Paul Simon Brings a Lifetime of Songs to FirstBank Amphitheater
There are concerts, and then there are chances to sit in the presence of one of the greatest songwriters who has ever lived. On Wednesday, July 15, 2026, Paul Simon plays FirstBank Amphitheater in Franklin — and if you've ever hummed “The Boxer” without thinking about it, you already know whether you're going.
A Living Chapter of American Music
Start with the ledger: “The Sound of Silence,” “Mrs. Robinson,” “The Boxer,” “Bridge Over Troubled Water” — and that's just the Simon & Garfunkel years, capped by an album that swept six Grammys in 1971. The solo decades that followed might be even more remarkable. “Still Crazy After All These Years” took Album of the Year; then Graceland did it again in 1987 while introducing American radio to South African township jive and the voices of Ladysmith Black Mambazo — one of the most consequential albums of the twentieth century. Simon is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, received the Library of Congress's first-ever Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, and was still writing vital, searching music with Seven Psalms half a century after his first hit. Sixty years on, the catalog has no weak stretch.
Why This Show Is Worth It
In recent years Simon's performances have become rare and deliberately chosen, which makes every date feel like an event. The latter-day shows are reflective and immaculately played — a band of world-class musicians, arrangements that turn fifty-year-old songs over in new light, and audiences describing the evenings as something closer to communion than concert. Opportunities to see artists of this stature do not announce when they're ending. Treat each one as the last; hope it isn't.
The Venue: A Quarry Built for Quiet Magic
FirstBank Amphitheater opened in 2021 inside Graystone Quarry, a site that spent more than a century giving up Tennessee limestone before its reinvention as a roughly 7,500-seat amphitheater. The sheer rock walls behind the stage do double duty as scenery and acoustics, trees crown the rim, and at golden hour the whole bowl glows. For a catalog as delicate as Simon's — fingerpicked guitars, layered harmonies, township grooves — there may be no better room in the South, and it's only thirty-some minutes from downtown Nashville.
Practical Info
Check your ticket for gate times — outdoor venues typically open an hour or more before showtime — and leave buffer, because the quarry access roads slow to a crawl near curtain. Parking is handled on-site; follow staff direction in. For dinner, historic downtown Franklin's Main Street is roughly fifteen minutes away and full of great rooms. Evenings cool off in the quarry even in July, so bring a layer, settle in early, and let the place work.
Get Your Tickets
One of the great American songwriters, in one of Tennessee's most beautiful venues, on a midsummer night. July 15 is not a maybe. Get your tickets and go hear history sung softly.
