ARTiST: Stephen Simmons
ALBUM: Somewhere In Between
BiTRATE: 189kbps avg
QUALiTY: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.97 Final / -V2 --vbr-new / 44.100Khz
LABEL: Me & My Records
GENRE: Rock
SiZE: 66.27 megs
PLAYTiME: 0h 46min 22sec total
RiP DATE: 2008-05-08
STORE DATE: 2008-02-19
Track List:
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01. Don't Mind Me 3:52
02. Hold You Today 4:10
03. New Scratches 4:16
04. We'll See 3:38
05. Long Road 5:07
06. Cloudy In L.A 5:09
07. Down Tonight 3:22
08. Hey 3:37
09. Blues On A Sunny Day 5:08
10. Go Easy On Me 4:32
11. All The Time I've Got 3:31
Release Notes:
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For singer-songwriters like Stephen Simmons and Thad Cockrell, a Southern
evangelical Christian upbringing doesnÆt necessitate sticking to a straight and
narrow musical path. Over the course of several recordings each, theyÆve brought
a little imagination to the traditions theyÆve inherited. This time SimmonsÆ
guilt-laden souls arenÆt wrestling with heaven and hell so much as romance, and
Cockrell has released the spiritual uplift thatÆs been bubbling beneath the
surface all along.
Not that the two sound alike or even espouse the same beliefs, but they both
make country-influenced music and have church-going in their bloodùSimmons grew
up in the Church of Christ denomination, and Cockrell is the son of a Southern
Baptist minister. And both just released new recordings that explore new
spiritual directions.
God and the devil loom large on SimmonsÆ first two proper releases. A desperate
dualism haunts Last Call, and most of the characters in the 16 songs poison
their relationships with dirty hands and guilty consciences. Follow-up Drink
Ring Jesus bores beneath the surface in duels between good and evil to
compelling and insightful resultsùthereÆs even a song written from the devilÆs
perspective on reeling in a soul on ôDevilÆs Work Is Never Done.ö On both
albums, Simmons injects the urgency of the pulpit, mined from his experience
growing up in Woodbury, Tenn., into storylines of down-and-out folks.
ôHalf of the service was [the preacher] sweating and spitting out fire and
brimstone,ö Simmons says. ôIt would get so hard that people [were] moved to get
up and go down front, and that meant everybody was going to be late for lunch,
because somebody hadnÆt been true and they would tell what theyÆd done. Maybe
thereÆs something cathartic about going [to the altar]. Maybe everybody else is
like, æOK, I feel much better now. We got that out of the wayùletÆs go eat.Æ ö
He got so used to that sort of fervency that he expected it most everywhere. ôI
remember moving and going to a really big church somewhere on West End and
feeling kind of ripped off because nobody chewed me out,ö he says.
SimmonsÆ latest, Something In Between, isnÆt about spiritual wrestling so much
as sorting through the rubble of relationships. ItÆs as if, for the moment, heÆs
purged the thoughts of hellfire from his system.
ôYou write a lot more songs about relationshipsùor most people doùthan you do
about demons and stuff like that,ö he says. ôFor a long time, it was tied really
closely to those themes. I donÆt know if thatÆs just that phase I was going
through. Anybody that absorbs all that stuffùI think you have to work it out
somehow.ö
But not surprisingly, SimmonsÆ relationship songs have a soul-searching element
too. ôI think sometimes itÆs the same theme of guilt and learning how to forgive
yourself when you havenÆt lived up,ö he says. Take ôGo Easy On Me,ö a
straight-ahead heartland rock song that beseeches whomever might be listening to
ôGo easy Æcause IÆm trying / CanÆt make up for the last time / CouldnÆt fix it
if I tried.ö
It may seem like Simmons has followed a direct route away from spiritual
preoccupations, but the timelineÆs not that simple. Never intending the
demo-like Drink Ring Jesus to be a full-fledged album, Simmons ended up slipping
it in between Last Call and the then-in-progress Something In Between. ôI
remember thinking, æWow, I just went even one more step off that cliff on the
religion thing with [Drink Ring Jesus], so when I do get this [new] one out itÆs
going to really seem like I completely swung back around,ö he says.
Even across different subject matter, SimmonsÆ songwriting has a ragged realism
and human empathy from album to album. A lot of the scenes unfold in bars or
bedrooms. His voice has a rubbed-raw quality and his melodies scrape the earth.
ôEven on the stuff that deals with spiritualityùI definitely feel more
comfortable with the word æspiritualityÆ than æreligionÆùthereÆs not anything
thatÆs even slightly judgmental, because thatÆs what I kind of cringe [at] about
mainstream religionùthe judgmental aspectùhaving felt guilty and been made to
feel guilty for a long time,ö Simmons says. ôBut IÆm a part of that tooùyou have
to want to be made to feel guilty.ö
ôObviously [songs] still come out like that,ö he says. ôItÆs not like you
completely move away from it.ö