Song Spotlight: June Swoon's Denver (a night at The Goldfish)

I first came across June Swoon (the moniker for Juliana Kay Lydell) at an outdoor DIY music festival called Big Top at someone's back yard in 2021. It was one of the first music events I attended post-early 2020. You can read my review of that afternoon-night here. If I'm not mistaken, all the bands that played that festival are still active, which I find is an interesting footnote. Our paths crossed again in 2024 and then recently at Rocknite's showcase at The Goldfish where they closed out the night that included Sour Tongue and Slugs. 

June Swoon at The Goldfish

Per her Spotify bio there is this brief description of her sound, "Equal parts honey and gravel."

Her songs for the night focused on her recently released EP Big Truck. An EP that puts her squarely into the 18 wheeler country world. Based on her outfit for the night, one can also add that the music is meant for those horse wranglers working across a John Ford landscape. 

June Swoon at The Goldfish

She mentioned she was dedicating "Someone Else's Dream" to her mother, because she'd hate it. The song's lyrics are about the dream of being married and having children, but she slips in these lyrics that would probably have her mother objecting, "There's nothing better. Just for someone else." Take that, mom. Her song "Kate Barlow" was dedicated to the movie Holes (a movie I've never, but has a cast that includes Sigourney Weaver, Jon Voight, Patricia Arquette, and in his first theatrical role ever, Shia LaBeouf). Wikipedia tells me that the movie is about a juvenile detention camp warden who makes kids dig holes in the hopes of finding Kate Barlow's buried treasures. Lydell mentioned that she loved this movie and also loved female characters such as Ripley in the Aliens series and Sarah Connor in the Terminator series. 

For "Challenger," Lydell took off into the crowd before standing atop one of the venue's diner booth sofas where she serenaded the crowd. "Thank you, everybody who danced with me." Her final song of the night "Water Baby" is a spoken word gem with haunting lyrics and music, "Nothing trickles down except pain."

June Swoon at The Goldfish

The song spotlight goes to "Denver," which one could describe as the most country on the 5 song EP. It is a song about a man who says he is a "feminist until he dates a touring musician." 

He's loving me the best he can
But he's gonna leave
If I don't hang my boots

Comment of the night: I'm not afraid of me. I'm not afraid of you.

Setlist: Working Dog, Denver, Someone Else's Dream, Kate Barlow, Challenger, Water Baby.