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Growing up, “The Boxer” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water” were in far heavier rotation than “The Only Living Boy In New York.” Sadly (perhaps), it took 2004’s “Garden State” to re-introduce this Simon & Garfunkle classic, the b-side to “Cecilia.” Apparently, Simon wrote the song as a thinly-veiled message to Art Garfunkel when he jetted…

In the summer of 1971, my mother was learning to play acoustic guitar. I was born in September, deep in the heart of the Singer/Songwriter Era: James Taylor, Carol King, Bob Dylan Jackson Brown, John Denver, Crosby, Stills & Nash were all on heavy rotation on The Wagner Family hi-fi. My birth announcement was the…

Though “The Muppet Movie” was released in June, 1979, I didn’t see it until hit cable the following winter. My parents had just separated. My father was living alone in “our” old house while my mother, brother and I lived across town. Chris and my model airplane-strewn bedroom was barren, so my father purchased matching…

It’s arguable that I have no business covering Bob Dylan not once but twice on my new album (which borrows a title from Mr. Zimmerman as well), “Forever Young.” As Abbi and I counted down to Maggie’s birth, though, all I could wish for her was, well, everything. And no song that I’m aware of…

It may seem obvious that a new album by a new father feature his new daughter on the cover, but it took some time to arrive at this apparently obvious conclusion. “Forever Young” is a collection of ten cover songs somehow connected to my childhood or childhood in general that — over the course of…

Last night, I bumped into Justin Bieber just seconds prior to his VMA performance of “Baby.” Just twenty-four hours later, my own baby was back in my arms. This year’s awards marked my first prolonged absence from Maggie since she was born. I was in Los Angeles just five nights, but the days were jam-packed…