Stephen Simmons
Website:
http://www.stephensimmonsmusic.com/
Discography:
2006 - Drink Ring Jesus
2004 - Last Call
| Stephen Simmons was raised in the small town of Woodbury, Tennessee. His mother was a schoolteacher and his father held a factory job (In his family, they were the first generation that didn’t work the farm). Humble and soft-spoken, Stephen at first seems to exemplify this rural, Church of Christ upbringing. As a songwriter, however, his vision is much more complex. The songs on his new recording, Drink Ring Jesus, tell stories of country life’s dark side and serve to remind listeners how it feels to stand at the intersection of piety and sin.
When you’re raised in the Church of Christ, if you’re sensitive at all, it leaves you with a lot to struggle with, says Stephen, who now lives in Nashville. You grow up to see that there are gaps and holes in what you’ve been taught; there are questions where there are not supposed to be questions. On the one hand, I was exposed to small community religious life, but on the other, I was exposed to my wild-ass relatives. My songs are an attempt to get all those contradictions out.
Like Stephen’s previous record, Last Call, which was compared to everyone from Johnny Cash to Ryan Adams, Drink Ring Jesus provides a front porch view of life in rural Tennessee, albeit one with a sometimes sinister perspective. This time, though, Simmons dispenses with the rhythm section and electric guitars, making his last-song-of-the-night vocals and hardtack acoustic accompaniment seem all the more ominous and immediate. On songs like Time To Pay,’ Simmons explores the tension between faith and cutting and running. Comes a time to be brave, he sings, Your soul is mine / Now it’s time to pay. If anything, Drink Ring Jesus focuses more on religious faith or its lack than did its predecessor, though Simmons understands that spirituality is guesswork at best. Well I’m out here, out here on the road / Seem to wonder who’s watching over my soul.... Lord, I wonder where this road really goes / Man, I wonder who knows, he sings on "Carpenter Skills".
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