Rag of Colts: Disgraced Songs 1987-2012 is downcast but never self-pitying. Still: Good fuckin’ god, Simon Joyner is a sad bastard. He makes Micah P. Hinson sound like Casey Casem, and this particular collection of tunes plays that side of him up, particularly the long, Texas-style expanse on Side B that’s nothing but plains and drought as far as the eye can see. With every year that passes in my semi-long life I appreciate more the pleasures of hearing a veteran songwriter perform unfettered. It ain’t perfect, but it wouldn’t be no good if it was. “Goodbye to My Loving You,” a tribute to Lou Reed ostensibly, kicks off Rag of Colts so strikingly you wonder how Joyner’s going to follow it, and while the cuts that proceed don’t quite hit the same high, they’re roughly in the same ballpark. Guy-and-guitar win again, against the odds.
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