Joe Goodkin Details Forthcoming Self-Titled EP

Quell Records is very pleased to announce that the Joe Goodkin EP by the titular artist will be released on June 6th. 2025.

While six songs culled from Goodkin’s Record of Life, Record of Loss, and Record of Love EP releases were originally rendered simply with vocal guitar, these reimaging’s – produced by Brian Deck (Iron and Wine, Modest Mouse, Counting Crows, Alejandro Escovedo, Gomez) – feature full-band performances, strings, horns and more.

Joe Goodkin is a lifelong musician who is known for his larger-scale concepts. At the beginning of the aughts, he found inspiration in his university degree in the Classics. Invoking the spirit of the ancient Greek bards, Goodkin deconstructed first Homer’s Odyssey and then his Iliad (entitled The Blues of Achilles) into original modern song cycles. Part lecture, part musical performance, and part interactive discussion, the pieces turned out to be so popular that he has now performed almost 500 shows in all 50 of the U.S. States and across Europe.

In 2015, Goodkin came up with an idea for releasing a trilogy of albums over two years that were interconnected – The Record of Life/The Record of Loss/The Record of Love. The series of EPs (totalling 18 songs) established Goodkin’s reputation as an important songwriter known for his honesty and emotionally affecting lyrics.

Goodkin explains:

“I’ve been playing these songs solo for in some cases ten years, and they have evolved from the original versions. In the interim, I’ve lived and toured a lot, and I wanted to present these songs with my lived experience, reimagine them in a way I couldn’t when I first put them out. The Record of Life album was a turning point for me and my career, and I wanted to celebrate it.”

Putting together a dream team of musicians, Goodkin turned to Narwhal Studios and producer Brian Deck to help realize his vision. The six songs on the record were carefully chosen and sequenced: the chorus of the first song, “Gray,” “How do we say goodbye,” is answered in the last song, “Ashes,” “This is how we say goodbye.” All of Goodkin’s vocals were done in one take, with no comps or punch-ins.

In addition to Goodkin on vocals, guitars, ukulele, and glockenspiel, the record features performances by Vijay Tellis-Nyak (pianos, organ), John Abbey (bass), Gerald Dowd (drums and percussion), Kelly Hogan, and Nora O’Connor (background vocals), Stephanie Young (violin), Kelly Jozwiak (violin), Erin Rafferty (viola), Molly Rife (cello), Ivan Pyzow (trumpet), and Tayiib Dauda (saxophone).

Joe Goodkin Track Listing:

1. Gray (from Record of Life)
2. As Old as I Am Now (from Record of Life)
3. Sarah and Julie (from Record of Loss)
4. My Mother’s Voice (from Record of Love)
5. Never Come Back (from Record of Loss)
6. Ashes (from Record of Love)

Joe Goodkin’s album artwork