Hearsay

The Boobie Bungalow Gentlemen's Club

I'll Be Your Johnny Cash

Little Bird Singing

THE SONG:
I spent a lot of my early touring days traveling around with various Rock 'n' Roll bands, many of whom were also often my backing band. Playing the solo acoustic guitar + harmonica troubador gigs vs. fronting a loud & loose 4 or 5 piece rockin' combo gigs are very different things. Some nights when we were a little too loud I wished I could switch over to folk-mode. And some nights, when I was throwing out the heartfelt story songs and I knew all the ladies were just there to dance and have a good time, I wished I had the band and could just turn it up. I guess I wrote this after one of the latter nights.

THE BAND:
Ole Mossy Face was always one of my favorite local (Nashville) rock 'n' roll bands. My first drummer in town recommended Casey when he couldn't make a run of gigs and we all became fast friends and continued playing together off and on throughout the years. We always threatened to record a full album together, or at least a split lp. Luckily, Mason and Troy set up a recording studio in their house in Madison and we tracked a few songs before time slipped away on us all.
lyrics
ROCK ‘N’ ROLL BAND

I wanna be in a rock ‘n’ roll band
See the pretty girls shake their ass and clap their hands
I wanna be in a rock ‘n’ roll band
Come on pretty Mamma don’t you understand

For my twelfth birthday I got a pretty Guild guitar
Mahogany hollow body country folk star
Played it everyday till my fingers swelled and burned
Started getting pretty good at making up my own words

A band from the High School one day came around
Brought a bunch a gear and that electric sound
Mamma came in heard that noise and shut down our little jam down
Said “you ain’t gonna play in no rock ‘n’ roll band”

I wanna be in a rock ‘n’ roll band
See the pretty girls shake their ass and clap their hands
I wanna be in a rock ‘n’ roll band
Come on pretty Mamma don’t you understand

I went down to Memphis town
Playing my little songs and trying to find my sound
A naughty southern belle with a stiff drink in her hand
Came up on my set break started rubbing on my pants

Pretty little man with the guitar in your hands
You know we dig your songs but what you don’t understand
Me and all my girls just came out to get some drinks
So turn it up, let it loose, we wanna dance don’t wanna think

I wanna be in a rock ‘n’ roll band
See the pretty girls shake their ass and clap their hands
I wanna be in a rock ‘n’ roll band
Come on pretty Mamma don’t you understand

Now I’m all grown up and I’m on my own
And I can play rock ‘n’ roll all night if I want

I wanna be in a rock ‘n’ roll band
See the pretty girls shake their ass and clap their hands
I wanna be in a rock ‘n’ roll band
Come on pretty Mamma don’t you understand
Come on pretty Mamma don’t you understand
Come on pretty Mamma don’t you understand
credits
releases June 28, 2024
Rock 'n' Roll Band was written by Stephen Simmons
Shiny Geode Music / SESAC / copyright secured / asll rights reserved

Recording:
Stephen Simmons: vocals, electric guitar, keys.
Casey Sanders: drums and percussion
Mason Vickery: lap steel & electric guitar
Troy Daugherty: Electric guitar
David Kirkpatrick: Bass guitar

Mixed by Joe Martino
Mastered by Alex McCollough at True East Mastering
license

Rock 'n' Roll Band

THE SONG:
Time is often personified in our minds and the one constant trait they always have is that they wait for no one. I have always dug this song and wanted to put it on a band album. I wrote it back in the days when I played a lot with the boys from Ole Mossy Face and it reminds me of that era in the early days after moving to East Nashville in 2003. Life's long since moved on and time doesn't look back, but I do.

THE BAND:
Ole Mossy Face was always one of my favorite local (Nashville) rock 'n' roll bands. My first drummer in town recommended Casey when he couldn't make a run of gigs and we all became fast friends and continued playing together off and on throughout the years. We always threatened to record a full album together, or at least a split lp. Luckily, Mason and Troy set up a recording studio in their house in Madison and we tracked a few songs before time slipped away on us all.
lyrics
TIME DON’T CARE

Rolling down the highway
Wish you were going my way
But time you won’t stop
Just left me where you dropped me off

Thinking back on better days
When things were going my way
But time you won’t slow down
You won’t even turn around

Time don’t you care for me no more
Now it’s so clear to see
If you don’t then time
Just take care when you leave

Sometimes I think back and remember the time
That easygoing, loving friend of mine
But he’s all gone
Already moved on

Windows down on a summer drive
Ignoring signs as time goes by
Without a trace
Where did we turn astray

Time don’t you care for me no more
Now it’s so clear to see
If you don’t then time
Just take care when you leave

Time don’t you care for me no more
Now it’s so clear to see
If you don’t then time
Just take care when you leave
credits
released June 14, 2024
releases July 28, 2024
"Time Don't Care" was written by Stephen Simmons
Shiny Geode Music / SESAC / copyright secured / all rights reserved

Recording:
Stephen Simmons: vocals, electric guitar, keys.
Casey Sanders: drums and percussion
Mason Vickery: lap steel & electric guitar
Troy Daugherty: Electric guitar
David Kirkpatrick: Bass guitar

Mixed by Joe Martino
Mastered by Alex McCollough at True East Mastering

Time Don't Care

Chasing Headlights

The first single off the upcoming album, HUNCH.  Decoration Day is an old custom in the US South that has sort of melded into a National Memorial Day. I love old cemeteries and, like most songwriters, I spend a lot of time in the past. It is always a balancing act to try and honor those days with the present.

Decoration Days

From the new album "A WORLD WITHOUT" coming in 2016 on Blue Rose Records (Europe) and Locke Creek (USA)

The Music Highway

First track from the new album "GALL"
released July 28, 2018

Gall

When It Rains

Traveling Strange

I recorded this at home back in April 2020 during the shutdown, and my longtime buddy/drummer Matt Crouse tracked loops, keys, and drums at his home studio, his collaborator Mike Jackson added some tasty electric guitar and bass, and my friend Molly Jewell did harmony parts from her house, and then my friend Joe Martino mixed it for me, and long time mastering maestro/buddy Alex McCollough mastered it. This photo is from around the time I recorded it and the track sounds as moody as I felt most days walking around a deserted downtown Nashville week after week. 
~SS

Words and Music by Stephen Simmons / Shiny Geode Music / SESAC all rights reserved

released February 1, 2021 
Words and Music by Stephen Simmons 
Shiny Geode Music / SESAC / all rights reserved 
Produced by Matt Crouse 

Stephen Simmons: Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, harmonica 
Matt Crouse: Drums, Percussion, pads, 
Mike Jackson: Electric Guitar, Bass 
Molly Jewell: Harmony Vocals 
Joe Martino: Mixing 
Alex McCollough: Mastering

In the years since his first album, 2004's Last Call, Nashville singer-songwriter Stephen Simmons has wandered the wide landscape of American roots music, from contemplative country and finger-picked folk to rugged and ragged blues-rock.

 On his 12th album, Hunch, released October 24, 2025, he hints at the thread that ties 20 years of ideas together.

"It makes me feel better when I tap into the truth" he sings in the closing track on Hunch, "Someone Like You," a ballad brimming with Rhodes chimes and gentle longing.

Tapping into the truth doesn't only mean one thing, and the 10 tracks on Hunch show the breadth of what it means to mine what feels real, from connection and disconnection to wonder, sorrow, reflection and confusion.

"It's not therapy, but it's therapeutic," Simmons says. "People talk about when you first start writing, sometimes it's almost like clearing your throat. You're not really at the thing yet, and sometimes you write for a while before you get in some kind of flow. And then something starts coming together. And when you feel it, you know it's true — and you didn't know yet how you were gonna say it 'til it comes out. It's gratifying."

Hunch's predecessor, 2020's Family Album, explored the truth of where Simmons comes from in deep detail, with 18 songs about family and hidden history captured inside his grandmother's empty house in Woodbury, Tennessee.

Released amid the pandemic, it originated and unintentionally stayed close to home, as Simmons and so many of his contemporaries got stuck introducing and supporting new music virtually, smartphone sets streaming from living room to living room.

Hunch is the post-pandemic door flung wide open, carrying Simmons back to the road and miles away from Tennessee. He's in a Dresden sushi bar, wondering how and why love sparks. He's in a rented car in Amsterdam, tracing what takes us toward wrong turns. He's gazing at the moon.

But wherever Hunch travels, the narratives always seem to pull Simmons back home.

Mid-tempo country cut "Grandpa's Jacket" considers how we crave ties to where we came from, even while we chase adventure. The album's title track, while just as imbued with truth, comes at life decisions with a wink and a bluesy lurch. Everyone had ideas for where that kid from Woodbury might go. But, "Uncle Glen had the best plan of the bunch," Simmons sings, "strummin' on the guitar and live your life on a hunch."

"That's the only one that's a little cheeky," Simmons says. "It's tongue-in-cheek. It's a blues-rock song. Then everything else goes a completely different direction. I don't know why, it just kinda felt like a pivot."

 To render the full pivot, Simmons turned to folks who've been part of his musical story tracing almost back to when he first left Woodbury.

 Goffrey Moore (Jonatha Brooke, Maia Sharp) produced Hunch in his Madison, Tennessee, studio, and he and Simmons invited contributions from lap and pedal steel player Paul Niehaus, singer/pianist Molly Jewell, bassists Dave Jacques and Billy Mercer, and drummers Matthew Crouse and Bryan Owings.

 All accomplished players who've collaborated with country and Americana greats from John Prine to Patty Griffin, they've all played with Simmons on various songs and stages over decades.

These well- and long-established personal and musical connections allowed Moore and Simmons to experiment in comfort, letting songs go where they seemed to want to. The songwriter's initial intent was to hole up in Moore's century-old cabin to capture a stripped-down set. But as the recording progressed and friends came in, Hunch took a more dynamic and textured turn.

 "It was a different way to do it for me," Simmons says. "It kinda lent itself to, like, 'OK, well, maybe we'll go big on this one.' And then all of a sudden, it presents itself."

 Call it following intuition. Call it living on a hunch.

StephenSimmons

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