Review: While Paul Simon’s voice is slip, slidin’ away, the songwriter still remains

Was it divine intervention, a Passover-meets-Easter miracle or just happenstance? Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, arguably the two greatest American songwriters of the last half of the 20th century, both performed in Minnesota this month. To remind us of their continuing preeminence, each devoted half of his concert to an album made in this century, in the 2020s, to be exact.

On Easter Sunday, Simon brought his extensive 20-city, 55-concert A Quiet Celebration Tour to the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis for the first of three nights. That he was performing at all was somewhat surprising not just because he undertook his Homeward Bound – The Farewell Tour in 2018, but because he revealed recently that he’d lost his hearing in his left ear, a debilitating late-in-life situation for a person so obsessed with sound.

Before he sang a note on Sunday, Simon told the standing and worshipful crowd that he wasn’t sure that this tour would be possible.

Not to worry. It was a heartwarmingly contemplative evening filled with cherished nostalgia, inspiring spirituality and the embracing warmth of an old friend. The concert was a masterly artful presentation of the rich mosaic of Simon material.

Of course, the old friend had new and old stories to share, like old friends do, but he wasn’t quite the same as the friend you experienced just a few years ago. Like Dylan’s voice, Simon’s has grown quieter. They are both 83 with the pipes of men in their older years.

Simon’s voice was thin and weary at times, even more so when he talked. His range was noticeably diminished, and, on some material, he favored a talk-sing approach. Nevertheless, the emotive qualities of his performance were not sacrificed.

Simon, wearing a dark suit over a T-shirt, opened his two-set concert by playing 2023’s underappreciated and deeply moving “Seven Psalms” album in its entirety. A mix of hymns, blues, fado and art songs, the seven-piece suite is a hauntingly understated meditation about life, death and God.

The spiritual but not religious “Seven Psalms” was even more riveting live, thanks to Simon’s stellar but subtle chamber-pop ensemble and the participation of Texas singer/songwriter Edie Brickell, his wife of three decades who appears on the record. There’s something just right about Simon & A Singing Partner even if it’s not Garfunkel. When they harmonized on the word “amen” to cap the suite, it was pure Simon & Brickell.

Without applause between songs (whose titles were projected on a screen at the back of the stage), Simon occasionally stitched the pieces together by reprising a stanza from the opening selection “The Lord” as a transition. The emotions on his face and in his voice demonstrated how totally committed the two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer was to this 41-minute project, his most consistently poetic album.

Rarely has an audience of 2,600 been so quietly attentive at a popular music concert. The only betrayal was chuckles during the Delta bluesy “My Professional Opinion” after he sang, “Good morning Mr. Indignation/ Looks like you haven’t slept all night/ In my professional opinion/ Go back to bed and turn off your light.”

Dylan’s crowd on April 4 in Mankato was not as satisfyingly engaged when he offered nine of the 10 tunes from 2020’s remarkable “Rough and Rowdy Ways” mixed in with a handful of oldies. With Dylan, of course, the older tunes were radically reimagined almost to the point that they were unrecognizable to casual fans. Not so with Simon.

He not only changed outfits during intermission (reemerging in a ball cap, leather jacket and jeans), but he altered the whole vibe of the Quiet Celebration concert by kicking off the second set with the eternally infectious “Graceland,” his 1986 Grammy-honored classic, with his top-notch 11-person band. OK, it was about the most low-key “Graceland” you’ve probably ever heard, but it was still wildly received.

One other “Graceland” number, “Under African Skies,” brought back Brickell to sing Linda Ronstadt’s part from the original recording. There was a playfulness between Simon and Brickell as they stood 4 feet apart looking at each other, she a head taller. At the end, no hugs, just smiles and a thumb-lock handshake.

Simon dusted off three selections from 1983’s “Hearts and Bones,” two of which featured backstories. “Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After the War“ was inspired, he said, by a caption on a photo he saw of the Belgian surrealist in an art book.

“The Late Great Johnny Ace” was sparked by the accidental death of the R&B singer in 1954. But the song was more broadly about the loss of innocence from the early deaths of Johnny Ace, John F. Kennedy and John Lennon, which Simon underscored by ending with photos on the screen of all three above captions that read “Johnny Ace.”

Most of the oldies were rather low-key — remember, it is A Quiet Celebration Tour — with Simon performing seated. He finally stood as the sounds — and the audience — perked up for “Mother and Child Reunion,” which segued into the sprightly “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard” with Simon heroically pulling off the whistling solo with limited breath.

The encore featured the always catchy, crowd-pleasing novelty “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” and the Simon & Garfunkel gem “The Boxer” with the crowd invited to sing the “lie-la-lies.”

In 2018 on his terrific farewell trek, Simon bookended his program with two social commentaries — 1968’s “America,” about the hopes of immigrants moving to the States, and 1973’s “American Tune” about the disillusionment of American ideals while still having a ray of hope. Even though these tunes probably resonate more loudly now, they weren’t included this time. Rather, this 110-minute concert was more personal in tone.

Fittingly, Simon, without ever reaching for his high notes, closed with a solo acoustic guitar treatment of “The Sound of Silence,” the haunting song that springboarded Simon & Garfunkel’s career in 1965. Sixty years later, it felt like a benediction.

Sunday’s sublimely quiet performance suggested that Simon’s singing voice may be leaving us, but, as with Dylan, the songwriter still remains.

When: 8 p.m. Tue. & Wed.

Where: Orpheum Theatre, 910 Hennepin Av. S., Mpls.

Tickets: $115 and up, ticketmaster.com