{"id":624,"date":"2013-02-09T20:00:26","date_gmt":"2013-02-09T20:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/216.71.127.204\/wordpress\/?p=624"},"modified":"2015-10-13T15:03:53","modified_gmt":"2015-10-13T15:03:53","slug":"simpson-good-and-harlan-jp-hops-house-katy-tx","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/2013\/02\/09\/simpson-good-and-harlan-jp-hops-house-katy-tx\/","title":{"rendered":"Simpson, Good and Harlan – JP Hops House – Katy, TX"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n
Written by James Killen <\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Feb 09, 2013 at 08:00 PM<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Image\"It\u2019s been a while since I\u2019ve seen Matt Harlan, so I opened a spot on my calendar when Eddie Ferranti told me that he\u2019d be appearing at the Hops House on the ninth. It was also a good chance to check out a couple of songwriters that I had not seen here-to fore.<\/p>\n

Most HMR readers know Matt Harlan as one of the country\u2019s most promising up and comers on the folk and Americana scene, with his descriptive lyrics and rich musical content. He has earned his position as part of the Houston song writer gentry.<\/p>\n

Bob Simpson is a promising young writer from San Angelo, whose influences come predominately from the C&W side of things. He has a smooth delivery and a way of taking everyday situations and feelings and bringing them home in a song.<\/p>\n

Nicolette Good, currently hailing from San Antonio, shows the country roots in her writing with a pleasant pop voice. Her lyrics seem to be from the perspective of a strong but sweet, independent woman that knows what she wants and has little sympathy with the games people play.<\/p>\n

The evening was a swap with Bob starting the round, Nicolette coming second and Matt ending up each round. Nicolette often chipped in with Bob on backing vocals and Matt played some poignant leads for both Bob and Nicolette. Even though the artists played their songs alternately, I thought it would be easier to follow if I wrote about each one individually.<\/p>\n

Bob\u2019s songs for the evening seemed to be mostly newer stuff that he had not included on his 2008 CD. Many of them held images of West Texas, like \u201cSleepy Town\u201d and \u201cAin\u2019t No Reason for Me to Stay\u201d that featured the line \u201cI can get out of this cage, just by lifting the latch\u201d. Bob did a fine job of reinterpreting the Mando Saenz song \u201cWrong Guy\u201d and ventured into the country blues with one called \u201cKill My Blues\u201d on which Matt played a killer lead.<\/p>\n

A young man named Judson Colt was in town from San Angelo to try out for \u201cThe Voice\u201d and being one of Bob Simpson\u2019s old friends joined him on guitar and vocals for Bob\u2019s song \u201cGood as Gold\u201d. Personally, I thought that Bob did some of his best stuff in the short set after intermission.<\/p>\n

His \u201cLookin\u2019 for a Girl\u201d has great commercial potential for one of those Nashville singers wanting to record a hit love song. Bob wrote a song once in San Angelo when it became obvious to both he and his boss that he was not satisfied with his job. It was called \u201cAll isn\u2019t Well with my Soul\u201d and seemed to have universal appeal for anyone that needed a change in his life. His last song of the evening was written in Nashville at the Country Music Hall of Fame and called \u201cTennessee Rain\u201d. Bob has recently relocated to Houston and will be showing up in venues around town. He seems to be writing new stuff pretty regularly. Give him a listen.<\/p>\n

Nicolette Good started her evening with \u201cAlone with the Radio\u201d which she followed with \u201cCall Me\u201d, making one wonder if such a pretty girl had such a hard time getting a date. I\u2019ll bet not. For her third song she resurrected the nineteenth century \u201cPretty Clementine\u201d and gave it a twenty-first century twist.<\/p>\n

\"Image\"One of my favorites of the evening was \u201cHurricane Caroline\u201d about an old friend and roommate that was intent on not only self-destruction, but taking everything and everyone around her along. She paid tribute to her grandfather with his old favorite \u201cThe Tennessee Waltz\u201d featuring a Matt Harlan lead. She also did a simple melody called \u201cLove Song\u201d that hinted at some old Buddy Holly influence. \u201cThe Mechanic\u201d (currently only available on line) struck me as a cool analogy to life.<\/p>\n

Her last two songs of the evening were \u201cThe Haunting of Monterey\u201d and \u201cThe Road\u201d. Nicolette seems to have plenty of songs ready for a new disc and that subtle wit that keeps you listening. I\u2019m sure that there will be more on her at a later date.<\/p>\n

Matt started out the evening with a song that I hadn\u2019t heard before called \u201cRaven Hotel\u201d that immediately got my hopes up for the sprouting of a new CD. He continued with \u201cWarm November\u201d, that he seemed to be performing a little more staccato and in a sped up tempo. He continued with a song that he claims to have stolen from Quakers called \u201cBow and Be Simple\u201d, followed by \u201cOver the Bridge\u201d and \u201cDarker Shade of Gray\u201d, again staccato and up tempo.<\/p>\n

Then it came out, Matt\u2019s \u201cB\u201d string was not staying in tune. For such a laid back guy, many people don\u2019t see the perfection that he demands of himself, his songwriting and his performances and the errant string was getting him a bit frustrated.<\/p>\n

He seemed to put that in his rearview as he said that he was open to requests as long as it wasn\u2019t, \u201cStairway to Magaritaville\u201d and then swung into the popular, \u201cElizabethtown\u201d about that old friend or relative that just can\u2019t seem to get it together. He invited an old friend, Chelsey Milley up from the audience to sing back-up on \u201cSkinny Trees of Mississippi\u201d. Matt\u2019s second set included \u201cWaiting for Godot\u201d and \u201cWalter\u201d. Matt\u2019s performance was immaculate, in my eyes, as always, in spite of the uncooperative string .<\/p>\n

The Saturday night song swap drew quite a crowd for the Hops House, as Matt is one of the favorites out there. He will be returning with Brian Hudson on Wednesday night, March 6th, for the Hardtime Troubadours Soup Night. We expect to be seeing more of Bob and Nicolette at the singer songwriter venues around town.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time for everyone to start marking up their calendars, because there are a lot of great shows coming up out there and you certainly want to line up for your share.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by James Killen Feb 09, 2013 at 08:00 PM It\u2019s been a while since I\u2019ve seen Matt Harlan, so I opened a spot on my calendar when Eddie Ferranti told me that he\u2019d be appearing at the Hops House on the ninth. It was also a good chance to check out a couple of… <\/p>\n

Read More<\/i><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-concert-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":625,"href":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624\/revisions\/625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}