Pocket Moon Simon Joyner

• 1 You Never Know 05:30
• 2 Blue Eyed Boy 03:49
• 3 Tongue of a Child 04:35
• 4 You're Running Away, David 03:50
• 5 Morning Sun, Slow Down 03:47
• 6 Yellow Jacket Blues 03:56
• 7 Pocket Moon 05:31
• 8 The Last Time I Saw You, Billy 05:45
• 9 Sean Foley's Blues 05:24
• 10 Time Slows Down in Dreams 04:12
• 11 Blue Lullaby 03:52
• Total Runtime 50:11

Info for Pocket Moon

War sein Vorgängeralbum »Step Into The Earthquake« von 2017 noch eine poetische Reaktion auf das US-amerikanische Politdesaster, so wendet Simon Joyner sich auf Pocket Moon dem Privaten zu, den kleinen Gesten, dem Alltäglichen, zwischenmenschlichen und intimen. Für einen Songwriter seiner poetischen Kraft und Kenntnis ist auch das kein Sujet das er mit oberflächlichen Beschreibungen abhandelt und auf Allgemeinplätzen parkt. Seine Musik ist voll Achtsamkeit:

Joyner beobachtet die Gewalt, die Schönheit und die Absurdität des Alltags aus nächster Nähe und findet eine angemessene, vielsagende Form. Wer zuhört, kann mit ihm darüber lachen, nachzudenken oder manchmal auch erschrecken, und schreiend davon wegzulaufen. Simon Joyner, der musikalisch das unkonventionelle, unverstellte schätzt - jene Sounds und Künstler die sich an die brüchigen, ungeschliffenen Ränder wagen - ging zu Pocket Moon ein für Ihn anregendes Wagnis ein: Anstatt mit seiner Band The Ghost, in seiner Heimatstadt Omaha aufzunehmen, bat er seinen langjährigen musikalischen Partner Michael Krassner ihm eine Band in Phoenix zusammen zu stellen. Die lernte er erst zu den tatsächlichen Aufnahmen kennen. Es gab keine seperaten Proben, sondern aufgezeichnet wurde, zumeist live, was sich eben bei diesem Treffen musikalisch entwickelte.

Die Band verwendet dabei eine breite Palette von Instrumenten und Texturen und verleiht so jedem der rauhen wie erhabenen Songs eine zusätzliche Nuance. Bei allem Minimalismus erreichten sie zusammen eine feine klangliche Offenheit, Spannung und Abgehangenheit, wie Joyner sie sich wohl wünschte. Für unsere Ohren ist Pocket Moon unter seinen mittlerweile 14 Alben wohl eins seiner feinsten.

Simon Joyner

Simon Joyner
Cited as a key influence by Conor Oberst (of Bright Eyes) and Beck, Omaha, Nebraska native and singer/songwriter Simon Joyner has been putting out delicate, intimate, mournful songs since the early '90s. Staunchly independent, Joyner opted out of working with managers, booking agents, and publicists and focused on songcraft first, resulting in a wealth of brilliant albums like 2015's Grass, Branch & Bone.

Joyner was born in 1971 and settled in Omaha. He was recording collections of his songs by the early '90s and released his first widely available album in 1993, when the One Hour label released his Room Temperature CD. The decade was prolific for the songwriter, as he released a plethora of albums, 7"s, and EPs, including proper albums like 1995's Heaven's Gate and 1999's The Lousy Dance, a collaborative 7" with The Mountain Goats, and much more. Joyner's profile expanded considerably when legendary, taste-making DJ John Peel played his 1994 album The Cowardly Traveller Pays His Toll in its entirety on his BBC show. In 2001, along with his band the Fallen Men, Joyner released To Almost No One, a tribute to ten singer/songwriters, including Paul Siebel, Anne Briggs, Kris Kristofferson, and Jerry Jeff Walker. The bleak but critically lauded Hotel Lives arrived that same year, followed by the equally introspective Lost with the Lights On in 2004. A compilation of singles and rarities, Beautiful Losers was released in 2006, as was Skeleton Blues from Jagjaguwar. In 2008, Joyner released Cowardly Traveller Pays His Toll on Team Love and Out Into the Snow followed on the same label in 2009. It wouldn't be until 2012 that the normally prolific Joyner would release another album, but that year's double-disc Ghosts saw him backed by a full band. The next year, New Secrets emerged, the second collaboration between Joyner and Shrimper Records founder Dennis Callaci following their 2004 EP Stranger Blues. After a long absence, Joyner returned with the contemplative, downbeat Grass, Branch & Bone in 2015. Joyner processed the historic and disruptive American election of 2016 as the microcosm, looking through the fictional lives of its citizens to get beneath the hype and smoke of mass media. Working with longtime collaborator Michael Krassner at Omaha's ARC Studio, he recorded 13 songs, including the epic, suite-like closer "I Dreamed I Saw Lou Reed Last Night." (On the vinyl version it took up an entire side.) The finished album, Step Into the Earthquake, was issued by Ba Da Bing in the fall of 2017. After the usual touring cycle, he returned two years later with Pocket Moon.

This album contains no booklet.