Paul Simon delivers a night of classic songs to Hollywood Bowl audience

Paul Simon had just finished “Homeward Bound,” the first of two Simon & Garfunkel songs in his set at the Hollywood Bowl on Sunday, June 7, when a soft voice from a few rows back cut through the fading cheers and applause.

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“Wow … he really got me good,” the woman said in a tone of awe and admiration. Then, after a brief pause: “I’m crying.”

She absolutely was not alone in catching all the feels during Simon’s Los Angeles performance. To see the 84-year-old singer-songwriter anywhere these days is a wonder of small joys given his age and related ailments including the hearing loss that prompted his 2018 announcement he was retiring from live performance.

But Simon didn’t, or couldn’t step away forever. A year ago, he played his first tour in seven years in smaller venues that included one night at the Long Beach Terrace Theater and five nights at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Those shows, for which he performed the entirety of his more recent album “Seven Psalms” and a second career-spanning set of hits and album tracks, were so well received he returned a year later to play outdoor venues on a second edition of “A Quiet Celebration,” the name he gave this comeback tour.

A year ago, we wrote that Simon’s voice was “a softer instrument than it once was, with a waver here, a quaver there as he made his way through the night,” and that was still true at the Hollywood Bowl on Sunday. But, we noted then, great artists adapt as time passes, and that’s even truer now than it was at the Long Beach Terrace, with his voice sounding closer to one’s memories of it, and its changes now adding a patina that only enhances his art.

“I always look forward to playing here,” Simon said of the Hollywood Bowl, where he’s played at least 10 times either solo or with Art Garfunkel, including four nights in 2018 on his “Homeward Bound: The Farewell Tour.” It’s one of the great concert venues, as you know.”

From there, he and his sprawling band of about a dozen musicians began a show that closely mirrored the structure of his 2025 dates. A full performance of his most recent album, “Seven Psalms,” opened the night as twilight descended on the Cahuenga Pass, with each of the seven meditative pieces performed as a 33-minute whole without breaks or banter between the tunes.

The songs reflect on the cycles of life and love, as in “The Lord,” which opens “Seven Psalms.” “Tears and flowers dry over time,” Simon sang in the bridge to that number. “Memory leaves us, melody and rhyme.

“When the cold wind blows, the seeds we gather from the gardener’s glove live forever; nothing dies of too much love,” he finished.

Musically, it’s quiet and contemplative, the singer-songwriter reflecting on and in the dimming light of later life. But there’s joy and humor, too, in songs such as the bluesy “My Professional Opinion,” and wistful beauty throughout.

“The Sacred Harp” offered hope for the helpless, telling the story of a couple who picked up a mother and young son hitchhiking through Texas to a hoped-for better tomorrow. Simon’s solo acoustic guitar work and his wife singer Edie Brickell joining him on alternating verses made it a highlight of the first set.

After “Wait,” which also featured Brickell, the “Seven Psalms” set wrapped up, and, after a 20-minute intermission, the better-known Simon songs showed up. Where “Seven Psalms” saw fans listening quietly and attentive, the second set, which kicked off with “Graceland,” had many on their feet, dancing and singing along.

Highlights early in this part of the show included the soft rock of “Slip, Slidin’ Away,” augmented live with cello, viola and flute, and ‘Train in the Distance’ closed with a lovely soprano sax solo from Andy Snitzer.

“Homeward Bound” brought tears to our nearby attendee, as well it should – it remains one of Simon’s most moving songs. Simon’s vocal shined on “St. Judy’s Comet,” its range and notes a good match for his voice today.

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“Under African Skies” was a second song from “Graceland,” written, Simon said, in tribute to Joseph Shabalala, founder of the African acapella vocal group Ladysmith Black Mambazo, who collaborated with Simon on the “Graceland” album.

“Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After the War” featured more lovely flute, viola and cello from Nancy Stagnitta, Caleb Burhans, and Eugene Friesen, respectively.

After “Spirit Voices” from “The Rhythm of the Saints,” Simon volunteered to tell the crowd “an L.A. story” while technical difficulties for his guitarists Gyan Reilly and Mark Stewart, both of whom were terrific in their spotlight moments on Sunday, got sorted out.

The story went like this: About four years ago, as CBS and the Grammys were preparing a tribute to Simon’s music, Simon said he went to a doctor at UCLA to see if she could help him with the neuropathy that affected his hands and threatened to keep him from performing the final song of the night.

After hearing that the show would feature such performers as Stevie Wonder, Garth Brooks, the Jonas Brothers and more honoring one artist’s music, the doctor’s assistant had a question: “Are you the artist?” Simon recounted to laughter from the crowd. “I said, ‘Yeah, I am. Maybe you don’t know my name, but you might know some of my songs. Did you ever hear of “Bridge Over Troubled Water?”

No, the woman told him, and the crowd at the Bowl laughed again. Same thing, he continued when he mentioned “Sound of Silence” and “Graceland.” So he tried a different name.

“I said, ‘Did you ever hear of Bob Dylan?’ and she said, ‘Yeah, I have,’” Simon said. “I said, ‘Oh, cool, what songs of his did you like?’ And she said, ‘I don’t know any of his songs, I just know he was in the Beatles.’”

Insert rim shot, pause for laughter, and with the technical issue fixed, the show continued with “The Cool, Cool River,” another number from “Rhythm of the Saints,” and “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes,” a third “Graceland” track and a rousing finale for the main set.

The encore paired two fan favorites, “Me and Julio Down by the School Yard,” and “The Boxer,” the latter the second of the Simon & Garfunkel songs in the show, and as such, another of the highlights for everyone of a certain age – and most of us were of that age – in the amphitheater.

The band then walked into the wings, leaving Simon solo on stage with his acoustic guitar, which is how he typically ends his concerts, often playing “The Sound of Silence” as his finale, as he’s done on his 26 previous shows in Europe and the United States this year.

Here, though, he chose “American Tune,” which outside of his 2018 farewell tour, he’s performed sparingly over the years. It’s one of the few songs he’s written that comes close to a political message, though, as always, the poetry of his lyrics leaves the meaning for the listener to divine.

“Oh, and it’s all right, it’s all right, all right, you can’t be forever blessed,” Simon sang in what at its core is a song about hanging on until the hard times ease. “Still, tomorrow’s going to be another working day, and I’m trying to get some rest.

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“That’s all I’m trying to get some rest.”