JD Simo - Simo The Band

A few months back while watching some Lexington Lab Band videos on youtube they did a series of Johnny Cash songs and had a guest guitar player named JD Simo. This guy played Johnny Cash songs like I'd never quite heard before. If Mr Cash were alive to witness JD playing his songs I think he would approve. In fact, if he were still with us he might try to hire JD to play on a new record with him. JD Simo is like the Eddie Van Halen of Nashville. But that's not all this young man has up his sleeve as a guitar player. He's a rocker and he's really into the blues and Jimi Hendrix and all the old great famous rock and blues based bands.This man is a virtuoso guitar player. Here's one with JD Simo covering a Johnny Cash song called Big River, with The Lexington Lab Band and part of The Big River Band.

According to his Wiki page: Simo grew up in Chicago.^[2] He began playing guitar at the age of five. By age 15, Simo had already formed a band and released a live EP recorded in Phoenix Arizona, which sold 5,000 copies.^[2] He quickly earned a strong local following in the Phoenix area, pleasing crowds of all ages with dynamic stage performances that showcased his guitar skills. He spent most of his teenage years touring, either in his own solo endeavors or in various other bands.

In the winter of 2006 he moved to Nashville, Tennessee where he established himself as the lead guitarist in the Don Kelley Band. This led to Simo's employment as an in-demand session musician. Simo continued to play in this capacity until 2011.

In the beginning of 2010, he joined bassist Frank Swart and drummer Adam Abrashoff to form the rock band SIMO. They spent much of 2011 on tour and released their debut album in November. They closed out the year with a homecoming show at The Basement in Nashville, the site of their first show. Sundazed Records released a vinyl single of Shake It/AoH off their debut album on January 25, 2013. SIMO was featured at several festivals including Mountain Jam and Bonnaroo in the summer of 2013.

Simo maintains an online blog, featuring videos of his playing style as well as information about vintage music equipment. In addition, Simo often films promotional videos for Carter Vintage Guitars in Nashville, TN.

This is what JD's band sounds like when you go to see them live. He just reeks of Jimi Hendrix in this video and it shows that chicken pickin' isn't the only thing Simo has up his talented sleeve. In fact JD said in an interview I watched with him in reference to his chicken pickin' .... "I can't do that" and "what I do is not technically chicken pickin'" ..... I'm not sure just exactly what he means by that because it sure sounds like chicken pickin; to me. But here he is in his element, this is what he likes to play. 

Did you get that Hendrix vibe? This dude blows my mind. Anyone who hold down a stage playing lead guitar and singing lead vocals like that is one talented son of a gun in my book. I've tried it, and I've been trying it for many years. I don't think I have it in me to do that, but that's okay. I'd rather watch someone else do it anyway. Anyone who knows what the pressure is like in a live performing situation would probably agree. You can watch JD's videos on his youtube channel and you can catch a lot of others just by putting JD Simo into the youtube search engine. 

 One big thing I have learned about playing music out live like that is you only get one shot at not fucking the whole song up. Nobody wants to see a band that has to start over a couple of times on a song. And nobody wants to hear you continue to butcher a song from start to finish.

People make mistakes .... that's a given in anything you do. What makes a good musician is one who can cover his own ass in a note or two and make it look like he meant to play it that way. Great musicians can cover the rest of the bands ass too if needed. One thing you NEVER want to do when playing a live show is to just crash and burn a song into complete silence. Its about the worst thing I can think of happening at a show where you're getting paid, Its embarrassing as hell. I've still got some redeeming to do at a place called Fat Jacks one of these days. I didn't crash the songs and I won't name anyone in particular to blame for it. There were five of us on that stage that night. Inexperience played the biggest factor in that incident. Luckily we were only opening for another act and using about 45 minutes to an hour to play while they got set up and ready. Luckily, we also had a lot of supporters in that crowd so nobody booed us at least. But I still felt like I had a score to settle when I left that place that night with my head hung low. It was a real bummer compared to the night before when I was playing on stage with JB and The Moonshine Band and sittin' on top of the world. 

One of these days, Fat Jacks ... one of these days!

The Lexington Lab Band

We interrupt your pedal board series for a musical post .... back to the pedal boards later. I've been wanting to do a review of these guys for a while and I've been piecing it together for a while now. Its time ...

Every now and then you run across a cover band that's just got that little something special about them. The Lexington Lab Band is definitely one of those bands. I'm really into a good cover band too, who's not?. Sure, there's a cover bands on every street corner club in every city of America. A lot of them are pretty good too. Some are really good. And some of them shine like a diamond at everything they touch and the Lexington Lab Band is one of those bands. Part of it, quite possibly is that they are playing the sound track to my life. They cover all my favorite old songs and do them as good as the original bands that wrote them in the first place. I'd have to say they are my favorite Youtube cover band of all time, hands down. Every single person that participates in their videos are world class musicians and singers. The following videos are best viewed in HD on the youtube page and a good set of headphones are almost a must to get the full benefits.

One of the singers they have featured is no stranger to American Idol fans. Lauren Mink is not only a beautiful voice but very easy on the eyes too. She's been a contestant on American Idol twice now and went a pretty good way into the contest before being eliminated. Personally I'd almost hate to see her win that show and be tied to a crappy contract for a year or two. She's better than that, and deserves a lot better. What little attention I used to pay to that show I noticed that the best never won anyway. That's just my opinion, but its an opinion based on over 40 years of musical experience. Lauren Mink is above that American Idol level of stardom. I can't believe some big record producer hasn't signed her to a good contract by now.

The Lab Band is full of these world class musicians too. Its not just Lauren Mink. They have guest artists perform on all their video productions. And its not just the artists and musicians that are top notch. The videography and editing department has mad skills abound. The equipment they use is all top notch too. I don't know a lot about who's behind the scenes to this great act, but the Lab Band has obviously been picking from the cream of the crop. I have discovered a lot of great artists by keeping up with the LLB. Many of them have a pretty good thing of their own going on.

JD Simo is one such artist I have discovered since discovering the Lab Band. The band did a tribute to Johnny Cash a while back, one that Mr, Cash himself would no doubt give his stamp of approval on. JD Simo really burned it up on those songs and I had to know more about him. Turns out JD played a stint in The Don Kelly Band. The Don Kelly Band is a legendary band based out of the Nashville Tennessee downtown bar circuit. If you're ever in Nashville and want to see a great act, The Don Kelly band is one you sure want to put at the top of your list. They perform regularly at Roberts Western World on Broadway in Nashville Tennessee.  For a sample of JD's playing with the Don Kelly Band click here.

I came to know of The Lexington Lab Band through the Youtube community. Basically what I would more specifically call "the guitar community" on Youtube. There are a lot of good guitar teachers out there on youtube but some of them have a little easier time than others getting across to the larger watching/learning community. Dale Adams is one of those teachers I have been watching for several years. As a more intermediate player his videos basically cut the crap and get down to the bones. I can usually watch one of Dales videos and have the song nailed down pretty good after just one time through. Most all of his instructional videos are of songs I grew up on and in some cases already knew how to play. This guy knows what he's doing and he's good at teaching it. Not everyone who plays can teach. It takes something I'm afraid I don't have. But thankfully there are people like Dale out there who have the gift of teaching. And he teaches kids with learning disabilities for a day job. I actually wondered what he did for a living before the Lexington Lab Band website was established and read the bios.

The Regular's in the Lexington Lab Band are:

Dales Adams ~ Guitars

Derrick Breaux ~ Bass, Vocals, Guitars, Keys

Mike Vandermark ~ Vocals, Guitars, Keys, Bass, Drums

Rob Pottorf ~ Keys, Vocals, Guitars

Ryan McQuerry ~ Drums

Neil Gregory ~ Video Director

You can read their complete bios on the Lexington Lab Band website.

You can also watch all their videos there on site as well as Dales “tonedr” Youtube Channel.

Is "Big Music" Dead?

Looking at my stats, nobody's reading this anyway so I'll think of it as my little journal of random musings about music stuff. I really don't give a hoot one way or the other I just feel the need to write it down sometimes. To get it "out of my system" so to speak. Maybe its the lack of tags? I did notice one particular post of mine that had several hits and it had "tags" so maybe that's the way to get readership? I'll try it on this post and see what happens. Maybe some hyperlinks too. I'm kinda curious about it now. I'm just writing and thinking it up as I go along. Sometimes a subject gets to me and I start thinking about it deeply. I just watched a video and it mentioned the decline of the music industry. I have been hearing that for a long time now. Several years now in fact.

But is the music industry really in decline or has the game just changed? I think the game has changed tremendously for the stereotypical industry "fat cats" of years gone by. People have started buying music by the song now. Back in the day an artist made an album and sold a collection of their songs at once. Some of those songs weren't too great either as I remember. It seemed like there was a formula and they would put a certain amount of "singles" on it and the rest was "filler" material. Seems to me that now there's more incentive there for an artist to try for making an album where all the songs were singles.

I have noticed a decline in the amount of CD's on the shelf at Wal-Mart over the years too. Maybe its just the one I'm going to? Possible but thinking back 15 or 20 years I can remember when there were lots more CD's for sale on shelves and a lot of stores. I think there might be a record store at the mall 50 miles away from me. Target still sells some CD's also but I can't think of many places to buy them around here. I have to consider though that I DO live in a very small town. The nearest "big town" for me is 50 miles away, and its not that big. A lot of people have went the Amazon way now too. Buying things online has become a pretty big industry over the past 20 years or so.

 The music industry has definitely changed a lot over the decades. Now it seems its almost anyone's game with enough drive, talent, and ambition behind them. Computers and software are a big part of that change too. With a Mac and Pro Tools and some other home studio equipment people can make recording that sound as good as anything you buy off the shelf. Some people are very proficient with all those tools at their disposal and there's a growing Indie market out there with several choices when it comes to outlets for selling your own tunes. Anyone can sell their music on itunes now as I understand (although I personally don't use itunes). One outlet I have used is cdbaby and they bill themselves as "the best independent music store on the web" and I have no doubt they are.

Another factor in this games is that now with youtube, anyone can learn to play guitar or other instruments. I know people who give lessons over Skype now too. There's a ton of guitar lesson videos on youtube for free. People also do covers as a sort of lesson. The downside to it is that there's a lot of crap on there lol. I have been through no telling how many bad videos looking for good ones. After a while you do find a lot of good teachers on youtube. To help some of you out if you're interested in checking out some of the better players and lesson givers out there I'll share some of my favorites with you. There's privettricker, who plays covers and though not technically "lessons" in the traditional sense, he's very good. More for advanced players like myself who just want to get the progression down quicker etc.. There's another great player on youtube who goes by the name tonedr and he is bad ass! He does tutorials on a lot of good songs and is in a few bands also. One of the bands he plays in features Lauren Mink who was a contestant on American Idol a couple of years back. He also plays in a project band called The Lexington Lab Band. Here's a video of just one of their many covers. This one is The Lexington Lab Band covering Aerosmith's Dream On. Check out all of their covers if you have a chance. They have different singers and musicians that sit in with them and they are all top notch. One of the more well known teachers out there is a guy named Marty Schwartz. He has a LOT of lessons on his channel(s). Marty is the type of teacher that walks you through the lesson step by step. Another guy like that is Justin Sandercoe, and in my opinion one of THE best guitar teachers out there. Like Marty, he goes through songs step by step and he's very thorough about it. AND he has that British accent that a lot of people seem to enjoy. Everything is free with Justin. He also has a website where you can get tabs etc,.  He has two youtube channels also. The above link is one and his other one is called JustinGuitar Songs. His website is here http://justinguitar.com/

So is big music dead?  Maybe ...... but there's a lot of good music still out there. And plenty to chose from too. It looks to me like bands that want to be successful these days just have to get out there and play every gig they can get their hands on. If you have a record/CD for sale, being out there playing in live venues is a good place to sell them. Back in the day a signed artist made an album and went on tour to promote it. Hopefully they would have a hit single or two and rake in a lot of cash and get to sit on their ass for a while and enjoy life. I think those days are kinda faded now and artists have to keep at it a lot harder than they did in the old days. A lot of bands operate on shoestring budgets and tour like hell for a year or so until they can save up enough to kick back for a month. And then its right back on the road again if you want to make any money. In a sense its always been like that but what's changed is the money and album sales. A whole lot of people these days buy ONE song at a time on itunes and that has surely put a huge dent in the Album/CD sales department.

Anywho .... that's about all I have to say for now on this subject.
Peace out good people ...