Simon Bonney collection Past, Present, Future due May 3rd

Past, Present, Future collects music from Simon's Forever and Everyman albums with 6 unissued tracks including a lovely Scott Walker tribute. 

Simon Bonney has just released his compilation album Past, Present, Future (Mute) which brings together songs from his last two albums, Forever (1992) and Everyman (1994), as well as six new tracks for an unreleased album titled Eyes of Blue. Check out Simon's version of "Duchess" by the late great Scott Walker below.

Reflecting on the message found in “Don’t Walk Away From Love,” Bonney says, “In a relationship you can focus on the positive or you can focus on the negative. The one you feed the most will define that relationship. ‘Don’t Walk Away From Love’ is about embracing the positive.”

Beginning Sunday in Nashville, Bonney will embark on a tour of the Eastern United States alongside Mark Lanegan. See below for a full itinerary.

Past, Present, Future is the beautiful amalgamation of songs taken from two of Bonney’s previously released albums: 1992’s Forever, a deeply personal and intimate record, and 1994’s Everyman, his socio-political opus that has grown in relevance as rapid change and social dislocation has increased. Rounding out Past, Present, Future are a number of songs unearthed from Bonney’s lost album, Eyes of Blue.

Forever and Everyman were recorded during Bonney’s time living in the US while his band Crime & the City Solution remained on hiatus. At this time, he turned to the melancholy and plaintive sounds of dobro and lap steel of 1970s country music. In these sounds he found a feeling of longing for the familiar, for security and stability, songs about family and belonging, memories of a childhood farm in Tasmania. The result was two country-tinged, compassionate and prescient portraits of life in late 20th Century America through Tasmanian eyes.

Bonney’s path led him into outback Australia, Micronesia, Papua New Guinea and Bangladesh – a life rich in extremes of color and conflict, of trauma, of humanity and inhumanity, of power and powerlessness. It was not always easy to witness and eventually, as happens with all that walk this road, he had seen too much and it was time to stop. It was time to re-embrace something simple, something personal – his music. He pulled tapes from shoeboxes and listened to the old albums as well as tracks that were destined for an unreleased album, Eyes of Blue, which was recorded in Detroit with a band featuring Matt Smith (Outrageous Cherry, the Volbeats), Troy Gregory (the Dirtbombs, Electric Six, Killing Joke) and a guest appearance by Chuck Prophet. As he revisited these earlier recordings, Bonney found that they sounded fresh and every bit as relevant – if not more relevant –  than when he had recorded them.

 Simon Bonney – Past, Present, Future (Mute)
1. Ravenswood (from Forever)
2. Don't Walk Away From Love (from Everyman)
3. There Can Only Be One (from Forever)
4. Where Trouble Is Easier To Find (from Everyman)
5. A Sweeter Kind Of Pain
6, Everyman (unedited) (from Everyman)
7. Duchess
8. The Great Survivor
9. Forever (from Forever)
10. Annabelle Lee
11. Eyes Of Blue
12. Can’t Believe Anymore



Simon Bonney on tour with Mark Lanegan
May 3 - Jacksonville, FL - Rockville
May 4 - Atlanta, GA - Shaky Knees
May 5 - Nashville, TN - Mercy Lounge
May 7 - Chicago, IL - Bottom Lounge
May 8 - Detroit, MI - The Shelter
May 10 - Marston, NC - Epicenter Festival
May 11 - Baltimore, MD - Ottobar
May 13 - Boston, MA - The Sinclair
May 14 - Brooklyn, NY - Warsaw
May 15 - Philadelphia, PA - Underground Arts
May 16 - Asbury Park, NJ - The Stone Pony
May 18 - Columbus, OH - Sonic Temple