Yes, he’s gazing out from a hot-air balloon basket on his most recent release,
Farewell, My Sweet Alibi (Kool Kat Musik) — and yes, even his own mom thinks her son resembles Tiny Tim in that cover photo. But hot damn, there ain’t nothing of a tulip-tiptoeing novelty to the lead-off single from this Cambridge-based songwriter’s late-‘60s vintage-pop record,
covered in the puppy trainer earlier this summer: buoyant strings, ivory-keyed soliloquies, get-happy handclaps, misty mellotron, Elvis Costello’s smartly wounded phrasing - all stitched together to make this song the best orchestral-pop tune you haven’t heard. Dude doesn’t even have downloadable tracks on
his Web site! This Sunday, August 27, Simmons opens for nomadic folkie Tim Easton at TT the Bear’s.
DOWNLOAD: Jeffrey Simmons, "Half Dollar" (MP3)