Press

Turner Cody

My good buddy and one of my favorite songwriters @joseph_allen_beltram aka Goodmorning Valentine has a record out Feb 16th on @suicidesqueeze records. It's a split LP with the band Six Parts Seven.

I met Joey on the road in Cleveland way back in '14 after a drunken late night-house show where he managed to both upstage and also charm everyone there, while simultaneously drinking the whole place under the table. Not an easy feat. He's a road warrior, a raconteur, and a gentleman and his songs are as good as they come.

Flood Magazine

I’ve known Joey practically my whole dang life at this point, both of us being northeast Ohioans and all,” Mayfield adds. “He visited me in California and told me he’d written a song about the trials and tribulations of touring and thought it would be appropriate to have me on it. I adore Joey’s unique and captivating songwriting style and am truly honored to be on this track!

Treble

Red Lights is a dreamy swirl of glowing warm organ tones and acoustic guitar strums, with a folky earnestness in its vocal melody to give it added gravitas. Joseph Allen Beltram of Goodmorning Valentine says of the track, “‘Red Lights’ is the outlier of the Kissing Distance sessions. I recorded the vocals in one of my dad’s rental properties that I helped him with. The neighbor downstairs where I was living got overzealous with the broom handle on the ceiling when the music got too loud, and this song was loud”.

Wildfire Music and News

Even though Kissing Distance was recorded in 2006, it took almost two-years to finish mixing; a project Joey would slowly complete between his writing for GMV, tours and local shows. When it came to the mix: there was second guessing, trial and error, chaos swirling around a chaotic time.

Tour Stories Podcast

Over the course of a weekend in 2006, two bands came together in a small in studio in Kent, Ohio. What yielded was a beautiful collaborative collection of songs called Kissing Distance. Joey and Allen share the magic of the experience and the spark that inspired this collaboration. Joey tells us how an unusual spontaneity and openness in the studio led to a beautiful and novel experience for the band.

Suicide Squeeze

The music on Kissing Distance came together over two weekend days. There were a lot of people around; 6P7 and GMV players coming and going from the Saint Ledger House. There were handles of whiskey, there was weed, stacks of Marlboro Reds for the ones still dragging butts. We all went ‘dancing’ at Thursday’s, in Akron, Ohio, on Saturday night. Not sure how we were productive the following day. Chalk that one up to relative youth. Over those two days, songs were cut without any prior rehearsal time. None of us remember how the idea came up. In hindsight, it seems inevitable.

Flood Magazine

From the beginning, Joey knew this song occupied a very special place, creating something of a demarcation line in his catalog. Joey had always linked some experimentation alongside his pursuit of more traditional songwriting, but ‘Meditation in D’ opened the doors of possibility, unlocking a level of maturity in the music that was noticed immediately once he started performing it around Akron, Kent, and Cleveland.

Cool Cleveland

It has a somber, lonely folk-country tone that reflects a rambler cut off from familiar places. It’s a position reflected by folk-style singer-songwriters for decades, from Eric Anderson in the 60s to more recent lonesome ramblers such as Townes Van Zant. It’s downbeat but not despairing.

Cleveland.com

After traveling across the country two summers ago, singer-guitarist Joey Beltram decided to make his next Goodmorning Valentine project a road album of sorts.

"It's called 'Hey Washington,' and it's about a motorcycle trip I took with my then-girlfriend,"

Do206

It is a wonder this band isn't an international sensation. Singer/guitarist Joey Beltram has a fluttering, passionate voice; his vocal flourishes have the kind of soul that would make Stuart Murdoch green with envy. This effort could have easily come from the 4AD or Matador label; Steady Your Hands is a well-informed collection of lo-fi pop brilliance and it belongs on a national stage.