Simon Joyner at The Gardens of Sweetblood Sound, 8/4/2014
Even though the arrangements of Simon Joyner’s folk- and country-schooled songs are often minimal, there’s too much going on in the stories he tells for the music to ever feel spare. The Nebraska-residing songsmith’s songsmith has been releasing much-loved records for three decades, and it’s been a privilege to have him visit Nashville fairly often in the past few years, in many cases thanks to arts nonprofit FMRL. Joyner is headed back to Music City on Friday, July 22, his first visit since the pandemic began, as part of another FMRL-organized show.
He comes in the wake of Songs From a Stolen Guitar, an LP recorded with the members of his band adding their parts from their homes in different cities. It made achieving the cohesive sound of the record more difficult, but as fellow songwriter and onetime Middle Tennessean James Toth mentions in his liner notes, the musicians use the limitation to their advantage. Friday, you’ll get to hear them all together at The Barbershop Theater on Indiana Avenue. John Allingham and Peggy Snow’s folk ensemble The Cherry Blossoms (which includes FMRL founder Chris Davis on drums) will play, as will Connie Acher (the alter ego of painter Melodie Provenzano). Andre Churchwell, who you might know from the Belcourt’s box office, has a set of stand-up comedy to share as well. The show kicks off at 8 p.m. and admission is on a $10-$15 sliding scale — watch the Facebook event page for updates.
Meanwhile, check out a gently melancholy video to accompany the Songs From a Stolen Guitar song “Tekamah.” The piece is a remarkable display of how you can use songwriting to be empathetic. Amid peals of pedal steel and softly strummed guitar, Joyner sings from the perspective of a woman working up the courage to leave a bad relationship: “Some friends of mine still wish on / Eyelashes and falling stars / Right now I’d settle for my old shift / Back at Ronnie’s bar / Some are crying all the time / And some have got it even worse / I just want a man to look me in the eye / Who doesn’t rifle through my purse.”
