Joy is publisher and songwriter Dan Knight’s sole LP, released on his own Battlemount Records in 1982. Skip Prokop of Lighthouse offered to produce a follow up, but he'd already started down the road to becoming a small press, primarily publishing SF luminary R.A. Lafferty’s fugitive stories on his United Mythologies imprint. The album is an exercise in folk world-building, counter-balancing Lafferty’s dystopian themes with earthy optimism.

“I started out as a lyricist for friend's bands. I picked up my first bass at 16 and eventually realized that, despite how few in number we were, bassists don't command much power in a band structure. I was in a very promising one. We'd made a ten song demo (no one told us not to) and got the attention of a major label. And then, before my eyes, the band evaporated. Poof. So, at the ripe age of 20, I picked up my first guitar and taught myself to play. "Joy" was written and recorded within two years of those first tentative plucks. I played most of the instruments (because no one told me not to). Over the years I've been proud/ embarrassed / proud again/ embarrassed again, by this little clutch of songs. When my son informed me that it was listed on discog and that people had digitized it and put it up on the internet I was flattered and happy that something I had cared so much about was still considered worth listening to. It was the best I could do at the time. I was young and old and serious and goofy. I still am.” — Dan Knight

Unplayed deadstock copy.