{"title":"Simon Joyner","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSimon Joyner is a singer\/songwriter from Omaha, Nebraska, USA. He began writing and performing his songs in 1990, releasing a few cassette recordings of his first songs to a growing local audience before his first vinyl-only LP \"The Cowardly Traveller Pays His Toll\" brought him international attention in 1994.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOver the last decade, Simon has released several LPs and singles as well as many compilation appearances on both U.S. and European labels. His talent was recognized by *John Peel*, who gave him his first radio play outside the U.S.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you enjoy artists such as David Dondero, Neva Dinova, or Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, then you'll appreciate Simon Joyner's music. With influences ranging from Smog to Bonnie Prince Billy, Simon's unique sound will captivate fans of indie folk and alternative rock alike.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"songs-from-a-stolen-guitar","title":"Songs From A Stolen Guitar","description":"\u003cp\u003eOmaha singer-songwriter Simon Joyner, who's been making records since 1990, has been on a roll since his mid-career magnum opus, 2012's \u003ci\u003eGhosts\u003c\/i\u003e, one of the great double albums of the past 25 years. On \u003ci\u003eSongs From A Stolen Guitar,\u003c\/i\u003e he is abetted by collaborators new and old, but the social distancing required by the pandemic of 2020 imbues the album with a distinct and poignant tenor. The remoteness of the individual players on \u003ci\u003eSongs From A Stolen Guitar\u003c\/i\u003e, while necessarily eliminating some of the ragged spontaneity of much of Joyner's previous work, yields a sort of silver-lining effect: Joyner's songs, produced more meticulously and perhaps more intentionally here than on any of his previous albums, cut through that much cleaner, foregrounding both his dazzling wordplay \u003cbr\u003eand his clarity of vision. If \u003ci\u003eGhosts \u003c\/i\u003ewas his \u003ci\u003eTonight's the Night\u003c\/i\u003e-clamorous, naked, and unmoored-\u003ci\u003eSongs From A Stolen Guitar\u003c\/i\u003e may just turn out to be his \u003ci\u003eHarvest. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eSongs From A Stolen Guitar \u003c\/i\u003ewas recorded across several different cities. Joyner recorded his vocals and guitar live in Omaha; bassist Wil Hendrix added his parts at home in San Francisco, Michael Krassner recorded his guitar and piano overdubs at home in Phoenix, and drummer \/ percussionist Ryan Jewell recorded in Colorado. This musical chain letter then made its way back to Omaha where David Nance (guitars and backing vocals), Ben Brodin (organ and vibraphone), and Megan Siebe (viola and backing vocals) overdubbed-separately-their respective contributions. As with any album recorded and \/ or released in the midst of wide scale upheaval, it is easy to read into these songs, and the performances of them, a thread of alienation, loneliness, and loss. Still, when it comes to Simon Joyner records, you pay your ticket to hear great songs, and in this category, too, \u003ci\u003eSongs From A Stolen Guitar\u003c\/i\u003e does not disappoint. It turns out that the limitations imposed on the creation of \u003ci\u003eSongs From A Stolen Guitar\u003c\/i\u003e are, ultimately, serendipitous. The result is the rare album that sounds like what it's about: the chasm that separates loneliness from aloneness, the lines between love and surrender, the distinction between the tornado and what it leaves behind.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BB Island","offers":[{"title":"Black | LP","offer_id":50463904825675,"sku":"1152292","price":32.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Red | LP","offer_id":50463906922827,"sku":"1152293","price":32.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/ea7b0c13-4ecf-4e56-806b-aeefc872d629_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727268338"},{"product_id":"coyote-butterfly","title":"Coyote Butterfly","description":"\u003cp\u003eCoyote Butterfly is the first album of new songs in two years from singer-songwriter, Simon Joyner, following the overdose death of his son, Owen, in August of 2022. Drawing on the kaleidoscopic nature of grief, Joyner explores his loss through a series of imagined dialogues and raw confessions. The album is a tribute to Owen, but what Joyner generously delivers is an intimate glimpse at his attempt to comprehend the incomprehensible. Where do we go from here? Simon Joyner has tried to answer this question on almost all of his albums. Take it as the starting point for many of his songs. He traversed the human predicament, in general. To tell difficult truths, he used fiction. His characters struggling through personal crises in an inadequate American society. This time the album itself, the process of songwriting and recording might appear as the answer to that question of how to go on . Coyote Butterfly is rooted in Simon Joyner's grief over the death of his son, which occurred unexpectedly, shortly after the release of his 22nd album Songs From A Stolen Guitar. It took two years for his grief to form itself into songs. In creating an album of such intimacy, Joyner reminds us of the importance of using art to alchemize the deeply personal into transformative beauty. Throughout the album we are invited to stand with him in the aftermath and have our own hearts crack open. Coyote Butterfly is a beautiful evocation of a father's grief but also serves as an enduring testament to love and the life that endures after loss.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"B B * Island","offers":[{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":50818080571723,"sku":"2227512","price":31.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50818081128779,"sku":"2227518","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/test_8d66aa68_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1731411012"},{"product_id":"the-cowardly-traveller-pays-his-toll-30th-anniversary-edition","title":"The Cowardly Traveller Pays His Toll (30th Anniversary Edition)","description":"\u003cp\u003eOmaha, Nebraska native and singer \/ songwriter Simon Joyner has been writing about the dizzy and dark aspects of the human condition since 1992. \u003ci\u003eThe Cowardly Traveller Pays His Toll\u003c\/i\u003e was originally released in 1994, on Sing, Eunuchs!, exclusively on vinyl, and marks the first major critical milestone in Joyner’s lauded career. John Peel famously played it in its entirety on his BBC radio program and Joyner’s underground cult status was solidified; in all of John Peel’s years in radio he had only played a record in its entirety three other times.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Homeless","offers":[{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":50826992976203,"sku":"2232493","price":32.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/69e3f7e3-4853-18a6-563d-3e1de0395638_760e9b06_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1731504951"},{"product_id":"pocket-moon","title":"Pocket Moon","description":"\u003cp\u003eSinger-songwriter\" is a frustratingly confining term; to truly understand exactly just how confining, look no further than the recorded works of Simon Joyner, an artist whose work consistently transcends the narrow parameters of genre classifications and record shop bin cards. Though his music has always honoured, reckoned with-wrestled with-the tradition set forth by his songwriting forebears (Cohen, Van Zandt, Ochs, Dylan, Reed to name a few), Joyner can always be counted on to defy expectations; as a lyricist, melodicist, and arranger, Joyner likes to keep us on our toes.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor his new album Pocket Moon, Joyner opted to engage in a risky artistic challenge. Instead of leaning on his fertile pool of Omaha musicians (the amorphous Ghosts band), he asked friend and frequent collaborator Michael Krassner to assemble unknown players on his behalf specifically for this recording. Simultaneously sparser and more immediate than 2017's obliquely topical \u003ci\u003eStep Into The Earthquake, Pocket Moon\u003c\/i\u003e is instantly one of Joyner's finest albums since his redoubtable 2012 double album masterpiece, \u003ci\u003eGhosts\u003c\/i\u003e. Utilizing a wide range of instruments and textures, the band contributes additional nuance to each of the ragged, sublime songs here. Throughout, Krassner emerges as the Lee Underwood to Joyner's Tim Buckley: a sympathetic foil and musical empath. The result is another song cycle stylistically unified, dynamic and rich. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BB Island","offers":[{"title":"White | LP","offer_id":50868091191627,"sku":"1076178","price":21.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50868091060555,"sku":"1076176","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/470820fc-d5d3-43f6-a757-c935dee90473_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1732123268"},{"product_id":"tough-love-1","title":"Tough Love","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eSimon Joyner is among America’s best songwriters, so says Gillian Welch, Conor Oberst, Kevin Morby, and others. \"Singer-songwriter\" is a frustratingly confining term; to truly understand exactly just how confining, look no further than the recorded works of Simon Joyner, an artist whose work consistently transcends the narrow parameters of genre classifications and record shop bin cards. Though his music has always honored, reckoned with - wrestled with - the tradition set forth by his songwriting forebears (Cohen, Van Zandt, Ochs, Dylan, Reed to name a few), Joyner can always be counted on to defy expectations; as a lyricist, melodicist, and arranger, Joyner likes to keep us on our toes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eJoyner traverses the human predicament, in general, and the American psyche specifically, using fiction to tell difficult truths. Characters struggle through personal crises while absorbing America's currently failing experiment. Joyner's 19th studio album, continues this upward trend. While intrinsically linked to the personal grief of 2024's Coyote Butterfly, the autobiographical album Joyner made in the wake of his\u003cspan class=\"s1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eson's death, this new album explores the concept of tough love as a dichotomy applied to various fictional relationships including romantic, familial, and political. This balancing act comes through in vivid\u003cspan class=\"s1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eportrayals of everyday heartache and in the exploration of political rage and the betrayals of the American Dream.\u003cspan class=\"s1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eOne of the marvels of Joyner's catalog is how his patterns don't repeat but transform. Knowing nods to Cohen, Dylan, and the\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eVelvets have been part of his songwriting since the early lo-fi days, but the\u003cspan class=\"s1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eways these touchstones get infused keep changing. While Joyner's ragged acoustic songs are in the spotlight, they're prodded by electric guitars and imbued with experimental tendencies. Rock songs\u003cspan class=\"s1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003esplit the difference between minimal grooves learned from Loaded-era Velvet Underground and the ecstatic rhythmic weirdness of Can. By the time we arrive at the penultimate track, \"Anniversary Song,\"\u003cspan class=\"s2\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ethe ghost vocals and scratches of microtonal synth have blurred the lines between Joyner's folk singer heart and his avant garde spirit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eAll of this leads to the 20-minute title track which closes Tough Love, an eviscerating plunge into a seemingly bottomless pit of regret, survivor's guilt, and unvarnished grief. Borrowing a repetitious structure\u003cspan class=\"s2\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003efrom Lou Reed's narrated suite, \"Street Hassle,\" and combined with the full-side testimonial of Dylan's\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\"Sad-eyed Lady of the Lowlands,\" Joyner narrates from the perspective of his departed son speaking\u003cspan class=\"s2\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eto his father and laying out his every failure and brutally highlighting how none of it can be undone. Soon, though, this agony opens up into something transcendent, in both its elegant imagery and ethereal atmospherics. The final moments of the album grant permission for self-forgiveness and hopefully someday, understanding.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BB Island","offers":[{"title":"2LP - Black","offer_id":56847391654219,"sku":"R0827-5490","price":39.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":56847391686987,"sku":"R0827-9220","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/DIrZxNlZ.jpg?v=1773998940"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/collections\/test_e1219c25_thumbnail_4096_e6a0cf50-ed02-4755-8ab2-6926d49b05c0.jpg?v=1727268294","url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/fr\/collections\/simon-joyner.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}