One of the greatest songwriters of all time graced the Bethel Woods stage for the 1st time in its 20 year history. The legendary Paul Simon was that artist. Simon along with his 10 piece ensemble are currently on tour what is being dubbed the Quiet Celebration Tour. It’s quite remarkable that Simon is on the road at all due his hearing loss. He actually retired in 2018 because of it. He got assistance from some researchers at Stanford University’s Initiative to Cure Hearing Loss program. After finding a monitoring solution to help his ears, he returned to the road in 2025.
Simon and his band took to the stage at approximately 8:23 (slight delay due to a storm that passed through). He addressed the crowd first explaining to them that the show would be broken down into two sets with an intermission. The 1st set only consisted of songs from his latest offering, the 2023 release called ‘Seven Pslams.’ With a softer gentler voice, Simon was able to deliver this album with deeper meaning. Playing only on an acoustic guitar, it seemed that the audience hung on every guitar string strummed and every syllable exhumed. “My Professional Opinion” definitely had blues feeling to it. Edie Brickell (who is Simon’s wife), came out to add a lush counter to Simon’s vocals on “Sacred Harp” and “Wait.” That brought the 33 minute 1st part of the set to a close.
The second set consisted of Simon’s more well known songs from his deep catalog. What is considered Simon’s greatest work is 1987’s ‘Graceland’ album. The song and title track to that record opened up the 2nd set. He explained how he was a Johnny Ace fan and and was upset to learn how he died playing with a gun backstage at one of his shows. He penned a song about gun violence in his honor and paid tribute to him, along with JFK and John Lennon. A heartfelt and touching tribute to Simon’s daughter Lulu happened as he sang “Father and Daughter.” At the end, a cute photo of her on his her dad’s shoulders was shown on the video screen while the song ended. While the audience was mostly subdued in their chairs for the night, “Diamonds on the Soles of Her shoes” brought them out of it. Simon seemed to feed of that audience participation and a barrage of more hits followed. For the 1st encore, Brickell added her whistling expertise to the song “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard.” The audience sang along to “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.” The show ended with a 2nd encore of just Simon and his guitar did the iconic “Sounds of Silence.” Looking around the crowd, you can easily see the audience do a poignant reflection as the song was being delivered.
At age 85, who knows how long Simon will continue to tour, but having a legend of his stature at the holy grounds of Bethel seemed like the right fit. It took 20 years for it to happen but I must say, the wait was worth it!
Setlist:
Set 1:
The Lord
Love is Like a Braid
My Professional Opinion
Your Forgiveness
Trail of Volcanoes
The Sacred Harp (with Edie Brickell)
Wait (with Edie Brickell)
Set 2:
Graceland
Slip Slidin’ Away
Under African Skies (with Edie Brickell)
Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After the War
Rewrite
Spirit Voices
The Cool, Cool River
Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes
Encore:
Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard
50 Ways to Leave Your Lover
Something So Right
The Boxer
Encore 2:
The Sound of Silence (Simon & Garfunkel song)
We would like to thank Bryn VanHorne from Bethel Woods for the credentials to review the show.