Christian Simeon – Burn EP

Christian Describes ‘Burn EP’ as LoFi Country, but he spreads his musical wings much wider than that and it would be limiting to view this simply as a ‘country’ record. Within the six tracks Christian, who performs all vocals and plays all the instruments on the songs here, touches on southern rock, pop, hip hop, blues, ska, and, indeed, country.

There’s a bit of history to the EP. Originally recorded pre-pandemic it was lost in the time of lockdown as there’s was no opportunity for Christian to get out and promote it. That the sound he’s put together here has similarities in places to the recent run of hit ‘country’ records put out by the likes of Dasha, Beyoncé and Shaboozey shows how clued in he is and that he was way ahead of the curve five years ago. However, this isn’t a calculated attempt to hit a hot market just a talented guy making the music he wants to.

That said there’s a lot more meat on the bones of these songs than those songs mentioned above. Lyrically the songs deal with lost love, broken hearts, betrayal, and heartless lovers. Very much the stuff of the blues even to the point that in ‘Red Flag’ Christian tells the person who let him down ‘You Got ME Singing The Blues.’

On the initial run through the first thing that grabs your attention is that this guy knows how to set up a groove. From the opening beats of ‘Burn,’ all laid back long guitar notes, and hand claps, there isn’t a track here that won’t have you at least tapping your feet and will more likely have you dancing in your seat.

In fact, he liked the groove of ‘Heaven & Hell’ so much that there’s a blink and you’ll miss shift into ‘Get Gone’. The grove laid down in the former carries on into the latter. Layered onto this in ‘Get Gone’ comes some lovely guitar work that takes ‘Get Gone’ into the realms of Southern Rock. There’s a tasteful feel of classic Lynyrd Skynyrd to the guitar work, a little extra grit to the track but carried through with a very modern sheen.

‘Red Flags’ leans more into a rock mood and Christian plays some nice guitar under his vocals that give the track a real ‘southern’ accent.

Talking of southern accents there’s something about ‘Liar Cheater’ that puts me in mind of Tom Petty. Maybe it’s just me but it has that slow groove that Petty does so well and with Christian Nawleans accent singing over the track I got a definite vibe of the late Great Tom Petty.

The EP is fittingly rounded out by ‘The End.’ Everything is slowed down here for a soulful blues ‘conversation’ between a man and woman. LT Thomas joins Christian on this track and adds her sweet vocals to this break up song.

If the songs on here catch your ear as they have mine, you’ll find these songs rattling around in your head very quickly and will have the EP on heavy rotation. You can check out Christian Simeon’s ‘Burn EP’ on YouTube