F
rom 30A to the California Beaches back to Key West:
Come build sandcastles with
Nero Simon & The Sunsetters
New Album – Treasure Chest out on March 18
Cool soundtrack for your road trips, porch hangs, and when loves gets thrown on the rocks
Nero Simon and his band, The Sunsetters, will rule the airwaves this year with their lush tunes that beckon the surf, friends, and bare feet with their new album, Treasure Chest, out on March 18. Produced and recorded in Atlanta, GA, Nero put together his band, The Sunsetters, in 2021, but the project has been in the works for longer.
If you are in the Atlanta area, the band will be playing on March 24 at 37 Main in Avondale Estates neighborhood near Decatur, GA. Showtime is at 7 PM, and the ticket link is at https://avondale.37main.com
“Nero Simon and the Sunsetters cultivate a musical mood that breeds a desire for spontaneous adventure, aiming to tell stories through their music, harnessing a classic soft-rock sound for modern times.” – popfad
Nero’s music blends pop-rock from the 70-80s with some modern rock n roll and some Latin beats as you cruise over the Seven Mile Bridge into Key West, where everyone loses their senses and gains perspective on life. It’s a blue sky and a conch shell telephone all wrapped up in a Hemmingway romance.
It starts with the title song, as Nero sings, “We said I love you – For the first time – On the Seven Mile Bridge,” and your mind immediately goes to the Keys in a convertible car and sunglasses. If you are a fan of yacht rock, 70-80s pop-rock, and or California sounds, this is for you. You will hear Jack Johnson, Dave Matthews, and Christopher Cross – Nero and his band nails it on the contemporary side. Heartbreak songs? Sure, stories about bad decisions, money, doomed lovers, and escape – “Ocracoke,” “Forever,” and “Fool Paradise” you can map the characters along the Gulf, North Carolina, and the Keys as they try to outrun their mishaps. Feel-good stuff? Yup, you got it – a cover of Jay Ferguson’s “Thunder Island” completes the album for Nero, and it blends so well with the originals it will make you close your local tiki bar lounge doors at 3 AM.
“this one made me think back to those late-night drives because the essence of this song reminds me of when road trips were void of navigation systems, and a great set of albums were all you needed to get from point a to point b.” – Rising Artists
Since this band is newly minted, Nero has picked some great Atlanta players who share his musical vision on Treasure Chest. Along with him are singer Melissa Mason, drummer Sam Ross, guitarist Steve Flores, Marcus Durham on bass, Michael Lyman on Percussion, and Michael Hester on keyboards, supporting the songs and Nero’s voice. When you spend time with Nero Simon and the Sunsetters, you will, in words sung by the great Levon Helm, “feel no pain, true as blue, right as rain.”
For the past decade, Nero has been making a name for himself as a lead guitarist and backup singer for various bands and music projects around his current hometown of Atlanta, among them the indie band Mystery Cassette which released a debut EP in 2019. Born in New York City, as a teenager, he picked up a Fender Stratocaster, took off for South Florida, and spent his time wandering the coast from Ft. Lauderdale all the way down to the Keys in search of music and sunshine. Various stints as a sideman in independent rock bands followed over the years, accompanied by record deals that ultimately disappeared. However, the experiences allowed Nero to gain a unique perspective on making music, ultimately crafting a sound that melds his love of rock, folk, Latin music, and reggae. When he founded the Sunsetters, however, everything changed. Nero was now lead singer and principal songwriter, guiding the artistic vision and overseeing the musical direction completely for the first time in his career. Like the songs on the record, the music that lives in his soul can be quite eclectic. “Bob Marley is always on my playlist. So are Frank Sinatra and Waylon Jennings. The Sunsetters’ music is influenced heavily by a lot of the soft rock or California-style folk-rock from the 70s and 80s. That is our happy place,” he told York Calling (UK) last fall.
He and his brother founded Holla Yella Music Festival, which debuted last summer 2021 in the Georgia Mountains, with an all-star lineup that included Saxsquatch and Funk You. Nero and his brother will expand the festival in 2022, featuring premier artists, including Infamous Stringdusters and Sierra Ferrell.
Treasure Chest: Picture yourself away from the bustle of everyday life, a place where time slows to a crawl, where the sun shines all the time, where you can bury your toes in the white sand and sip on your favorite colorful cocktail without a care in the world.
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