Lee Simpson Band

" press play and the next thing you might say . . . 'damn, this sounds good' - yeah, it feels good when music stirs your soul this way. make your own comparisons, and i won't bother to site Lee's musical influences either . . . the source is the heart and its aim is true. enjoy!" Carson Bench - www.kwmr.org

- KWMR Radio Marin

Chico singer/guitarist/ songwriter Lee Simpson (ex-Blue Dye Fire) calls his music “full-tilt Americana rock and roll.” I’d go a step further and call it Californiana. Like another well-known Chico band noted for its California sound, the Mother Hips, Simpson and his crew possess well-schooled suburban-country-rock chops and sincere--sometimes soaring--vocal harmonies. Simpson uses a varying line-up, both on the CD and when touring. The current road band includes local string man/singer Bruce MacMillan and Buffalo Creek drummer Nick Bearden. LS features an array of stellar players--including guitarist/singer Gary Dutra of Electric Circus fame, who also wrote track no. 8, “Doing Well”--playing originals written mainly by Simpson. Daniel Schuck’s organ on “Get It Right” recalls The Band’s Garth Hudson, and Simpson’s guitar opening on “Big City River” has a Southern-with-a-mellow-hint-of-Skynyrd sound. “Flying Blind” is both soaring and sincere and proudly pretty: “I know we might be flying blind/ I won’t leave you behind...” Thumbs-up on Dean Lafayette’s anchoring bass and the back-up vocals of Tom Molyneaux and Robin Dutra. www.leesimpson.net

- SF Weekly

“Objects may be closer than they appear.” This is the constant warning that we are given every time we look in those mirrors to see what we are leaving behind, just as it should be a warning on the back of the new Lee Simpson self-titled album. The heart-spilling lyrics of Simpson and Jason Fletcher remind us that no matter how far down the road you go, it just might not be far enough. As he sings in “This God Damn Place,” “sometimes it’s easier to move along / and bear it all in time.” Whether in the bare-bones harmonizing of “Doing Well” or the toe-tapping melancholy of “Those Old Times,” Lee Simpson gives you the sense that nothing is being held back — vocally, or emotionally. Clean acoustic picking, crisp steel guitar licks as well as some plugged-in, muddy riffs help maintain the down-home feel of this album. – Noel Pearson - No Depression - Noel Persson

Yo, everybody knows that in rap, the East Coast, West Coast rivalry still holds true. But in Jam bands and the country side of life, the opposite is going on. The West Coast started it all with the Bay Area sixties explosion and it took 25 years for the East Coast to respond with Phish. Currently, East Coast gets all the play with bands crawling out of the woodwork, West Coast has been busy brewing up the next batch and this time it's Heart Core. Some call it California Soul, but the new breed is dropping props and giving respect all over the place. Outta the Bay comes Lee Simpson, gelling the groove, fine tuning the classic song and doing what he does best - Playing live! So check him out!!! + HUMP Magazine - HUMP Magazine - DNA

Darkness and light, color and mood all come together in this eclectic mix of original songwriting. Fletch and Lee bring a seasoned original approach to the stage, with strong lush harmonies and intelligent lyrics that echo of lives dedicated to the craft. With a strong soulful, wooded sound the duo take the stage and spin a web with masterful originals, interspersed with pockets of spontaneous jamming, pausing only to interact with the crowd and encourage the “campfire feel” that their live shows are known for.

Years of co-writing and performing together have given way to true telepathy and stage prescence. The urgent honesty and convistion of this has the tendency to grow on you. The two perform in different configurations from the acoustic duo to the larger 5 piece full on rock band. These guys have obviousy done some extensive touring together - and it shows. Years of touring the West Coast and even a three year long stint in Europe you can hear and feel the two’s extensive sense of adventure in the stage prescence and the songs. Whatever the configuration - the point hit’s home. Straight up and dead on - this act is definitely going straight into my personal music collection. - Synthesis Magazine

"Some of the Finest that California and her golden coast have to offer." - KZFR Radio

I'm a union man - now all the way - On a sunny afternoon in 1993, three freaky cats appeareed suddenly on the corner of West 2nd and Main street. One dude seemed especially tall, dark haired and ingratiating. The second was even taller with a mane of golden locks that cascaded down his beaming surfer face. The third was short stout and grinning in a way that seemed dangerous and possibly crazy. As a unit they jammed a piece of paper in my hand announcing their debut performance that night of course at Juanita's. They were called Blue Dye Fire and it was the beginning of an auspicious time for the Northern Californian music scene.

Fletch, Lee Simpson and the infamous "Jason "J" Loadsman had arrived via parts unknown but rumored to be L.A., already loaded with a red seven-inch which put them head and tails above many of the unpressed Chico bands. What was more amazing was Blue Dye Fire's desire to up the ante of the Northern Ca music scene. Which is to say, they brought a new energy that stirred the laconic vibe that settled in during the early 90's and is seemingly with us again. Fletcher's soon to be betrothed wife Wendy Jones, was a catalyst locally in the art scene, as she tried to merge photography, music and art in a much needed formula.

Blue Dye Fire's music was stirring, haunting, beautiful and with Loadsman on the drums- downright frightening. The group did not fit into any genre and was far to ahead of it's time to be taken seriously by any local music scene in Chico. A penultimate moment was BDF's five-hour marathon set in the downtown park plaza, Halloween night 1995 to a seething throng of somewhere between 5,000 and 8,000 people. It was the last true Halloween in the park beofre the cops took it over and had christian bands handing out bibles.

While Loadsman has headed back to England to purue his ancenstarl heritage of theater and drinking, Fletch and Simpson have reconfigured their band through sevral mutations. Calling themselves Mobius, till a SF metal band popped up, our two heroes did the dnace of the drummer and relocated to the more forgiving San Francisco Bay Area. Now called King Harvest and settled in with the new players, the boys seem to be finding their groove in the burgeoning "California Soul" movement that is gaining steam. You can catch the sounds online at www.mp3.com/kingharvest or www.mp3.com/leesimpson + - SF Weekly