In Britain we are familiar with the big-name North American singer-songwriters. Who has not heard of Neil Dylan, Bob Springsteen, Leonard Young and Bruce Cohen? We are hip to all those guys.
Simon Joyner, on the other hand, is almost unknown in England, and even on MB he only gets 28 mentions (mostly thanks to a guy long-gone called Farewell), plus this short forgotten thread of sleepy jack's. Maybe all that is appropriate given SJ's predeliction for a kind of self-defeated sound that plods along through its own misery. Here are a couple of examples:-
Once you adjust your expectations to SJ's pace, you are open to discover wonderful lyrics, dripping with surprises and genuine feeling. I'm just loving the songs I've listened to so far, and am rather bewildered by his surprisingly extensive discography. So if anyone has a favourite album, or an I-saw-SJ-in -a-shopping-mall story, I'd be very pleased to hear it.
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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953
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