Today we’d like to introduce you to Uncle B.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Born Bryan Simpson in Harris Hospital in FW, TX – i was a fussy baby… too far back? okay… How’d i get started ? don’t really know. I know that my north star has been music for as long as i can remember. Took all my social cues from it. Never cared about school or sports too much. Didn’t care about social events around school much either. Didn’t make a lot of friends. I remember when i graduated, I thought to myself, now my life can begin. I didn’t hang around and hug necks or anything like that – just marched off like the weirdo I was and started scheming how I could sneak under the musical big top. I got a gig right out of high school fiddling in a show at Six Flags called Hot Rockin Country – despite the dim lit name it was actually a real beacon for me. I warmed up the audience and performed with other band remember, singers and dancers for two years. $17 an hour. Gee, c’mon. In that time – i met my wife Kristi. So it was as happy as I had ever been. Making music – to some degree at least, and finding the love of me life. Someone from nashville, heard me play at that show, and reported back to someone and they called me for an audition with an artist on a major label. It was the stuff bios are made of. The artist didn’t thrill me but it was a way in to the belly of the beast. I realized quickly, though, I didnt want to make other people’s music. Ive always said – I;m an egomaniac with inferiority complex. And the ego maniac, at that time, didn’t wanna be a support act. And I was already writing songs. Since I was about fifteen, I had been making stuff up. I had a gig playing with an artist named Tom Uhr and he and written tunes for Ricky Skaggs and others and he definitely made it seem possible. He had never made the move to nashville to commit fully to his dreams, and it certainly had nawed at him his whole life. That definitely was an inspiration to me, to not half ass this journey. Go in. I moved to Nashville for a few years and then moved back as the desire to eat was starting to overwhelm me. To my surprise nobody cared that i was there when I showed up. No red carpet. Not even sawdust trail; as might be more applicable to nashville. Staying on course, as best I can with my insufferable adhd afflcition., Once I moved back , within a few months, a pub company called and offered me a pub deal to write songs. They had heard some of my tunes from my buddy Ashley Gorley – and wanted to send me handfuls of money to write for em. Never looked for my first few publishing deals, Wild, They came looking for me. And I wasn’t that good at the time. Just a strange destiny was at play i think. Or just lucky. Probably that. Anyway, Yeah, before long i had written tunes that had been recorded by George Strait, Blake Shelton, Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney, Stephen Wilson, Jr. Hailey Whitters, and many others. Somewhere along the way, i started to feel the call to get back to my own artistic vision, I starrted a band called Cadillac Sky, that ended up working with my hero, Ricky Skaggs. Recording with Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys and touring with Mumford and Sons. A spiritual awakening led to a project called The Whistles and the Bells and then finally I’ve landed at Uncle B. A few years back I started a show called Uncle B’s Damned ole opry which is king of like the Opry on acid. Its a little more or a lot more wheels off than the Grand Ole one. It allows me to have a monthly party witjh my friends and pick and sing. It’s reminded me that what i loved to do is music. Not simply write, or sing or produce, but just the whole circus of it. The northstar I followed has landed me as the “music man” i call myself today. How it will end. I’m not sure. Possibly with me, unshaven and unshowered, shaking my fist at the BMI building as i circle a parking lot in nashville where there used to be record store and now there’s a “rent a robot” shop or something.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Smooth as sand paper. Not as easy as a cursory detailing would suggest and not as difficult as it felt at times. Patience is the key word to surviving the music business. and i am often short of supply. Not enough money. That’s the biggest hurdle. Getting cuaght up in the web of why is that guy having success and i’m not. It’s a gross way to be. So ya got to make peace with your journey is yours and yours alone.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
probably for being silly and musical. usually, i think, probably one or the other, They don’t co-exist very often . But there’s a certain kind of whimsy Im always trying to get at. I like – very serious or very silly. But not much in the middle. What am I most proud of? well, itd be easyer to name the stuff im not proud of. But one of them, is that i’ve been able to introduce a lot of great artists thru the Damned Ole Opry to a lot of new fans.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
soft and shy. A bit of a sweet, smart alec .
Contact Info:
- Website: https://unclebofficial.com
- Instagram: @heyuncleb
- Facebook: @uncleb
- Youtube: @heyuncleb
