It’s a trope as ancient as The Odyssey itself: the person who’s been waiting all their life for this moment.

Even Joe Goodkin, who’s been presenting his personal interpretation of this iconic tale to crowds around the world for more than two decades, would likely maintain that summer 2026 is Christopher Nolan’s moment, Homer’s moment, Odysseus’s moment.

But it’s Goodkin’s moment, too.

Back around the turn of the century, Goodkin's college major was Classics, not an obvious choice by any means, but one which has helped to steer his life in fascinating directions. A musician since he was a teenager, Goodkin moved through various solo and band situations as a college student. After finishing his degree, he set out on a personal quest that it seems could only be attempted by a younger man, because an older man might have said no, that’s too much, how would you even do that?

Goodkin did it.

Melding together his disparate passions of Ancient Greece and modern music, he composed a 35-minute song cycle—20 distinct songs for voice and acoustic guitar—that recast the tale of The Odyssey in folk opera form, employing a range of characters as narrators, giving voice to different perspectives on the central story. It was an undertaking that required a certain amount of hubris.

It has been a spectacular success. Over the past two decades, Goodkin has performed his Odyssey song cycle for audiences in every state in the United States and all across Europe. School after school, from college prep academies to state colleges to Stanford, Harvard and Oxford University, has invited Goodkin to sing the tale of Odysseus to their students, usually followed by a question and answer session that has further illuminated the story, its significance, resonance and relevance.

Goodkin’s experiences across more than 20 years of performing The Odyssey will be chronicled a new book, Becoming Nobody, due next year. He’s currently releasing excerpts weekly through his newsletter and they are wonderful—witty, engaging and insightful little adventures in performance and dialogue and reflection on a life lived in song.

Goodkin first recorded and released his folk opera in 2010 as The Odyssey. (He later produced a 2022 companion album, The Blues Of Achilles, based on The Iliad.) But naturally, over the course of almost 400 performances all across the United States and Western Europe, the songs and his approach to them have evolved. The new recording Goodkin released this morning as The Odyssey: Songs Of Odysseus captures his song cycle as it lives in the world today, contemporaneously with Nolan’s film.

The recordings capture Goodkin singing and playing the entire set solo and acoustic at Narwhal Studios in his home base of Chicago earlier this year, produced, engineered and mixed with gentle precision by frequent collaborator Brian Deck. These spare and long-considered arrangements leave no room for artifice or affectation. Different characters’ perspectives and moods are conveyed by subtle changes in tempo, inflection and energy.

The sprawling saga unfolds in tight, vividly imagined segments, with only two songs exceeding 2:45 in length, and five clocking in at under a minute. Goodkin’s creation is in many ways a single, free-flowing piece of work, impossible to deconstruct, but certain moments do stand out.

Opener “Who Am I (The Song Of Odysseus)” is arresting in its contemplative, foreboding tone, the latter accentuated by its slightly discordant finish. There’s trouble ahead…

The bright, optimistic “On My Way (Telemachus Leaves Home)” beautifully captures the spirit of a young man setting off in search of his destiny.

“Free / The Storm” calls back to “On My Way” while conveying that feeling of being out on the water, pointed to the horizon, embracing a spirit of adventure.

“It’s been so long / Since I’ve kissed the dirt / The dirt that mends all wounds / The dirt that heals all hurts” sings Goodkin in the simultaneously yearning and disconcerting “Home (The Song Of Argos).”

The absorbing “For Pain” goes to the very heart of the story, the pain of loss and war and dislocation and death.

Climactic number “To Hold You” captures the ecstatic reunion of Odysseus and Penelope, then reprises a bit of “On My Way” to bring the story full circle, to recall for a moment the thrill of setting off on a voyage into the unknown.

These songs take you on a journey, both literal and emotional, that is remarkable in its scope and resonance. Goodkin’s performance, as studied as it could have become over many hundreds of performances, still feels fresh and raw and real. With due respect to the team who assembled the terrific score for Christopher Nolan’s movie, one could hardly ask for a more engaging and compelling musical counterpart to the film than Joe Goodkin’s The Odyssey: Songs Of Odysseus.

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