Simon Joyner

No album from Simon Joyner is devoid of heartbreak. The Oklahoma songwriter carves the human spirit with a sharp knife and often his autobiographical lacerations leave the listener reeling, but on his latest album grief takes the spotlight, and few but Joyner could capture the inherent weight of loss with such grace. In the wake of the death of his son, Joyner lays his out a series of imagined conversations, an intimate exhumation of all the ephemeral joys, fleeting moments, and patchwork laments that weave the relationship between parent and child. In the hands of another, the album could easily become a sieve of hope, a quicksand pit of emotions that pulls artist and audience both into the void.

The album is not hopeless, though. Rather than an album bled with regret, its an exploration of endurance. Resilience is often the hardest quality to master, and heartbreak is an exercise in internal bleeding. The album lives in the inhale just after weeping, the shuddered breath that rights the sails and seeks to exorcise the grip of grief. True, the mind’s never truly free, but scars and callouses aren’t so far apart. It takes practice to find peace and that process is documented here. Thankfully Simon doesn’t go it alone and a whole cadre of friends and collaborators help shape this into an album that’s sparse but saturated with just the sounds he needs. Joyner is a songwriter who finds the humanity in small moments, but on Coyote Butterfly he tackles the largest with an equal eye for detail, suturing the soul one song at a time.

Support the artist. Buy it HERE.