Rise & Shine is the new album from Nashville trio SIMO whose last LP we described as “Smoky and intelligent with hidden twang and mysterious wooziness...”
Rise & Shine will be released on 15 September 2017 via Provogue/Mascot Label Group.
The album began life on the road, where the three SIMO bandmembers — singer, guitarist and namesake frontman JD Simo, drummer Adam Abrashoff and bassist Elad Shapiro — spent most of 2016 on tour. They played 215 shows that year (including Beth Hart, Blackberry Smoke and Late Great Gregg Allman) leaving behind their Nashville home and traveling to nine different countries to support their Billboard Top 10 blues album, Let Love Show the Way.
The trio worked on new music along the way, stretching out arrangements in the hotel rooms, and pulling along song arrangements during the sound rehearsals. It was a time of development and self-reform for all and they became better friends, better musicians and better people.
Meanwhile, the outside world and its political landscape changed. The need to write music that really meant something — music that not only demonstrated the band’s abilities but also sent a clear message — was more imperative than ever.
“This is an album about change,” says Elad. “We looked at what’s been happening in our own lives, as well as what’s been happening in the world. Everyone is changing: personally, politically, socially. We’ve seen it. We’ve felt it. And we’re writing about it.”
“If you go through my record collection and look at the more contemporary titles,” JD continued, “You’ll see the Roots, Wilco, Alabama Shakes, and Ryan Adams. I listen to a lot of old soul music, too. Isaac Hayes. Funkadelic. Bob Dylan. On Rise & Shine, I was just trying to cull from the vastness that is my normal music diet, and not trying to pander to some target that was easy to hit.”
The first track to be released from the album is the catchy People Say. We had a listen:
A burping bass lurks near a a fizzy riff. The potent beat chugs beneath the casual marbling of the lead guitar.
For pure blues enthusiasts, this is a bit of a departure with soul, R&B, funk and jazz elements. There’s a bit of the Stax sound, a slice of Isley Brothers and even lumps of Eric Burdon and War.
Live, SIMO are one of the best bands we’ve ever seen… now this new recording shows them to be transcendent and original in the studio too…
Simo’s new album Rise & Shine. Available Sept 15 on CD, 2LP & Digital.
CATCH SIMO AT THE BORDERLINE ON NOVEMBER 26TH – TICKETS
Link: https://www.facebook.com/simotheband/
