With a gentle smile traced across his face, Simon Joyner speaks about his current “ill advised” tour of Europe and the UK, a potentially punishing 19-date jaunt undertaken in the midst of a bleak January that began eight days ago in Rome and will end in almost a fortnight’s time in Hamburg. But looking over warmly in his daughter Tinca’s direction near the merch table he concludes “it is really more of a vacation” for both of them.
The man from Omaha, Nebraska appears relaxed and content, feelings that would seem to be at stark odds with the music that he creates. Simon Joyner has been releasing records now since 1993 and if we take account of all the studio albums, live offerings, and compilations he has produced during this period the total figure must surely be well in excess of 30 and each and every one of them to some lesser or greater degree is populated by personal demons, desolation, and a deep sense of sadness.
Simon Joyner promises to play us some songs and that he does, 13 of them, in fact. Opener ‘Fearful Man’ aside – taken from the compilation, Beautiful Losers: Singles and Compilation Tracks 1994-1999 – all of them date from this millennium. They stretch from 2001’s redemptive record Hotel Blues – from which we hear ‘Now We Must Face Each Other’ and the penultimate song of this totally absorbing set, ‘Your Old Haunts’ – to his most recent release, last November’s Coyote Butterfly. This was Joyner’s first album of new songs in two years, following the overdose death of his son, Owen.
Released as a tribute to Owen, Coyote Butterfly has been described as Simon Joyner “drawing on the kaleidoscopic nature of grief, exploring his loss through a series of imagined dialogues and raw confessions.” Whether having this knowledge beforehand adds to the humbling poignancy of listening here to first ‘Biloxi’ and then five songs later ‘Port of Call’ is made almost immaterial given the devastating emotion he invests in them, his cracked baritone and the poignant delicacy of his finger-picking guitar adding to the pain. But Joyner delivers these songs with such honesty, dignity, humility, and unwavering respect it elevates the experience of just being there to that of a supremely uplifting honour.
Photos: Simon Godley
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