My dad started me off in music at age 7 having me play his stand up bass along with my two brothers. For me it really was a stand up bass ( I had to stand up on the bed to play it! ) I`ve been playing in bands , everything from polkas to southern rock ever since. I didn`t start writing until I got stuck working an afternoon shift and couldn`t do the band thing anymore. Which goes to show you that there often is a silver lining to what may look like a bad situation. I live in N.E. Ohio , but I do come to Nashville occasionally. And I`m always looking for co writers.
I was born in Kingsport, Tennessee, about 20 miles to the west of Bristol Tennessee/Virginia, the “Birthplace of Country Music”. The Carter Family made their first recordings in Bristol.
I wrote my first song when I was 14. I wasn’t playing the guitar at the time but I could write the lyrics and sing the melody. The song was called “Saturday Night”. The singer proposes marriage to his sweetheart, who promises she will let him know her decision on “Saturday Night”. I don’t know if they got together, the song doesn’t say.
Ernie Simms started dabbling in his music career at the tender age of eight years old. With his Sears drums, he and his friends began their music careers. Since that time Ernie wrote over 500 songs. He served in the Army in Vietnam and Korea. During his time in the military, he became a radio host (which lasted for 15 years). Ernie has a great passion for our homeless veterans, in which he became involved with in 1984. He was honored in Kentucky when named a Colonel of the state. Ernie and his wife and partner, Debbie, lived in Nashville.
With influences ranging from the Beatles to Ralph Stanley and Hank Williams Sr. to Brad Paisley, it's always been about a well written song since I picked up the guitar at twelve years old and started teaching myself to play. Learning out of Beatle's books, I would sit for seven hours a day sometimes with my grandfather's old guitar that had a crack below the sound hole, teaching myself the chords I would use to write songs later on that year!