Simon Joyner has maintained a strictly independent career, working without managers, booking agents, or publicists. When I inquired about reviewing his new album ‘Songs From A Stolen Guitar’ the artist himself replied and provided the materials. This independence has allowed Joyner to create consistently excellent music, and his albums are some of the most beautiful, haunting music of the last 30 years. He has influenced and been championed by a number of other artists, including Connor Oberst, who is from Omaha, where he is based, Lambchop, and Wilco, but he has met with limited commercial success and exposure. The reality of the music business is that conducting a career this way comes with certain disadvantages.
You may not have heard of Joyner, but he’s an excellent songwriter, as he proves again on ‘Songs From A Stolen Guitar’. But the strengths of the album go beyond the songwriting. In tackling themes of loneliness and isolation, the production — which had to be done remotely, because of the pandemic — reinforces the lyrics. The instrumentation is sparse, and there’s a bit of a lo-fi sound here, though things are clean — you won’t hear a hiss or a sputter. On percussion, cymbals were consciously eschewed so as not district from the emotional tone being built by Joyner’s lyrics and the remainder of the instrumentation, and that was an excellent choice. Neil Young’s ‘Harvest’ is mentioned as an influence on this album, and the austere folk-rock that Joyner is playing here in definitely in that tradition.
The songs on this album are sketches of characters struggling with loneliness and isolation. It’s right there in the title of the first track ‘Caroline’s Got A Secret’. A secret, by definition, is something you can’t share, and that makes you isolated. Characters wrestle with secrets throughout the record: in ‘Don’t Tell Bobby I’m Done Singing These Blues’ the narrator makes several statements that are “just between you and me.” In ‘Gone Too Soon’ we get a very specific sketch, of a character mourning the passing of their roommate, as they look at a photograph of an old barbecue. Joyner’s poetry really shines in his ability to fill out his songs with thick, specific details, like these, and “the surliest waiters in Omaha.” ‘The Stolen Guitar’, which gives the album its name, is a bit reminiscent of Jeff Buckley, and has the same flavour of the magic of youth.
The characters in these songs are struggling. The protagonist of ‘Live In The Moment’ can’t get it together; the narrator of ‘Don’t Tell Bobby…’ is leaving a lover, and the protagonist of ‘The Stolen Guitar’ has, well, stolen the guitar. ‘Takemah’ begins, “The allure of the gutter must’ve led me to his bed.,” which is rough. There’s not a lot of levity on this album. It’s heavy, and it’s dark, but it is beautiful. And, for Joyner, there is hope in these people managing to eke out an existence. There’s a reason he ends this album with the track ‘In The Morning Light’.
‘Songs From A Stolen Guitar’ will ask you to step into the darkness, and, if you’re willing to go there, you’ll come out bathed in the light.
Track list: 1. Caroline’s Got a Secret 2. Gone Too Soon 3. Don’t Tell Bobby I’m Through Singing These Blues 4. The Stolen Guitar 5. Live in the Moment 6. Takemah 7. The Actor 8. Yellow Bird #2 9. Morning Light Record Label: Grapefruit Records and BB* Island Release Date: Friday June 3rd Buy ‘Songs From a Stolen Guitar’ now
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