Harry Baulderstone (Simon) and Marcus Ryan (Art) and their stellar band return once again to the Adelaide Fringe to perform the songs of Simon & Garfunkel in their show aptly titled, Feelin’ Groovy. Aptly titled because Feelin’ Groovy is the name of a Simon & Garfunkel song and well, if you lived in the day of S & G, their songs were “kinda groovy”.

Harry & Marcus started to show as a duo, singing Bookends, as the band joined them on stage for a wonderful take of A Hazy Shade of Winter and America. From the start the harmonies were really good, as is needed on Simon & Garfunkel songs.

Stories were told of the songs; versions were either the studio version or the live version (yes, they do differ) and in the case of I Am a Rock we cleverly got both versions in the one song. We were told the process of how the band got its name and the song Feelin’ Groovy followed. The Everly Brothers were a huge influence on S&G and we got a couple of Everly Brothers songs in the set. They dug deep into the S&G catalogue for At the Zoo which sounded as fresh as the day it was released (1968).

From here on we got a lot of Paul Simon solo songs, Gracelands, 50 Ways to Leave your Lover and more. I understand that Paul Simon was popular and I am probably in the minority (I was, as I think the crowd loved them), but not everyone likes Paul Simon songs. I came to see Simon & Garfunkel songs as the title of the show suggests. Yes, they were done magnificently, sang well and the band you couldn’t fault, but they were not S&G songs. You don’t go to see a Rolling Stones tribute band expecting to hear Mick Jagger solo songs.

A duo set saw a wonderful Sounds of Silence and an interesting Hey Little School Girl, apparently the first song they wrote together when they were known as Tom & Jerry. Very short but it was a nice piece of history on display.

The closing two numbers were evening highlights with Bridge Over Trouble Waters being sang beautifully by Marcus. The Boxer was the ideal set closer with both gentlemen singing the song in perfect harmony.

The encore saw yet another Paul Simon song in You Can Call Me Al, before a rocking set closer of Cecilia which got quite a few people up dancing. A great way to end the evening.

Closing your eyes, listening to the tunes roll out, you could easily imagine you were in the ‘60’s. Judging by the look of crowd, many of them were there in the 60’s.