"Throughout The Simplest, we hear the complexity of emotions Kroger is drawing from to paint vivid and engaging pictures through her songwriting. Tragedy and life experiences have long driven artists to process their feelings into songs we can sing along to; but it’s no easy feat to create music that truly moves you in unanticipated ways. Jo Kroger has plenty to say, and we’re certainly ready and willing to listen as long as she keeps making music this eloquent."
"Jo Kroger [...] seems to have bewitched me upon first listen. In fact, her new EP, Troubled Night, has only garnered more and more of my attention with every hit on the repeat button. [...] Jo Kroger possesses a subtler brand of charisma not unlike a singer-songwriter such as Beth Orton or even Joni Mitchell. There’s a vulnerability in the performance that exposes the strength of Kroger’s truth, a quiet confidence that acts as a magnet drawing you in for a closer listen."
The Simplest
1. Smoke
You made me feel like a catch-phrase unspoken, waiting for design
You made me feel like a forgotten table for two with a "reserved sign"
I've been engaged in a game of "Mr. Cellophane" waiting for you to make up your mind
You made me feel like a plate of leftovers stuck in the back of the drawer
You made me feel like a napkin phone number stuck to the barroom floor
And I've been quietly contemplating why I've been waiting to walk out that door
It's a slow burn, watching the flame flicker out
There's a hiss as I tip the water to douse the dying ember still trying to remember that once we were on fire
It doesn't know, nobody told it you're gone - that you're smoke on the rise.
You made me feel like slice of truck tire brushed to the side of the road.
The kind you swerve so you won't run it over, knowing your own might explode.
But I am not full of spikes and metal. You run, you bet you'll be sorry when you get home.
It's a slow burn, watching the flame flicker out
There's a hiss as I tip the water to douse the dying ember still trying to remember that once we were on fire
It doesn't know, nobody told it you're gone - that you're smoke on the rise.
Hush little darling, don't be shy. Mama's gonna sing you a lullabye.
I got two strong hands and no good plans.
It's a slow burn, watching the flame flicker out
There's a hiss as I tip the water to douse the dying ember
It's a slow burn, watching the flame flicker out
There's a hiss as I tip the water to douse the dying ember still trying to remember that once we were on fire
It doesn't know, nobody told it you're gone - that you're smoke on the rise.
2. Telephone Call
hey mom, got a problem on the other line. Yeah, mom, I'm doing fine.
Someone's waiting. I'm hesitating. I'll call you back when everything's all right.
"Everything's okay. Everything's fine," you said when we woke up.
Clay chips on the table. Wet glass on the floor. Everything's okay.
I got a problem with last night.
I got a problem with last night.
I got a problem with your suicide attempts and the way they break my skin.
It's sinking in.
Do you remember, mom, that June through September when I tasted gravel. I tasted gravel. And Jamie had to sneak out in the night from the man with the double tall, double wide trailer and such bad intentions? Hey, I got a call on the other line...
Now you got tears
Now you're so sorry
You broke your own heart, babe.
But it's my teeth on the table
It's my hands on the floor
Everything's okay.
I got a problem with last night.
I got a problem with last night.
I got a problem with your suicide attempts and the way they break my skin.
It's sinking in.
Gotta move on, move on, before you try to prove one more point with your joints up in the air
and my hair against the wall. Gotta take this call 'cause tomorrow I'm gone to any other hell but this one.
Hey, mom, hey. Got on a plane. Headed out to L.A. Be back home in December. Tell the kids I miss them. Hope you're having a good day.
.3. The Simplest
Simple as syrup, simple as syrup
Crystallize... crystallizing
and breaking to pieces in my hands
Add a little heat and see what happens
If you add a little heat to the sweet, it will crystallize
and break apart in my hands
Take a number and jot it down
Jot it out
You're gonna find out
I'm a little bit more than a smile
Didn't you hear, I thought that you heard,
there ain't nobody still calls me Johanna
I left Johanna back in Cincinnati
with a worn out copy of "Blonde on Blonde"
Take me back to California where the girls are pretty and the boys are pretty
And the sun is pretty, but you don't need a soul, so I fit in
And get me back to New York city where the streets are pretty cause the streets are gritty
And the sun in the sky sets the buildings on fire and I can't win.
But I've always got hope once I get to the Coasts
cause I can always jump into the ocean
and go down...
I don't know how to do this any other way
So you got the number. You had your luck, you called it up
Well now you're fucked, cause it'll break apart in my hands
Take me back to California where the girls are pretty and the boys are pretty
And the sun is pretty, but you don't need a soul, so I fit in
And get me back to New York city where the streets are pretty cause the streets are shitty
And the sun in the sky sets the buildings on fire and I can't win.
But I've always got hope once I get to the Coasts
I always got hope once I get to the coasts
yeah I always got hope once I get to the coasts
Cause I can drown.
Oh I always got hope once I get to the Coasts,
cause I can always jump into the ocean
and go down...
Simple as... the simplest. The simplest.
4. Visby Stone (Melt Me)
I'm a cold, cold sliding glass door
I'm a February 2nd saying, "6 weeks more"
I'm a rainfall falling down your window pane
I'm a patch of black ice and a red wine stain
But you. You're a radiator hot enough
to make me slide the window up
at negative nineteen
Melt me
Melt me down
Break me open til the snowdrops come climbing out the ground
Melt me
Be my spring
Be my summer
Make me feel something. Make me feel something.
And you. You're a thousand shattered colors from a chandelier
You're the sun through the clouds when the sky starts to clear
But I. I'm like mercury,
the metal that'll never be
settled in one solid piece again
Melt me.
Melt me down
Break me open til the snowdrops come climbing out the ground
Melt me
Be my spring
Be my summer
Make me feel something. I wanna feel.
And oh, I know, it's gonna hurt.
You're just a child with a magnifying glass and it burns.
And oh, I don't know. Will I turn
from a cold block of coal to a fire?
Will I learn?
Will I ever learn?
Melt me
Melt me down
Break me open til the snowdrops come climbing out the ground
Melt me
Be my spring
Be my summer
Make me feel something. You make me feel something.
5. Ruby Slippers
Well I woke from a dream last night
where the hills were in color
and you were made of straw
You just needed one thing
to make you feel better
just needed a brain that would not throw a clot
Well I woke from a dream last night
where the trees were in color
and you were made of tin
You just needed one thing
to make you feel all right
just needed a heart that would not cave in
So I'm ready now, I'm ready now to click my heels three times
Oh are you better? Are you better? Are you all right?
So I'm ready now, I'm ready now to click my heels three times
Oh are you better? Are you better? Can we go home?
To before the storm
Well I woke from the dream last night
and the colors faded with the morning
and the world was black and white.
You bore me in August. You thought I'd be strong.
You thought I'd be strong. Well, you thought wrong.
Turns out that I'm just a coward and a liar.
So I'm ready now, I'm ready now to click my heels three times
Oh are you better? Are you better? Are you all right?
So I'm ready now, I'm ready now to click my heels three times
Oh are you better? Are you better? Can we go home?
To before the storm
Behind curtains
in every hall
are old fools
with blinking machines
who say they know
what you need,
but I know
what you need was lost long ago
in the storm
in the wind
in between
in the dream
So I'm ready now
I'm
I'm ready now
I'm ready now, I am
I'm ready now I'm ready,
can we go?
So I'm ready now, I'm ready now to click my heels and go
Oh are you better? Are you better? Can we go? Can we go?
To before the storm. To before the storm. To before.
Troubled Night
1. Troubled Night
By the river we walk
By the river we stand
By the river we hold our hands
By the banks of the stream we are holy and free
We are free from the troubled night
2. I Can't Sleep
I can't sleep. I got no time to think. I got no time to think during the day.
I can't sleep. I got no time to breathe. I got no time to breathe during the day.
Here's the time when I close my eyes, and I know it's all right to wander.
Here's the time when I close my eyes, and I know it's all right to wander.
I can't move. I am stuck to the ground. I am stuck to the ground. I can't move.
I can't move. I am stuck to the sound. I am stuck to the sound down the hall.
Here's the time when I close my eyes, and I know it's all right to wander.
Here's the time when I close my eyes, and I know it's all right to wander.
I can't sleep. I got no time to think. I got no time to think during the day.
3. Gum and Cigarettes
I can still smell your gum and cigarettes sitting across my shoulder
Mixed with my sweater, mixed with my sweat, and I want you to hold me
I saw your face light up by the music that played with your head on my legs
I felt so at home, but I felt so alone, and I knew that I'd fucked up already
So now I'm wearing the enamel off my fingernail polish
trying to pen a song to figure out how I lost you
I'm all dolled up on the laundry in my bedroom
the tomboy turncoat in red rubber rainboots
and now I'm a mess. Oh, I'm a mess. Yeah, I'm a mess.
I can still taste late night pizza slices
We're playing on benches and parkways
And, god, I need sleep, but you're stuck in my head
I can't get you out. It's a problem.
Well, I made a mistake, I was in the wrong place
at the wrong time. I turn around, I see your face
and the floor dropped out and my stomach dropped down
and my heart hit the ground. It was over.
and now I'm a mess. Oh, I'm a mess. Yeah, I'm a mess.
So move on. And move out of my mind.
So move on. And move out. I'll be fine.
Well you are my nemesis and you are my muse.
You're my nemesis and my best abuse.
And I can't shake the feeling that I can't shake you
so I think I'm staying in tonight.
Cause I'm a mess. You left me a wreck. Oh I'm a mess and there's no going back.
I can still smell your gum and cigarettes.
I can still smell you gum and cigarettes.
4. Emma
This is a song for Emma, wherever she may be
Wherever she may be
This is a song for Emma, wherever she may be
Wherever she may be
And I'm not backing out
No I'm not giving up so easily this time
This is a song for the lonely, wherever you may be
Wherever you may be
This is a song for the lonely, wherever you may be
Wherever you may be
And I have had enough
But I'm not selling out so easily this time
And you can tell me "no"
Tell me that I've got no shot
But I'm not going quietly this time.
This is a song for Emma, wherever she may be
Wherever she may be
5. June
June walked home from the ice cream store in 1933. She had on a sweet summer dress that her sister would match.
She looked in the gardens ars she walked on her way with a smile and a prayer, saying, "Someday I want a garden full of daisies like that. And colorful tomatoes like that."
June grew up in Dayton, Ohio and she married a man with a plan. She cooked for his brothers and sisters on Sunday each week.
And with a twinkling eye and a sparkling smile she drew her man to the sheets saying, "Someday I want a house full of family like that."
Oh, June. Sometimes it's not what you want, it's what you get.
Oh, June. Sometimes it's not what you meant, it's what you said.
Well, June found a child who suited her fancy and she taught him the Sign of the Cross. She made little Davey her sun and her moon and her sky.
But he wanted to know where he'd come form, and why she was crying when she prayed
saying, "What ever happened to the house full of family I had? My house full of family like that?"
Oh, June. Sometimes it's not what you want, it's what you get.
Oh, June. Sometimes it's not what you meant, it's what you said.
Well, June's got no memory and she's stopped taking food at her bedside in the home.
She traveled to Europe and Asia and farther and back.
And sometimes she knows me, and sometimes she don't, but I remember the garden she grew.
I'll tell you, I still have never seen daisies like that. And colorful tomatoes like that.
6. Morro Bay
I've been driving since Sacramento
I just passed Monterey
Stopped at every lookout along the coast of Big Sur on my way back to Morro Bay
The telephone ring was the last sound I heard
Half an hour of unspoken word
You went from a mute to a man who feigns clever
Both just a shell left to hold
But without a heart beating and skin under covers, that body won't keep out the cold
Oh, hold me so tender
Oh, hold me so near
The distance that broke this was never the 3000 miles...
It's how far you are when we're sitting right here
The apple peels that slipped through my fingers were snatched up by the dog on cocaine
Sometimes the joke is the joke isn't funny, sometimes the joke isn't here
Sometimes the punch lines all start to sound the same
So, hold me so tender
Oh, hold me so near
The distance that broke this was never the 3000 miles...
It's how far you are when we're sitting right here
Now we're standing on a chess board just north of Obispo
And I've got a camera and you've got a crown
And you castle so we're standing together
But the king and the queen pull a one-two punch and I'm down
I can't sleep without you singing
I can't lay my head to rest
The pictures from letters are falling like feathers
And I know we did our best.
So oh, hold me so
Oh hold me so dear
The distance that broke this was never the miles
I've been driving since Sacramento
I just passed Monterey
Stopped at every lookout along the coast of Big Sur on my way back to Morro Bay