On 29 January 2016, Nashville trio SIMO will release their new album Let Love Show The Way on Provogue/Mascot Label Group (Joe Bonmasssa, Black Stone Cherry, Monster Truck, Walter Trout).
SIMO recently played a SOLD OUT showcase in London at the sweaty and intimate St Moritz Club in Soho.
SIMO have just released a brand new live video playing one of their non-album tracks 'Shake It' which you can view here:
Listen to some of the album tracks here:
Long May You Sail
I'll Always Be Around
Becky's Last Occupation
Modern blues torchbearer Joe Bonamassa brought SIMO to the attention of the Mascot Label Group stating that frontman and Guitarist JD Simo is “one of the best out there right now”, and with this new album it’s not hard to see why.
As if creeping from the Southern swamps and mist-soaked cotton fields, SIMO’s Stranger Blues is the perfect table setter for the Nashville power trio’s vibrant new LP, Let Love Show the Way. The song is a blueprint for reinvigorating the fusion of jazz improvisation, downhome blues and classic R&B, as well as these genres’ psychedelic Brit Invasion and countrified Southern-rock manifestations. The rest of the record follows suit, a souped-up vehicle transporting the band on a deeply satisfying, off-the-cuff musical journey.
Let Love Show The Way is a frenetic collection of songs that consist of both live favourites and new tracks.
Cut entirely live in full, unbroken takes—vocals and solos included—the sound is primal, sweltering and immediate. “We live and die by the take,” says singer-guitarist JD Simo. “We don’t edit, and if there are overdubs, they’re minimal. I want it to be unaffected and pure. For me, the music that always resonates most is when a performance is captured. That’s what I love, and that’s what we go for.”
The first album ever recorded at Macon, Ga.’s Big House—the communal home of the Allman Brothers Band during their late ‘60s/early ‘70s heyday—Let Love Show the Way finds SIMO not just reveling in the hallowed space’s unique mojo and history, but taking it to a fresh and inspired place. As a musical unit, Simo, his longtime drummer Adam Abrashoff and bassist Elad Shapiro have an undeniable chemistry, taken to even greater heights with JD playing Duane Allman’s 1957 gold-top Les Paul for every track on the record. This is the same six-string heard on the first two Allman Brothers LPs, the same storied guitar that delivered the unforgettable riff on Derek & the Dominoes’ Layla. JD is now part of an elite group of artists—including Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes and Wilco’s Nels Cline—who share the rare honor of having wielded this talismanic instrument.
“There’s definitely a magical element to the recording,” Simo says of Let Love Show the Way. “The vibe of the Big House, using Duane’s guitar, plus all the touring we’d done leading up to it, all the refinement of the material on the road—it was a perfect storm.”
This choice to record at this historic location is a nod to JD’s lifelong reverence and respect for the musical pioneers who have come before him. When he was just three years old, seeing The Blues Brothers and Elvis Presley’s ’68 comeback special changed his life. “I was transfixed,” he says. “With The Blues Brothers, you’ve got John Lee Hooker with Muddy Waters’ band, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, James Brown, Chaka Khan right after she made one of my favorite records of all time with Rufus, Rags to Riches. Not to mention some of the greatest rhythm & blues musicians to ever walk the planet—Matt ‘Guitar’ Murphy from Chess, that incredible original horn section from Saturday Night Live, Willie Hall from Stax, who played with Isaac Hayes. I mean, it’s a comedy and it’s funny, but as far as exposure to some really heavy music—I wanted to be Steve Cropper, I wanted to be John Lee Hooker. And it was the same with the Elvis special—he’s in the black leather suit, still good looking and charming and singing his ass off. Seeing The Blues Brothers and that Elvis comeback special made me want to play music.”
Let Love Show The Way Tracklist
1. Stranger Blues
2. Two Timin’ Woman
3. Can’t Say Her Name
4. I Lied
5. Please
6. Long May You Sail
7. I’ll Always Be Around
8. Becky’s Last Occupation
9. I’d Rather Die In Vain
10. Today I’m Here
11. Let Love Show The Way [Bonus Track]
12. Ain't Doin' Nothin' [Bonus Track]
13. Please Be With Me [Bonus Track]
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