Mountain Time

Saint Francis, Zookeeper

Regular price $29.99

Spartan Records proudly presents Saint Francis, Zookeeper, a retrospective release celebrating Chris Simpson's (Mineral, The Gloria Record) lost years. The culmination of countless days and nights of recording. The gathering of friends (and friends of friends) in one big room, all reaching for banjos and organs and sleigh bells and trumpets, crowding around microphones or sitting on the floor and clapping their hands. It’s a pair of headphones taped around your head. It’s pianos played so loud you can hear them in the drum mics. It’s the sound of a band in a bubble (their minds are in trouble but their hearts they are clear). Saint Francis, Zookeeper is the story as it stands thus far: the first two Zookeeper records, remastered for vinyl, plus three never before heard songs. These songs were born with things to do. They came from Chris, but they belong to everyone—to anyone who wants them, to anyone who needs them, to anyone for whom these songs have become a part of their story (or have let their own story become a part of these songs). Zookeeper was a street choir in a strange parade. Saint Francis, Zookeeper is an invitation to that parade. Pick up a guitar or a tambourine. Put on your walking shoes and your favorite hat. Sing it on out with us. Welcome to the family.


On Saint Francis, Zookeeper, Simpson excavates past spaces, people and songs, reflective of endless nights, creating with friends, experimenting with instrumentals, and the days of having a “pair of headphones taped around your head.” It was almost like a dream, but Saint Francis reveals that those earlier stories were never an illusion.

- American Songwriter

1. Pre-Cambrian Memory
2. Snow In Berlin
3. On Madison Way
4. Trumpets
5. Ballad of My Friends
6. Boy & The Street Choir
7. Al Kooper's Party Horn
8. Everyone's a DJ
9. Neon Heart
10. On High
11. Becoming All Things
12. Born With Things To Do
13. Substratum Dream of a Flagpole Skater
14. I Live In The Mess You Are
15. Tax Collector
16. Flood Of Love
17. Two-Part Invention
18. Delivery Room

First pressing limited to 500 copies:

• Celebration Cupcake (250)
• Gold Rush (150)
• Transparent Orange (100) - SOLD OUT

Full color gatefold jacket printed on reverseboard stock with full-color printed innersleeves.

All orders include an instant hi-quality download of Saint Francis, Zookeeper and an exclusive download of Delivery Room, a unreleased nine song album featuring home demos recorded over the course of 2004-2005.

Genre
Folk, Singer-Songwriter
Album Length
1:34:10
Release Date
August 27, 2021
Catalog Number
SPAR080
Formats
2xLP / Digital