For Paul Simon, a Quiet Celebration Still Resounds

You ever have those moments reading a novel where you come across a passage or sentence ringing with such profundity that you feel the need to immediately jot it down and ponder its universal applicability for days or months or even years afterward?

So many of those occur when sifting through the songbook of Paul Simon. You’re floating along, enraptured in the beauty of a whimsical ballad, and suddenly some words snap you to total attention. Wait, what was that?! Rewind. I need to think more about that. I need to know the story behind it!

With Simon, it happens just as frequently during his live shows, where the 83-year-old singer-songwriter and resident of nearby Wimberley (that’s right, he’s a local now) occasionally interjects to offer context straight from the source. That was certainly the mode on Tuesday night at Bass Concert Hall, the first of three nights showcasing a performance billed as “A Quiet Celebration.”

The “quiet” was as much a reflection of the songs selected as it was a mandate to the audience – and Simon himself, who initially retired from touring in 2018 and later revealed he was suffering from hearing loss. It was an easy request to adhere to during the serenely solemn first of two sets: a presentation of Simon’s latest record, 2023’s Seven Psalms, in its entirety. The acoustic album is intended to be heard as an uninterrupted piece, which Simon adhered to masterfully alongside his 11-piece backing band.

Throughout its calming flow – some parts resounded like hymnals, while others inserted bits of Delta blues and quite a bit of flamenco flair – so many introspective nuggets stood out. Take your pick from the assortment of reflections on spirituality and humanity entrenched in nature, from “the Lord” – “Tribal voices/ Old and young/ Celebrations/ A history of families sung/ The endlеss river flows” – to the closing lines of “Your Forgiveness”: “All of life's abundance in a/ Drop of condensation/ Dip your hand in hеaven's waters.”

Following a brief intermission, Simon’s craft continued to unfurl throughout a 13-song, career-spanning second set. This portion – maybe a bit more thrilling for the clearly diehard audience with its inclusion of ardently loved hits like “Graceland,” “Homeward Bound,” “Still Crazy After All These Years,” and “Under African Skies” (with sublime vocals by Simon’s wife of 30-plus years, Edie Brickell) – was likewise loaded with similarly striking lyrical sprinkles.

Perhaps the most affecting example of Simon’s mastery of combining whimsy with soul-stirring songwriting came on “René and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After the War.” Before jumping in, he took a moment to provide the ballad’s backstory of a photo he found with that somewhat comically bloated title. The fact that he’s able to formulate a fictional yet oh-so-realistic narrative around that one image – transforming a snippet on the spectrum of time into a complete and seemingly true-to-life story – is nothing short of astounding.

He took a similar approach for another highlight, the boisterous blues stomp of “The Late Great Johnny Ace,” which was derived from a news bulletin about the self-inflicted death of a Houston musician by the same name, and via Simon evolved into a tale threading through the demises of two other historically significant Johns (Lennon and F. Kennedy).

The “Quiet Celebration” concluded poignantly with Simon & Garfunkel’s timeless classic “The Sound of Silence,” sung and played solo under a beam of golden light. As one might expect, it induced an enigmatic trance (anyone singing along did so in reverently hushed tones), which Simon broke during the song’s final moments with three boisterous strokes on his acoustic guitar. He raised it high in the air as he hit the chords, suddenly looking the part of a true-blue rock star – the embodiment of an immortally impactful artist until the last note.

Find more photos from Paul Simon's April 8 performance here.

Editor's Note: A previous version of this review stated that Paul Simon retired from touring due to hearing loss; in fact, that diagnosis came after his initial retirement.