Review: JD Simo

JD Simo

By Mike O’Cull

New-style blues/rock guitar star JD Simo takes listeners inside, outside, and right to the cutting edge on his new record, simply titled JD Simo, the follow up to his last album Off At 11 (2019). The set comes down August 21st, 2020 on Crows Feet Records and captures the young guitarist in a state of immolation, burning hotter and more artistically than ever before. This is only Simo’s second full-length release but he displays an articulated vision and fearless style most musicians never reach at any age. Simo speaks a unique and personal musical language that takes in hard blues, emotive soul, and bombastic psychedelia, functioning as an extension of those who played before him, not an imitation. He exists somewhere between The Funk Brothers and the Woodstock Nation in a way that’s futuristic rather than nostalgic and commands attention like the musical giants who once walked the Earth.

Simo is a Chicago native who is presently based in Nashville, Tennessee. He’s a supremely talented songwriter, guitarist, and producer who has worked with luminaries including Jack White, Tommy Emmanuel, Luther Dickinson, Blackberry Smoke, and many more. He’s performed at important festivals like Bonnaroo, Warren Haynes’ Christmas Jam, and Mountain Jam and was invited by Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh to join Phil Lesh and Friends. He’s been praised across the industry since the drop of his 2019 solo effort Off At 11 and has continually gained career momentum. Simo is light years ahead of your typical blues/rock gunslinger guitarist and owns the kind of musical authority of which legends are made.

Simo starts his party with the esoteric soul of “The Movement,” a track that begins as a sort of later Motown-ish experiment before shifting gears into an energetic guitar jam before finishing with a freestyle noise excursion that’s positively lysergic. The crazy thing is that Simo makes it all seem perfectly logical. His many-layered expressiveness allows him to blend genres intuitively into a new whole that leaps out of the speakers at you fully formed. “Love” gets heavier and more anthemic without losing any of the funk on the way to its big chorus hook. JD gets down on some gritty lead vocals and wah-drenched guitar before going full-on into a stuttering, dissonant fuzz/whammy/octave solo that channels Rage Against The Machine before hitting that chorus again. The message behind it all? Only love can conquer hate.

“Out Of Sight” is high-energy funky blues/rock at its peak. It’s a loud, stripped-down wild child of a song that never stops pushing. It demonstrates the raw power Simo has beneath his artistic leanings and just how close to the edge he’s willing to get. His guitar work is terrifyingly intense and he holds nothing back. “Higher Plane” gets back to Simo’s trippy, fuzzed-out blues, this time with a swampy inflection. Simo does more with noise and texture than anyone playing this genre today and, as such, is so much more than the guitarists fans expect to encounter connected to the blues. Blues music needs more musicians who are so willing to create an actual future for it and not more history lessons.

“Take That” is a roaring, high-speed barroom blues instrumental featuring Simo throwing down a revved-up take on the old school style. Less than two minutes long, the cut feels live and in-the-moment and lets Simo show off his considerable chops with nothing but a sweet vintage tone. Be sure to listen all the way to the end of JD Simo for the languid and strange “Anna Lee,” which will send your attitude off into the night properly adjusted. JD Simo is in the vanguard of American guitar music these days and is pushing our traditions into the unknown territory they need to survive and be relevant. Spin this set daily and become part of what’s next.

Watch “Take That” (thanks to 1AnitrasDance for the video)