Bill Sims Jr.

"Finding Gold in the Blues"
The New York Sun
August 23, 2006
"An American Love Story"
The Washington Post
A review of the acclaimed PBS broadcast.
Guitar Player magazine
Bill speaks about his music.
"Bill Sims"
Blues Revue magazine
CD review.

Finding Gold in the Blues
By Kate Taylor
The New York Sun
August 23, 2006

Music is important in all of August Wilson's plays, but particularly so in "Seven Guitars," the first in the Signature Theatre Company's three-play tribute to the playwright, who died last year.

"August loved the blues," Bill Sims Jr., who wrote the music for the production, which opens tomorrow, said. "It was what he grew up with. It was the music of the people he loved."

"Seven Guitars" is Mr. Sims's second Wilson play, as well as his second collaboration with the director Ruben Santiago-Hudson. The first was Wilson's "Gem of the Ocean," which Mr. Hudson directed last year at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, N.J.

"Seven Guitars" focuses on a young blues musician, Floyd Barton, whose longing for stardom and whose exploitation by a white manager and white record producers threaten to destroy him. Floyd's hit song, "That's All Right," is played several times during the play. Another character, the Haitian immigrant King Hedley, is named after a blues singer, King "Buddy" Bolden, and Hedley has a dream that Bolden will someday appear to him, bringing him his inheritance.

Although "That's All Right" is a real song, recorded by Jimmy Rogers, Mr. Sims made original recordings of it and all the other music in the play. Most of the music is heard during moments of silent action or during scene changes. "One thing Ruben doesn't believe in, and I don't, either, is putting something over August's words," Mr. Sims said.

When he's not working on a play, Mr. Sims is a full-time musician. He finds fewer places to play blues these days than he used to, though. "Blues music in America is at an all-time low," he said. "The clubs have disappeared, the work has disappeared. I spent a lot of time learning to play all these different instruments — banjo, accordion, piano — and all these different types of blues, with no place to put it."

Wilson's plays, though, give him a place. "Like he does with a character, he makes it worth something," Mr. Sims said of what Wilson does for the blues. "Every character, whether they're middle class or lower middle class or just a garbage man, their life is worth something. And that's what he does with my music."

Wilson's plays are written to be very historically specific. "Seven Guitars" takes place in 1948, and Mr. Sims wanted to make sure that all of the music sounded like it was from that period. That meant using specific instruments: an acoustic bass rather than an electric bass, and a National steel guitar — which has cone resonators, designed so that it can be heard above the band, in an era before amplification.

The musicians Mr. Sims works with know their history, too. The trumpet player who was recording the Buddy Bolden song, for instance, "didn't bring in a trumpet; he brought in a cornet — which Buddy Bolden played. It has a much warmer sound, a very different sound," Mr. Sims said. "He actually had a cornet from 1890-something."

Mr. Sims said he finds it easy working with Mr. Santiago-Hudson, a fellow musician and a friend. They met in 1998 on a play called "Deep Down," in which Mr. Santiago-Hudson acted and played the harmonica and for which Mr. Sims wrote the music and played guitar. Later, Mr. Sims composed the music for Mr. Santiago-Hudson's first writing attempt, the play "Lackawanna Blues." Even when they're not working together, Mr. Sims said, the two men talk on the phone several times a week and get together frequently to play.

Mr. Sims, who is 57, grew up with music — mostly church gospel and blues. His father, who is still alive, is a minister, but before that he was a blues singer. "Unlike a lot of other churches, where the blues was the devil's music, we were never taught that in our house," Mr. Sims said. "My dad, to this day, I'll take out my guitar and he'll say, ‘Let me see that, it's not tuned right.' And he'll tune it and play some blues."

Like many art forms, the blues is suffering as its audience ages, Mr. Sims said."There was a time when you could play a different blues club every night in New York for, like, two weeks," he recalled. During the 1980s, the fans were making lots of money and living it up. "They were supporting the clubs, going out, having a good time, doing things to keep them awake all night," Mr. Sims said. "Now they're 60, 65 years old. They don't go out at night, so there's no market for it. They maybe go to see B.B. King or Buddy Guy. They go out, spend two or three hundred dollars on dinner, and they're home by midnight."

Mr. Sims still finds a few clubs to play in, including Terra Blues and the 55 Bar, both in Greenwich Village, and Rodeo Bar in Gramercy. On September 9, he's playing in Battery Park along with James "Blood" Ulmer and the Memphis Blood Blues Band, as well as the guitarist Vernon Reid, in a tribute to Mr. Wilson jointly presented by the River to River Festival and the Signature Theatre.

Ironically, to the extent that blues survives, it's partly because of white stars like Eric Clapton and the late Stevie Ray Vaughan. In an audience discussion after an early preview of "Seven Guitars," Mr. Santiago-Hudson joked about having to hire a white harmonica player, Matthew Skoller, to play the really hard harmonica parts in the play. (Mr. Santiago-Hudson plays the easier ones.)

Although Mr. Sims said he finds it strange to observe young black musicians trying to imitate Vaughan — "You have black guys trying to play like a white guy, who was trying to play like black guys," he quipped — he is philosophical about the white takeover of the blues.

"As long as somebody keeps the music alive, I'm happy. We have no one to blame if, 50 years from now, the greatest blues player who ever lived is Stevie Ray Vaughan," he said. "If you leave gold layin' around, somebody will come pick it up."

Bill Sims's
Bluesy 'Love Story'

By Mike Joyce
The Washington Post

       "An American Love Story," a documentary series exploring the life of an interracial couple-corporate manager Karen Wilson and musician Bill Sims aired on PBS in 1999. Two albums have been released in conjunction with the broadcast, the more notable a self-titled recording by Sims, a veteran blues journeyman who has seldom recorded in the past. The other album is a series soundtrack composed of familiar soul tunes as well as music performed by Sims.
       Just who is Bill Sims? Even in blues circles the question is likely to come up, since Sims has spent his professional life out of the limelight. As a member of the Four Mints, he enjoyed modest success on the R&B circuit in the '70s. After moving to New York in 1979, he worked as a carpenter and a mail carrier before resuming his life as a musician, immersed in jazz and blues.
       Perhaps that's why he sounds as though he's making up for lost time on "Bill Sims" (PBS/Warner Bros.). He covers an enormous amount of ground here, drawing on blues as his primary inspiration while also summoning the sounds of soul, gospel and zydeco with cool authority. Indeed, no matter what the mood or groove, Sims never sounds as if he's out of his element. He can always rely on his voice, a warm, burnished baritone, and his electric-guitar playing, which is clearly inspired by B.B. King and Albert King, to make a tune sound like a natural part of his repertoire.
       That's quite an accomplishment since these songs celebrate the glory days of Memphis soul ("I Want to See You Again") and readily evoke images of Taj Mahal ("Black Mare"), Keb'Mo' ("Just Like You"), Howlin' Wolf ("Mr. Airplane Man") and Albert King ("As the Years Go Passin' By").
       Sims has a way with acoustic refrains, too, as he demonstrates on his own "Blues for Breakfast," a 12-bar lament capped with a classic Robert Johnson coda.
       The songwriting skills the bluesman possesses are also evident on "Smoky City," a cinematic "Shaft"-like homage, and "Man Eater," a tale of betrayal that underscores Sims's affinity for B.B. King's brand of bass and blues.

       "An American Love Story" (PBS/Warner Bros.) contains four performances by Sims, including three that appear on his own album. The remaining tune, Sims's zydeco-flavored "Lovin Friends," brings the soundtrack to a sentimental close.
       But not before listeners get a chance to relive the '60s, thanks to such Top 40 smashes as the Temptations' "My Girl," Mary Wells's "My Guy," Smokey Robinson & the Miracles' "Ooo Baby Baby," Otis Redding's "(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay" and Aretha Franklin's "Aint No Way."
       Boomer nostalgia aside, if this anthology helps introduce Sims's music to a larger audience, it will have served a good purpose.

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Guitar Player

Broad-Spectrum Blues
By Adam Levy

       "I'm happy to be talking about music for a change," says Bill Sims, beaming over his morning cup of coffee. The day before we spoke, People magazine had interviewed him about An American Love Story, the recently aired PBS documentary on Sims and his interracial family.
       If you've seen the series, you've heard a taste of Sims music. A more comprehensive sampling of Sims' wide-angle approach to the blues-from the front-porch banjo strains of "Nobody's Fault but Mine" to the '70's-style soul groove of "Smoky City" to the New Orleans parade rhythms that drive his cover of Charlie Patton's "Black Mare"- can be found on his debut album, Bill Sims [PBS/Warner Bros.]. The record is dripping with authentic blues flavors and serves as a strong vehicle for Sim's honey-mustard voice and his snarling, Albert King-influenced guitar style.
       "So much of blues today is about having a good time, dancing, and drinking beer," says Sims. "But I like to present a broader spectrum of the blues because I grew up hearing all of it, and I think it's important for people to be aware of the more complete history of the music. 'I've Got My Mojo Working' and 'Everyday I Have the Blues' are great songs, but they're not he whole story. Many different artists were affected by the blues, and I like to show the relationship between, say, Charlie Patton and Miles Davis, or between Lead Belly and Bob Dylan."
       Sims is partial to slower tunes, such as Howlin' Wolfs "Mr. Airplane Man" and Albert King's "As the Years Go Passing By"-both of which are featured on Bill Sims. "I like the stuff with a lot of open space," he confirms. "Today's blues musicians seem to be scared of space. The blues has become more guitar oriented, and guitar players tend to want to fill up every bar with screaming licks. But that's not where the blues comes from. It's a vocal tradition, and the guitar is there to support the vocal. The blues is about telling a story-whether it's sad of joyful-and when the story get so emotional that you don't want to say any more, you can push the envelope a little farther with the guitar. For example, B.B. Kings sings the song, and then plays a solo. The guitar is an extension of his voice-it's not the focus of the song."
       Sims' support system is a 1956 Les Paul. It's tempting to think that anyone would sound great on such a primo ax, but Sims dismisses the notion that it's all in the wood. "I'll tell you a story," he says. "In 1969, I met Robert Lockwood, Jr., who had come to play in a little club I was running in Ohio. That afternoon, we were sitting around jamming, and I had my Ventura acoustic that I brought when I was 15. I said, 'Man, this guitar sucks.' Robert said, 'Here, let me see it.' He played it, and all this incredible music came out of it. So then he said, 'The guitar's fine. I guess you just can't play'. Ooh, that hurt. But he was right, and he taught me a valuable lesson: The guitar's not the instrument, I'm the instrument. I've never complained about a guitar since."
       Sims draws merely tones from his Les Paul by way of his thumb-picking, bare-hands approach. Favoring thumbed downstrokes (occasionally teamed with index-finger upstrokes), Sim's technique gives him more control over timbre and dynamics than he feels would be possible with a pick.
       "There were never pick around the when I was learning," he recalls, "so it never occurred to me to play with one, I couldn't change now. I like the feeling of the strings, and I like being able to use all my fingers. When I play rhythm, I'll sometimes pull the strings with my index, middle, and ring fingers. Also, I grew up playing piano, and using my fingers helps me feel like I'm comping in a piano or organ style."
       When recording, Sims runs his Les Paul directly into a Fender Blues DeVille, cranking up the amp to achieve natural overdrive and compression. In clubs where he can't run his rig quite so hot, he uses Boss pedals-a BD-2 Blues Driver and a CS-3 Compression Sustainer-to get similar tones at subdued volume levels. For acoustic parts, he uses an Epiphone Hummingbird because he likes its "twangy sound."
       "I feel like I'm putting the time I spend performing into my 'retirement fund, ''' says the 50-year-old bluesman. "With the blues, the older you get, the more valuable you become. All I have to do is stay healthy and stay alive, and when everybody else is retiring at 65, I'll be just hitting my prime."

FAMILY JEWEL

       Sims' main electric is a '56 Gibson Les Paul that has been in his family since it was new. "It belonged to a cousin of mine who died young," he says. "It eventually made its way to my father, and I bought it from him for $100 seven years ago." Typical of this vintage of Pauls, Sims' pride and joy is all gold-even the back of the neck.
       "Nowadays," says Sims, 'blues guys tend to play Strats and Teles, which sound a little generic to me. My Les Paul's sound is thick and it has some natural dirt in it. But it can bite, too. When you take it to the treble pickup, it'll run you right out of the room."

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Blues Revue

Various Artists
"An American Love Story"

Bill Sims
"Bill Sims"

By Keith A. Mulhare

PBS Records , an alliance between the Public Broadcasting Service and Warner Bros. Records, has released two albums in conjunction with a major television event on PBS. An American Love Story, a 10-hour broadcast last fall over five consecutive nights, chronicled the life and times of a New York interracial couple made up of guitarist Bill Sims and corporate manager Karen Wilson. The audio offerings include the soundtrack to the series and Sims' solo debut. The series, captured by filmmaker Jennifer Fox, who lived with the family for a year and a half, documents the experiences and challenges in the maried couple's relationship and functions as a study of modern-day U.S. race relations. A companion book to the series is planned as well.

The soundtrack is a wonderful collection of Motown classics, including Smokey Robinson's "Ooo Baby Baby," Otis Redding's "Dock of the Bay" and Mary Wells' My Guy." In many cases, it was this music that helped build a bridge between the races in 1960s America as soul gained prominence with a national audience. The album also includes soul-inspired love songs written by Sims.

And that brings us to the other PBS release: Sims' self-titled album. His style resists easy categorization; the 12 originals here cover all the bases. It's a collection of modern soul-blues, Delta blues and jazz-inflected, accordion-laced Louisiana R&B. Throughout, you can hear sounds reminiscent of Taj Mahal, Allen Toussaint and even Albert King.

Opener "Time Out" offers midtempo soul as a brilliant horn section nails the accents; still, as with many of these tunes, it's the guitar riff that keeps the piece inside the blues realm. Sims has a smooth vocal tone but is able to adapt to the theme at hand, from sweet soul to anguished deep Delta. The autobiographical "Smoke City" is haunting and shadowy; it has an early '60s beat-poet vibe with a tenor sax answering the verse against an infectious cross-sticking snare drum pattern. "Mr. Airplane Man," essentially a remake of "Smokestack Lightning," is the disc's best blues.

Both of these releases make for wonderful listening. Sims' music possesses real emotional depth, and his album is a portrait of a man who found salvation in familial love and music.