\n<\/p>\n
\n\tHere comes <\/em>rhymin\u2019 Simon. It\u2019s not a phrase we would have imagined saying again, in the context of a concert tour, after Paul Simon wrapped up his official farewell tour seven years ago. There was reason to believe he had valid reasons for marking that as his real goodbye to road shows, and not as the kind of fake-out retirement that so many performers cash in on and then renege on. But he has found solutions to the issues that might have kept him off-stage. By the time he kicked off a five-night stand at Walt Disney Concert Hall this week, Simon was a full 40 shows into his 2025 \u201cQuiet Celebration\u201d outing. And he was sounding\u2026 yes, softer (as promised in the tour title!) but, really, undiminished. We\u2019ve never had a better reason to be glad someone went back on their word.<\/p>\n \n\tYou might look at the \u201cA Quiet Celebration Tour\u201d moniker and ask, as your first question: Well, how much<\/em> quieter? And the answer is: not terribly much. You shouldn\u2019t mistake this for an all-acoustic tour, although that\u2019s the tone that is taken prior to the show\u2019s intermission, when Simon and his band play back his most recent album, 2023\u2019s \u201cSeven Psalms,\u201d in its front-to-back, suite-style entirety, mostly solemn and without much in the way of tempo or electricity. But then, in the second act and encores, you get 15 catalog selections, including some tunes that count as rabble-rousers by Simon standards. The evening does turns into a party, despite his best intentions to keep it down. <\/p>\n \n\tThere\u2019s a subtlety to what makes this tour so successful that really does have something to do with volume, or the appearance of it. Simon has as many as 11 players on stage at a time, and during the classics, they\u2019re all playing more or less the same very busy parts they would have played before, on a \u201cGraceland\u201d or a \u201cCool, Cool River\u201d or even a \u201cMe and Julio Down by the Schoolyard.\u201d Yet the arrangements have been calibrated so that the loudest songs seem ever-so-slightly dialed down, almost imperceptibly, to match what might be a little different for the frontman this time around. Any sense of that won\u2019t come as a complete surprise to the audience, because Simon has been open about his hearing issues, stating that only through an elaborate, advanced system of stage monitors has he felt like he could reasonably tour again. There\u2019s also the matter of his voice, which is a little bit softer with age. It\u2019s as if everything has been finely tuned to allow Simon to act his age (which is 83), without doing any kind of stinting on the rich and able-bodied performances. <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tPaul Simon in concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall, July 9, 2025<\/span> \n\tThe performance of \u201cSeven Psalms\u201d is referred to by Simon as \u201cthe first half,\u201d although, by actual volume, it\u2019s well under that. It\u2019s safe to guess that most of the audience comes in being unfamiliar with the record, and this is where the booking of fine-arts joints like Disney Hall comes in handy, as even attendees who haven\u2019t come to see the symphony there can still pretty easily intuit that the venue lends itself to a kind of hush and some focused attention skills. The folky \u201cSeven Psalms\u201d exists pretty much at the meditative, impressionistic and spiritual end of his spectrum \u2014 with the exception of \u201cMy Professional Forgiveness,\u201d which comes in the middle of the suite and lands with a playful blues feel. It has Simon grappling with the concept of God and exploring unreconciled relationships in the later chapters of life, and it\u2019s not easily graspable on first listen. But maybe the performances on this tour are inspiring a lot more people to check out one of 2023\u2019s most unfairly overlooked albums, one that has exactly the ambition and personal meaning you\u2019d hope for from a great artist who has no desire to go into that good night coasting.<\/p>\n \n\tThe seven song titles from this album helpfully appeared on an overhead screen as their number came up, to offer an indication of transition without anything as gauche as actually pausing the music for applause. But the album is really more than seven numbers, since the opening song, \u201cThe Lord,\u201d gets several unbilled reprises as the suite courses along. That song alone, in its many iterations, counts as a major latter-day Simon work, as he ponders every possible way of looking at the Lord, from shepherd to wrecking ball, incorporating both the most Christian and the most irreverent possible imagery. By the time he\u2019s sung through it all, you won\u2019t exactly know whether the singer is a believer or hardened skeptic, but you\u2019ll know that Simon, the mystical poet and baseball nut, has covered all bases.<\/p>\n \n\tHis wife, Edie Brickell, came out to guest on the song cycle\u2019s final two parts, \u201cThe Sacred Harp\u201d and \u201cWait,\u201d as she apparently does every night on the tour. She stands on the opposite side of the stage from Simon, to sing her parts, but in musical spirit, at least, they\u2019re as close as the two owls perched together on the \u201cSeven Psalms\u201d album cover. A concept album that starts out being all about God finally ends on something more knowable in this life \u2014 the bonding with another human being \u2014 and when they sing \u201cAmen\u201d in harmony to end the cycle, it feels like it has to do with Simon facing eternity and<\/em> with putting a divine seal on his and Brickell\u2019s enduring love affair.<\/p>\n \n\tAnd then the longer second \u201chalf\u201d rewards fans for any patience with that opening with a set that hits all the Simon fandom pleasure centers. He hits almost al the obvious greatest hits (albeit no \u201cBridge Over Troubled Water\u201d or \u201cYou Can Call Me Al\u201d) and finds a few deeper cuts (like \u201cSt. Judy\u2019s Comet,\u201d a 50-year-old track from \u201cThere Goes Rhymin\u2019 Simon\u201d that\u2019d apparently been performed not even a dozen times prior to this tour). <\/p>\n \n\tThe band got a lot more workout on some of these oldies than on the more minimalist and hypnotic \u201cSeven Psalms\u201d material. The presence of two veteran sidemen in Simon\u2019s cast made for especially memorable and even touching moments. The bass player, Bakithi Kumalo, was introduced as the last surviving member of Simon\u2019s original South African \u201cGraceland\u201d band, and his link to the frontman\u2019s (arguably) most essential era was invaluable with some fleeting signature vocalizations. Meanwhile, Steve Gadd, one of three drummers or percussionists in the ensemble, was back in the fold from the early \u201970s to play what could count as pop music\u2019s most famous snare drum part, on the encore of \u201c509 Ways to Leave Your Lover.\u201d And if that isn\u2019t worth the price of admission\u2026<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tPaul Simon in concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall, July 9, 2025<\/span> \n\tHorns and strings had their place \u2014 mostly the latter, with viola player Caleb Burhans and cellist Eugene Friesen managing to sound like nearly a full Kronos Quartet up there at times. (Friesen\u2019s instrumental entwining with Simon\u2019s acoustic guitar during a stripped-down portion of \u201cSlip Slidin\u2019 Away\u201d was a lovely example.) Nothing was too radically rearranged, although you could notice that \u201cHomeward Bound\u201d had been subtly transformed into more of a country song, between the train-like sound of brushes on drums and Mick Rossi\u2019s lilting piano line.<\/p>\n \n\tThe screen in this half was used for the occasional photo illustration instead of the previous act\u2019s song titles: If you ever wanted to see the actual photo that inspired \u201cRene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After the War,\u201d there you had it. And \u201cThe Late Great Johnny Ace,\u201d which had an unusually expansive spoken intro by Simon, climaxed with the sight of Johnny Ace, JFK and John Lennon side by side on the big screen, each of them with \u201cJohnny Ace\u201d as the caption under his name.<\/p>\n \n\tBrickell made a return appearance, entering from the wings to contribute a whistling solo to \u201cMe and Julio Down by the Schoolyard.\u201d On this song, which served as climax to the main set, it was like the evening had been the concert equivalent of \u201cBenjamin Button\u201d \u2014 beginning with Simon in his advanced years looking into the great beyond, and ending with him as a schoolboy.<\/p>\n \n\tBut the denouement grew somber again, with Simon finally alone on stage with just his acoustic guitar for company, bringing things back to an origin point in a different way with a closing rendition of \u201cThe Sound of Silence.\u201d Just as we were all born in dust and to dust we shall return, so it is with silence, maybe for any of us, but especially for a Paul Simon who (along with Garfunkel) had that existential hymn as his fluky first No. 1 smash 60 years ago.<\/p>\n \n\tTo return to a burning question, or at least one that was on the minds of fans before this tour started: What is<\/em> the sound of Simon right now \u2014 his singing voice, particularly? When he appeared on the \u201cSNL 50\u201d special recently, there was some alarm that he did not sound as youthful as, well, his duet partner Sabrina Carpenter. Or, to give the scoffers more credit, as robust as he did even on his earlier 21st century tours, pre-retirement. The answer to that should be a reassuring one, for anyone who hasn\u2019t yet caught the tour and is thinking about scoring a resale ticket before it\u2019s all over. The best way to describe it is that, for maybe the first 60 seconds of the show, you may be struck by how Simon\u2019s voice sounds a bit more fragile, at this age\u2026 and then after that brief period of adjustment, you forget about it. It\u2019s rare to notice many high notes that has been scaled down for age, and you never have to worry about him missing any notes. (And he didn\u2019t sound any worse the wear for just having had the back surgery for acute pain that forced him to cancel a couple earlier shows\u2026 the only reference to having been under the knife being an acknowledgement at the top of the show that he\u2019d had \u201cthe craziest week.\u201d)<\/p>\n \n\tSo, in other words, in the best way, he sounds like an 83-year-old choirboy. How fortunate are we to unexpectedly get to share his sanctuary again?<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tPaul Simon in concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall, July 9, 2025<\/span> \n\tSetlist for Paul Simon at Walt Disney Concert Hall, July 9, 2025:<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tSet 1: Seven Psalms \n\tSet 2: \n\tEncores: \t\t\t\t\tPaul Simon in concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall, July 9, 2025<\/span> \n\tThe remaining dates on Paul Simon\u2019s 2025 tour:<\/strong> Here comes rhymin\u2019 Simon. It\u2019s not a phrase we would have imagined saying again, in the context of a concert tour, after Paul Simon wrapped up his official farewell tour seven years ago. There was reason to believe he had valid reasons for marking that as his real goodbye to road shows, and not as<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[3706,3708,3707,3402,102,973,1085,3704,2143,3705],"class_list":{"0":"post-10652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-comeback","9":"tag-concert","10":"tag-disney","11":"tag-hall","12":"tag-hits","13":"tag-paul","14":"tag-review","15":"tag-simons","16":"tag-tour","17":"tag-triumphant"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJake Edwards<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJake Edwards<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJake Edwards<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Lord\u201d
\u201cLove Is Like a Braid\u201d
\u201cMy Professional Opinion\u201d
\u201cYour Forgiveness\u201d
\u201cTrail of Volcanoes\u201d
\u201cThe Sacred Harp\u201d
\u201cWait\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGraceland\u201d
\u201cSlip Slidin\u2019 Away\u201d
\u201cTrain in the Distance\u201d
\u201cHomeward Bound\u201d
\u201cThe Late Great Johnny Ace\u201d
\u201cSt. Judy\u2019s Comet\u201d
\u201cUnder African Skies\u201d
\u201cRene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After the War\u201d
\u201cRewrite\u201d
\u201cSpirit Voices\u201d
\u201cThe Cool, Cool River\u201d
\u201cMe and Julio Down by the Schoolyard\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c50 Ways to Leave Your Lover\u201d
\u201cThe Boxer\u201d
\u201cThe Sound of Silence\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJake Edwards<\/p>\n
July 12 Disney Hall, Los Angeles, CA\u00a0
July 14 Disney Hall, Los Angeles, CA\u00a0
July 16 Disney Hall, Los Angeles, CA\u00a0
\u00a0July 19 Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, CA
July 21 Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, CA
July 22 Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, CA
\u00a0July 25 The Orpheum, Vancouver BC\u00a0
July 26 The Orpheum, Vancouver BC\u00a0
July 28 The Orpheum, Vancouver BC\u00a0
\u00a0July 31\u00a0 Benaroya Hall, Seattle, WA
August 2 Benaroya Hall, Seattle, WA
August 3\u00a0 Benaroya Hall, Seattle, WA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"