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Simpson

by Bland Simpson

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All proceeds from the sale of this release are directly donated to the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina. Find out more about them at foodbankcenc.org.

Bland Simpson Celebrates 50th Anniversary of His First LP,
Landmark Country-Rock Quartet Album "Simpson"

Bland Simpson, longtime pianist-songwriter for the Tony Award-winning Red Clay Ramblers, is marking the 50th anniversary of his 1970-71 New York City quartet's Columbia Records landmark, career-launching release Simpson in May of 1971.

A new, re-mastered release of Simpson's early original songs is now available at blandsimpson.bandcamp.com with all proceeds going to the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina.

Simpson on piano led the quartet, which included David Olney (acoustic guitar), Steve Merola (drums), and Rob Rothstein (bass). Olney would have a storied career as a Nashville songwriter (and a member of the famed cohort that included Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt), recording artist, and leader of the high-powered X-Rays; Rothstein (as Rob Stoner) would later tour as bandleader of Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue and record with Epic, MCA and Sun Records; Merola would perform on Broadway, and widely beyond, and also become the president of one of the first internet music companies, AreaMusic Entertainment.

The quartet was joined on the record by legendary musicians Bill Keith (veteran of Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys and the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, on pedal steel), Eric Weissberg (of the Greenbriar Boys and The Tarriers, on fiddle and dobro), and Billy Schwartz (then appearing on Broadway in Hair and later a star recording artist and producer in Denmark as Billy Cross, electric guitar) and Rick Derringer (founder of the McCoys, later working with Johnny and Edgar Winter, Weird Al Yankovic, and Ringo Starr, electric guitar).

In 1972, Simpson returned to North Carolina, and he and John Foley (on 12-string guitar) formed a popular duo in Chapel Hill, soon expanding into a folk-rock quintet, the Southern States Fidelity Choir (with Jim Wann, guitar; Jan Davidson, bass; and Mike Sheehan, drums). The Southern States and The Red Clay Ramblers old-time band took Simpson and Wann's musical Diamond Studs: The Life of Jesse James to New York and a 1975 hit Off-Broadway run and national tour, opening the door to a host of "musicians' theatre" shows that later earned Wann & Foley et al.'s Pump Boys & Dinettes a Tony Award nomination and an Olivier Award in England and the Ramblers' Fool Moon a Special Tony Award and a Drama Desk “Unique Theatrical Experience” Award after that show's third Broadway run.

Simpson, who received the North Carolina Award for Fine Arts in 2005, is the Kenan Distinguished Professor of English & Creative Writing at UNC Chapel Hill, where he has taught since 1982. He has collaborated on numerous musicals, including King Mackerel & The Blues Are Running and Kudzu, and he has written many books about North Carolina. His new work North Carolina: Land of Water, Land of Sky (with photography by his wife and collaborator Ann Cary Simpson, Tom Earnhardt and Scott Taylor) will be published by UNC Press in October 2021.

credits

released August 10, 2021

Simpson was recorded in the fall and winter of 1970-1971 in Studio A, Columbia Records building, 49 East 52nd Street, New York City, and released in May 1971; and re-engineered and re-mastered by Jerry Brown of The Rubber Room, Chapel Hill, NC, and is being re-released in August 2021, with help from The Splinter Group, Carrboro, NC.

Bland Simpson: Piano, Vocals
David Olney: Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals
Rob Rothstein: Bass, Organ, Vocals
Steve Merola: Drums

Rick Derringer: Electric Guitar on "Swordswoman Provocation"
Bill Schwartz: Electric Guitar on "Mama On My Way"
Bill Keith: Pedal Steel
Eric Weissberg: Dobro, Fiddle

Produced by Noel Frankel & Michael Kropp
All songs by Bland Simpson c. Sound Country Music (ASCAP) - all rights reserved

If you like this and want to hear more from Bland Simpson, please visit kingmackerel.bandcamp.com.

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Bland Simpson Chapel Hill, North Carolina

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