Internationally renowned poet Spoon Jackson’s iconic album No Moon from FREER Records Out Now.
No Moon is internationally acclaimed poet Spoon Jackson’s American magnum opus. A sprawling, spiritual soundscape which he co-created from prison, where he has been incarcerated for 47 years.
Beautiful, harsh, cosmic, uplifting and hypnotic, No Moon is a collection of 14 songs, all under 3 minutes, which combine to create a compelling electronic ambient dreamland.
Poet Spoon Jackson was born in Barstow, California in 1957, into a family of fifteen boys. He spent his youth in the wide-open landscape of the desert. At twenty years-old, Spoon committed a murder in the midst of a robbery, and was sentenced to life without possibility of parole.
During the following decades, Jackson discovered his voice as a poet and artist. At San Quentin State Prison in the 1980s, Spoon enrolled in a four-year poetry workshop run by Judith Tannenbaum.
He played Pozzo in the 1988 production of Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot directed by Jan Jonson, which brought him international attention.
In 2015, Jackson took part in The Prison Music Project, an album produced by Zoe Boekbinder and Ani DiFranco.
Poet Spoon Jackson with his book “Longer Ago”
In the fall of 2020, composer, filmmaker and visual artist Nicolas Snyder began speaking to Jackson through outreach from FREER Records. Spoon Jackson was a pivotal inspiration, and one of the first creative contributors to the Die Jim Crow / FREER Records project, contributing poetry, lyrics and visual art since 2014.
Snyder had a personal empathy to those doing time inside, as his father had spent two years in prison and benefited greatly from access to music.
“We spent the next two years getting to know each other and throughout that time I recorded Spoon reciting over 20 poems, which turned 14 into songs.” Shares Snyder. “The quality of the recordings, through a prison phone and then recorded onto an app in my phone, was very lo-fi so I leaned further into that, a bit like the quality of Alan Lomax’s Negro Prison Songs from the Mississippi State Penitentiary, where you seemingly hear the pain echoing through the cold concrete walls. I wanted to create a similar kind of atmosphere.”
The resulting record No Moon is a testament to the endless freedom of imagination, even from behind prison walls. Featuring Native American flute played by Spoon on songs “Turning Point” and “No Moon,” as well as Jackson’s visionary recited poetry, the album is a profound musical journey which recalls the works of fiery prophetic poets throughout history such as Allen Ginsberg and Langston Hughes.
On the opening track, “Look Away” Spoon melodiously intones, “It took a life sentence to show me how to give / It took a life sentence to show me how to love / Look away if you don’t like the color of my skin/ Better yet, look within, for I will love you anyways.”
On the rousing anthem “Sag” Spoon proclaims, “I am John Lennon who spoke of one race and of one place / I am Mother Teresa who came to death row (I am Mother Teresa who came to death row) / I am unafraid of any gunner / I am Martin Luther King Jr. shot down on the balcony, in the midst of his dream / I am Malcolm X betrayed by the beastly and burnt surreptitiously / I pledge no allegiance to this flag and free, I let my pants sag / Free, I let my pants sag.”
Tracks like “Dance” with the refrain, “My girlfriend has a girlfriend,” uplift queer romantic themes, and openly celebrate bisexual women.
“Computer Lady” takes a darker turn, with themes of a militarized surveillance state, versus humanity and our natural lived experiences.
“Touch And Go” is a simple yet heartrending ode to the things Jackson dreams of doing some day. “I’ve only been from my mom’s house to the big house / I want to see more of the world, and eat more good food / I want to cut more audio and do more radio / And see the New Orleans trees / I want to see the railroad tracks in Arkansas / that Maya Angelou still would not cross.”
On “Turning Point” Spoon recites, “No matter what I’ve done, I cannot keep running from the past / I’ll blaze a new trail, that an instant by change, peace, and love / I'll blaze a new trail, and never get derailed / Even when hope seems like a distant memory / Passing in the night.”
Spoon Jackson has won four awards from PEN American Center Prison Writing Program, and continues to share his unique and profound creative vision with the world.
No Moon is Spoon Jackson's first full-length album with FREER Records.
