SIMON JOYNER
HOTEL LIVES

Recorded at Truckstop
Produced by Michael Krassner
Arrangements by Fred Lonberg-Holm
Engineered by Joe Ferguson
Mixed by Michael Krassner and Joe Ferguson
Mastered at Kingsize Sound Labs by Mike Hagler

PERSONNEL
Will Hendricks: piano, organ, bass
Glenn Kotche: drums, percussion
Michael Krassner: guitar, piano, organ, production
Fred Lonberg-Holm: cello, nyckelharpa, piano, arrangements
Jim Becker: guitar
Gerald Dowd: drums
Guillermo Gregorio: clarinet
Via Nuon: guitar
Jessica Billey: voice
Joe Ferguson: guitar
Tod Margasak: trumpet
Matt Schneider: guitar

SONGS
1. Hotel Suite
2. The Blue Hammer
3. Insomnia
4. Now We Must Face Each Other (mp3)
5. The House
6. She Without Shelter
7. Your Old Haunts
8. My Life Is Sweet
9. You, David, Maria & Me
10. Nocturne
11. How I Regret That I've Done Wrong
12. Only Love Can Bring You Peace
13. Geraldine

REVIEW
The wallpaper is rippled from its age, sagging and pregnant with the water leaking in from above. The window panes are mildewed and cobwebbed, and a dozen insect corpses lie scattered on the sill. They are the victims of the naked bulb that hangs from the ceiling, casting a dull glow on the bed, which vibrates if you put enough quarters in the slot on the headboard. The scent of alcohol snakes through the room like a vine strangling a trellis. The bed's stained sheets cover a mattress that would just as soon swallow you as comfort you to sleep.

This is Simon Joyner's hotel suite. It's not so much a place to live as a place to retreat to, a tattered sanctuary from the withering attacks of the heart on the cortex, and a place to retrieve your body from the floor where it fell in last night's drunken stupor in private. Joyner has lived here for a long time, first emerging from his tired bedsit in 1993 with the Room Temperature album, and following it up with a series of ramshackle folk records that have quietly established him as a lyricist with few equals. -Joe Tangari

Copyright 2002 Truckstop Records.