* PREORDER * SIMON JOYNER - Heaven's Gate (31st Ann. Edition) LP

* PREORDER * expected to arrive mid-late July

Limited 31st Anniversary Edition of 200 copies.

Folkways style wrap-around adhered screenprinted cover. Includes insert.

Exclusive to Strangeworld in Australia. Very limited stock available.

Fully remastered.

Highest recommendation.

Now it's all about the words. The occasional fiery acoustic aggression and variable tones that spiced up The Cowardly Traveller is all but gone here. Fortunately though, as a lyricist Joyner is progressing at a rapid clip, developing a somewhat signature style of personal / spiritual / disappointed stories that never fail to strike a chord at this point.

Musically he's reined in to simple folk-y strumming with the occasional accoutrement, and unsurprisingly its those accoutrements that heighten the best material here - namely the mandolin and banjo abetted "Alabaster" and the queasily intimate violin of "Kerosene."

The upside of this new focus is that Heaven's Gate has a consistency to it that would make a lot of Joyner's contemporaries at this point - John Darnielle, Will Oldham, Connor Oberst - wouldn't acquire for a few more years.

It's not the exciting ride that Cowardly Traveler was - grab the 30th Anniversary Edition whilst you still can - but it's pretty much its equal on a purely emotional level.