Between 2018 and 2019, Paul Simon embarked on Homeward Bound: A Farewell Tour. Most imagined it would be the last time they would see him in concert. Happily, it was a premature goodbye, because here he is — aged 84 — and delivering a set that’s not just in excess of two-and-a-half hours, but one that will live long in the memory.
It’s dubbed A Quiet Celebration and the title is apt, especially for the first segment of the show, which sees him play his most recent studio album, 2023’s Seven Psalms, from start to finish. It’s a meditation on life that could only have been recorded by an artist in his twilight years, with songs about forgiveness, seeking peace, offering thanks.
There’s a panoply of fantastic musicians with him, ensuring that the songs’ subtle but sophisticated arrangements are precisely delivered. His wife, Edie Brickell, provides backing vocals for two songs, The Sacred Harp and Wait. She will be out again later in the show. The cavernous arena feels more intimate than it has any right to and the crowd are hushed, reverential.
At the start, Simon talks about a show of two halves, with the stately Seven Psalms occupying the first part. More accurately, it feels like an appetiser for the main event, which is a whirlwind trip through the decades that covers his remarkable union with Art Garfunkel, as well as that wonderfully eclectic solo career.
He’s back after a short break, and after swapping a suit for casual clobber and a baseball hat, it’s straight into Graceland, the title song from his mid-’80s “world music” classic. The virtuoso players on stage really flex their muscles here and Simon’s vocals, frail early on, seem more robust now.
Homeward Bound, the first of three Simon & Garfunkel songs, is greeted rapturously, while his 1983 song, The Late Great Johnny Ace, is especially affecting. It’s a quiet riposte to gun violence and name-checks early R&B star Johnny Ace as well as John F Kennedy and John Lennon.
Simon says the tour gives him the opportunity to play deep cuts and there are plenty of those. Rene and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog after the War is the New Yorker at his most whimsical, while Darling Lorraine — which he proclaims to be one of the favourites of his own songs — is bittersweet and lovely.
There’s a surprise late on when he invites trad legend Martin Hayes to join him for The Boxer, the Clare fiddle player offering a spirited finale to one of Simon’s greatest compositions.
And then, at the end, the stage clears. It’s just Simon and his acoustic guitar and a rendition of The Sound of Silence that stills all chatter. It was written more than 60 years ago and has long been an essential part of the great American songbook. Tonight, it feels like a goodbye — bare-boned, raw and gorgeous, it’s quite the finale to one of the concerts of the year.