05.01.07 MOJO Music Magazine Stephen Simmons - Drink Ring Jesus (Locke Creek) Simmons (no relation) follows a fine first album with even more durable goods. On most of these songs - folky in a solo Steve Earle sort of way, though with a softer, sadder voice - he's a Bible Belt barstool philosopher singing of sin (including the USA's in Devil's Work Is Never Done) and redemption. Intelligent, intense, and easy to like. – Sylvie Simmons 11.01.04 MOJO Music Magazine CASH CROP Five young bucks taking a lead from Johnny Cash. 1. Josh Ritter 2. Bobby Bare Jr. 3. Lucero 4. Waylon Payne 5. Stephen Simmons (East) Tennessee native raised in the Church of (God in) Christ amid an extended family of hellraisers, Simmons channels that mixed-up childhood into hard-hitting ballads that owe as much to Jay Farrar as they do The Man In Black. Drunk, sober, or somewhere in between, Simmon’s words ring true. Check out: Last Call, Locke Creek Records, 2004 – Andrea Lisle