her to sing in that angelic voice of hers. Hearing her voice literally brings tears of emotion and joy.\u201d James Ryan says, \u201cAlison is one of the finest voices in the business and a fantastic musician, this is a great version.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related:<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews79.com\/lehieu\/kelly-clarkson-never-backs-down-from-a-challenge-but-this-time-she-took-on-something-no-one-saw-coming-rapping-eminems-lose-yourself-live-on-stage-when-a-fan-threw-out-the-bold-req\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kelly Clarkson never shies away from a challenge, but no one expected this\u2014rapping Eminem\u2019s\u00a0<em data-start=\"92\" data-end=\"107\">Lose Yourself<\/em>\u00a0live on stage.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Washington Post asserted \u201cTaylor\u2019s duet with Alison Krauss on The Boxer is haunting.\u201d The paper was less complimentary about the covers of Simon songs by Alicia Keyes (\u201cShe tries shriekingly to ignore the song\u2019s melody\u201d), John Mellencamp, and Taylor\u2019s solo, but it raved about Steve Martin\u2019s introductory comments. Martin, it said, belatedly brought the gala event to life during the last half-hour of the show with a parody of the windy, overblown tributes the other honorees get. Let\u2019s watch:<\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-3\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"rll-youtube-player\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Steve Martin (Paul Simon Tribute) - 2002 Kennedy Center Honors\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oxFq8dnATbs\" width=\"350\" height=\"235\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-origwidth=\"350\" data-origheight=\"235\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>For those Musical Devotees readers who don\u2019t know Alison Krauss, the singer and fiddler is the queen of bluegrass-country music. Her acclaimed movie soundtrack performances include O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Cold Mountain. Her audience was significantly broadened by her collaborations with Robert Plant including Raising Sand (2007) and Raise The Roof (2021). Raising Sand, a platinum-selling album, was rated Album of the Year at the Americana Music Honors Awards (2008) as well as at the 2009 Grammy Awards.<\/p>\n<p>As for The Boxer, the boxer in the song is the decidedly non-pugilist-looking Paul Simon. Interviewed by Playboy magazine in 1984, Simon said the track was an allegory for his \u201ctacit bouts with the music critics who began to attack his reputation in the late 1960s\u201d. He elaborated: \u201cI think the song was about me. Everybody\u2019s beating me up, by that time we had encountered our first criticism. [Critics realised] maybe we weren\u2019t real folkies at all!\u201d Those who know The Boxer well will have noticed that Krauss and Taylor\u2019s version is truncated. That\u2019s normal for Kennedy Centre Honours performances, apparently.<\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-5\">\n<div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1601042\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Now the juiciest bit of the story. Paul Simon was a last minute replacement as honouree. As the Washington Post puts it, \u201cPaul McCartney, who isn\u2019t American in the first place was rude enough to say he\u2019d be busy the night the awards were given out.\u201d Thank goodness Steve Martin was there to cheer Simon up, and that Alison Krauss and James Taylor were there to visibly move him.<\/p>\n<p>To play out, here\u2019s the trailer for Paul Simons\u2019 brand new album, Seven Palms, which is making the top ten in numerous Best Album of 2003 lists (it\u2019s #2 in Uncut Magazine!):<\/p>\n<div class=\"rll-youtube-player\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Paul Simon - Seven Psalms trailer\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZiDc4DbFQZY\" width=\"350\" height=\"235\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-origwidth=\"350\" data-origheight=\"235\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>If you would like to see more from Paul Simon, you can subscribe to his\u00a0YouTube channel\u00a0or follow him on\u00a0Facebook. You can also visit his\u00a0official website\u00a0for more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 2002 Kennedy Center Honors Gala was a mixed bag. The honourees were Elizabeth Taylor, James Earl Jones, Chita Rivera (actress, dancer and singer best known for&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1687"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1689,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1687\/revisions\/1689"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}