03.20.05 The New Zealand Herald Winning ways with country STEPHEN SIMMONS - Last Call (Southbound) (Herald rating * * * *)   Tennessee-born Nashville-based singer-songwriter Stephen Simmons doesn't lie. A lesser artist might have opened an album with something up-tempo but Simmons starts as he means to go on with the downbeat The Good Life, I've Got Issues Baby I'll Probably Never Resolve. His debut album Last Call announces the arrival of a major talent who views life from the perspective of the sinners, not the saved, from those who have driven the back roads, spent time inside, or live with guilt. These finely detailed stories invite comparisons with Steve Earle and acoustic Bruce Springsteen, sung in a hard-edged sometimes slurry style which suggests indifference or not givin' a damn. Terrific songs here: the wild-child narrative of Loserville; the sense of shame and avoidance of the past in Shirley's Stables; the unspoken menace of Dirty Side Of Me. All this in spare arrangements, a few augmented by pedal steel, and every now and again some kicking drums. Good one all round. Songs from hard-scrabble roads, bar stools and prison cells, ringing with sin and guilt and feeling utterly authentic. – Graham Reid