Harlen Simple

Since 2002, Harlen Simple has been traveling the Eastern Seaboard putting their own spin on any song and genre that has influenced them. Founded in a garage by childhood friends Erick Thomas (guitar/vocals) and Travis Williams (vocals), the band has taken and put together its influences from rock, funk, blues, jazz, country, and reggae and ran with it. Williams and Thomas spent much of the first year of Harlen Simple traveling to every open mic they heard about in the Northern Virginia area. They assembled whatever patchwork band they could to perform often teaching 2 or 3 other musicians the set list on the fly.
Now; Ricky Coleman’s funk driven drum beats and Kenny Morrow’s thumping bass lines laid the background. The back line isn’t complete without being complemented by Jesse Guay’s salt and pepper approach to rhythm guitar. The bands infamous 2 hour plus long sets sound like what would happen if you put Robert Johnson, Neil Young, Social Distortion, Bill Withers, Sublime, and the Allman Brothers into a blender with some tequila and poured them out on stage. Their free flowing style has enabled them to fuse songs together, make new ones in the middle, or just throw curve balls at each other to push and stretch each other to new musical areas. It only takes about 10 minutes for a person to understand, they flow from cover to original, original to cover and back again, pulling from a library of songs from every genre that has ever hit their ears and left an impression on them. The core 5 members not only rely on each other for the sound they create night in and night out, but they are well known for their guest appearances. On any given night you will have a saxophone player, harmonica, guest singer, or some other friend and musician dropping in to listen.