The Alabama Gulf Coast’s live music calendar is showing signs of life again, and veteran troubadour Albert Simpson’s return is one of the clearest signals. Simpson plays LuLu’s, 200 E. 25th Ave. in Gulf Shores, on Saturday, June 13 at 5 p.m., with no cover charge.
For years Simpson has made the region a regular stop on a busy tour schedule, and he has spent decades building his craft. In the 1990s he established a statewide reputation with the band Highly Kind; three decades on from that band’s formation, his solo work continues to draw an eclectic following while he keeps releasing new music.
‘Coming Home Again’ anchors the set
Audiences at the Gulf Shores show can expect a live rendition of Simpson’s latest single, “Coming Home Again,” released through 10 Ton Records and cut at Clearwave Recording Studios in Decatur, Georgia. The session featured John Kulinich on electric guitar, Eddie “Cowboy” Long on steel guitar, Jimbo Hart on bass and Bowen Robertson on drums.
The track leans on sweeping slide work and blazing solos, mixing alt-country and Southern rock into a dirt-road jam in the spirit of the Allman Brothers Band and the Grateful Dead — two of Simpson’s touchstones. Its lyrics read as a personal testimony from a road musician written just as the touring industry went quiet.