JD Simo

electric blues · blues · jam band

JD Simo is a blues and rock guitarist, singer and producer, born in Chicago in 1985 and based in Nashville, where he lives with his family. From 2007 to 2012 he held the guitar chair in the Don Kelley Band, the long-running house band at Robert's Western World on Nashville's Broadway, a nightly residency that functions as a working apprenticeship in country and rockabilly lead playing. From 2012 to 2018 he fronted the psychedelic blues-rock band SIMO, whose records include a self-titled 2011 release, Let Love Show the Way in 2016 and Rise & Shine in 2017. Under his own name he has released Off at 11 in 2019, JD Simo in 2020, Mind Control in 2021 and Songs from the House of Grease in 2023, records that move between electric blues, soul and extended improvisation. Alongside his own catalogue he works steadily as a session and sideman guitarist, with credits that include Jack White, Dolly Parton, Phil Lesh, Joe Bonamassa, Stevie Nicks and Chris Isaak. He played on the soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann's Elvis, and served as guitarist and on-set music supervisor for the Bruce Springsteen film Deliver Me From Nowhere, where he also coached the actor Jeremy Allen White. In 2024 he formed a new project with Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars and drummer Adam Abrashoff, releasing Do the Rump, and he served as touring guitarist for Chris Isaak in 2025. Much of his own headline touring is done as a guitar-and-drums duo with Abrashoff, a stripped format that leans on improvisation, and promoters describe the sound as Hill Country blues roots run through psychedelic textures and heavy grooves. Colorado bookings include a Boulder date co-billed with Ghalia Volt.

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