Jan 10

Jan 10 Simerson Hill releases debut album

Simerson Hill has worked diligently in the studio for nearly the past year concocting the perfect recipe of tasty tunes for this 5 track musical delicacy. {Brooke Maners/Davidson Local}

On January 5, local blues/rock band, from the small community of Churchland, in Davidson County, dropped its first highly anticipated self-titled EP.

Although the crew prefers not to compare themselves to other known artists, they explained their unique style to be similar to combining Tyler Childers with the Black Keys. When discussing musical inspiration, they individually accredit artists such as Johnny Winter, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, BB King and KORN to name a few. It helps to explain exactly why Simerson Hill’s sound is truly a must-hear, one-of-a-kind.

The band consists of five members, including Chandis Lilly, lead guitarist, Brandon Davis, drummer, Bryan Thompson, rhythm guitarist, harmonicist, vocalist, Michael Perkins, who says he, “slappa da’ bass,” and Thomas Satalino, the newest member of the band who plays organ, piano, saxophone and more.

Thompson does the majority of the lyric writing, except for Black Crow, but the songs always turn out a little different once everyone puts their spin on it, they explained. “Lyrics change, arrangements change, sometimes the whole feeling of the song itself changes. Music composition is a coordinated band effort. Everyone adds their specific ideas, and we experiment together until there’s a product we all like.”

Simerson Hill has worked diligently in the studio for nearly the past year concocting the perfect recipe of tasty tunes for this 5 track musical delicacy. Davis recalled, “Honestly, it all went pretty smoothly, the biggest challenge was waiting. We’ve been writing and playing some of these songs for a year now. We’ve just been so eager to share them with our fans. That wait was killing us!”

Collectively this brotherhood-like group all agree, “The best part of making the album was sincerely just getting to spend that time together in the studio watching each other. These songs aren’t just songs to us. Each one has a deep meaning to someone in the band and it was cool to just get to sit back and watch each band member individually in the studio and see which song, or songs, really brought out their best. Which ones were tugging on their heart strings. We truly poured our heart and soul into this music and we hope it shows. It’s been a long time coming. Literally countless long and late nights.”

They took the time to share the meaning behind the five songs on their album.

Fontana:

A story about an old man who took pride in his heritage and felt a love for his home and where he came from. Refusing to give up his home and land for other people's financial benefit, even if it cost him his life. Underneath Fontana Lake is a town that was called Procter, NC. This was a thriving lumber town, and many people were displaced due to the dam construction and intentional flooding.

Black Crow:

Lead guitarist, Chandis Lilly, wrote this song in remembrance of his brother, Josh Lilly, who unexpectedly passed away in 2014. Lilly wanted to keep in mind while writing it, that he didn’t want it to be a sad song. He wanted it to be a feel-good song because he, like anyone and everyone who knew his brother Josh, never met a person who had a bad thing to say about him. It tells a story about loss, but it’s a feel-good song to remember the good things in life. Lilly wanted it to be relatable in all phases of life. Not just loss, but the good times as well. Lilly had some help from members of his former band, “The Lilly Brothers,” in writing Black Crow; Simerson Hill has just restructured it a little.

Killing Time:

James was a skilled Moonshiner during the prohibition. He was in league with local law enforcement, but greed got the best of them and they turned on James. Setting him up for the murder of his family and sending him behind bars. No one believed he was innocent. Serving his full wrongful sentence, only to be killed one day before his release.

Calm and Collected:

As a band, they wanted a song the crowd could sing along with and get them pumped up on stage. “As far as the lyrics go, it's basically our optimism of how no one really knows us yet, but we hope to make quite an impression.”

King of Hearts:

King of Hearts basically tells a story of confronting the man who is trying to win the heart of the woman you love, AKA the Joker. “If you play your cards right, you can win and be the King of Hearts to your Queen of Diamonds. If you fold, then you lose everything.”

Simerson Hill’s album is available for purchase and download on your favorite streaming services - Pandora, Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, YouTube and more.

An album release party has been scheduled in February at High Rock Outfitters in Lexington. Exact date and details to be released. Following is a list of January dates and locations to see Simerson Hill perform live.

Saturday, Jan 15, at Whiskey Sowers in Mebane from 9:30 p.m.-1:30 a.m.
Friday, Jan 21, at Coyote Joe’s in Charlotte (with National Recording artist Corey Smith, who has sold over 1.5 million tickets to date).

Collectively, Simerson Hill offers, “We would all like to thank each and every member of all of our families for the support they’ve all shown us. None of us could do what we do without the love and support of spouses and children. We would also like to thank every single fan we have gained over the last year and every club/bar owner who has booked us. We would like to thank Jamie King for the incredible production and engineering he did for our album! We look forward to what the future holds!”