Out Into the Snow

VINYL FORMAT. Simon Joyner's twelfth record, Out Into the Snow, is another challenging and rewarding song-cycle which grows richer from repeated listening. For this outing, Joyner has assembled a small group, including Alex McManus (Lambchop, Bright Eyes, The Bruces), Ryan Kennedy, Mike Friedman, Michael Krassner, and Chris Deden, as well as background vocals by Sarah Gleason and Pearl Lovejoy Boyd and string arrangements by violinst Laraine Kalzer. Sounding sometimes like Doug Yule era Velvet Underground (with some Paris 1919 John Cale thrown in for good measure), On the Beach period Neil Young, Happy/Sad era Tim Buckley, and Our Mother the Mountain period Townes Van Zandt, the album is littered with characters in transition, moving toward or away from complicated pasts and futures.

Out Into the Snow is full of gorgeous human gestures from well-developed characters rising and falling in overlapping arcs of time. Brazen songwriting, like all great art, challenges even more than it entertains. Team Love is proud to introduce another milestone performance from Simon Joyner, perhaps the greatest songwriter you've never heard.