10.01.07 Birmingham Post MUSIC IS ALIVE AND VERY WELL IN NASHVILLE Stephen Simmons tells Chris Field why he wouldn’t want to change who he is or where he’s from. Stephen Simmons may be an unfamiliar name to many people but he represents one of the next breed of singer songwriters coming out of the United States in general and Nashville in particular. Sounding not unlike Steve Earle, he currently has three cds available in Britain and makes his debut appearance in Birmingham on October 1st, supporting that other fine singer songwriter, Jeffrey Foucault, at the Tower Of Song in Cotteridge. When I spoke to him in Nashville last week, he told me that this tour was something of a return visit. “I toured in April and May this year and did maybe five dates or so in the UK, but this will be the first time I’ve played Birmingham”. The tour coincides with the release of his third album, Something In Between, which sees him return to the full band format of Last Call, an album he calls “my proper debut record”. In between he released what was to all intents, a solo record called Drink Ring Jesus and he went on to explain how this record came about. “Last Call was my first release and it was an album I had been gearing up to for some time and I had a certain sound in mind. With Drink Ring Jesus I was really involved in touring and not ready to go back into the studio with the band. Originally the plan was to make an EP and take it with me on tour, but the guys at Rounder Europe wanted to release it as a record.” Growing up in Woodbury, Tennessee, Stephen was raised in the Church of Christ and despite the fact that his was a rural upbringing, his family were the first generation not to work on the farm. Humble and softly spoken, he seems initially to be the embodiment of such an upbringing but his writing gives him a much more complex edge. The songs on Drink Ring Jesus tell stories of country’s dark side and demonstrate what it must be like to stand at the edge of piety and sin. Listen to The Devil’s Work Is Never Done or Dante’s Blues Number Seven for a truly original take on morality. He explains that those songs came about because “you can’t separate yourself from who you are or where you’re from, so where I come from is bound to influence me even subconsciously. I write about a lot of different things but I guess I’m shaped by the environment I grew up in – the religion and the storytelling aspect of the South all play a part. The pace of life is different; it’s a lot slower with a certain vibe, whereas in a large city life is more frantic.” He added with a chuckle that “even though I live in Nashville which is about an hour from Woodbury, my relatives seem to think I live in New York!” When I went on to ask him about his main influences while he was growing up, I expected a list of musical heroes but his first answer was “my uncle – he was the guy who taught me to play guitar and I would listen to whatever he played.” Then the names come out – George Jones, Jackson Browne, top 40 country, Eagles, Bob Seger and so on. “I went through my Beatles phase, my hard rock phase but one of the things that really flipped me on my ear was Springsteen’s Nebraska. He’s just a great storyteller and a great lyricist.” On the evidence of his recorded output, maybe Stephen Simmons will one day be regarded as highly as Bruce Springsteen. He has the necessary talent to be taken seriously as a singer songwriter. It no surprise that he says that his cd collection “is heavy on singer songwriters and if you can get to that quiet place when you’re writing, who knows what will come out?” Judge for yourself on Monday October 1st. Tickets are still available and for details of the venue go to www.towerofsong.co.uk 10.01.07 Birmingham Post TWIN PEAKS Jeffrey Foucault and Stephen Simmons Tower Of Song Birmingham   The Tower Of Song is a tiny club sandwiched between a pub and a petrol station in King’s Norton, but it was the centre of a musical feast on Monday night with the appearance of two of America’s finest new singer songwriters in Stephen Simmons and Jeffrey Foucault. Accompanied by steel player Alex McCullough, Stephen Simmons opened the show with a set based around his three cds plus a couple of unrecorded songs. He possesses an incredibly powerful voice which grew in confidence as the set progressed. The imagery in his songs evoke the heart of rural America and his lyrics are intelligent and at times very pointed – never more so than on The Devil’s Work Is Never Done and County Lines. The small but very enthusiastic crowd certainly took him to their hearts and he was given a deservedly rousing reception.   Jeffrey Foucault took to the stage unaccompanied and delivered a set of great quality featuring some stunning guitar work and great songs. These were sung in that gorgeous smoky world weary voice of his which truly belongs to the 1930s or 40s. He too featured material from his three recorded albums, the last of which Ghost Repeater was one of the best releases of 2006. Like Stephen Simmons, Foucault’s lyrics are wonderful aural pictures painted on a landscape of melody, dealing with a whole range of topics both personal and imagined. In the sparse setting of a solo performance the songs stand by themselves and indicate that he is one of America’s great talents. Americans In Corduroy and One For Sorrow were amongst the many high spots.   Towards the end of the show, the three musicians played together on a glorious version of Neil Young’s Out On The Weekend with Simmons on lead vocals and Foucault on harmonies – musical heaven! The whole show was just a stunning demonstration of the work of two of America’s finest new generation of singer songwriters. They deserve a wider audience and no doubt through their hard work they will achieve it.   – Chris Field