Simon Stanley Ward & The Shadows Of Doubt / RJ Hacker

Modern honky-tonk country rock'n'roll served up with energy, charm and love. Simon Stanley Ward and his band The Shadows Of Doubt have been together since 2013 and recorded their first album ‘Simon Stanley Ward’ in 2015 and ‘Songs From Various Places’ in 2019. They perform regularly on the London Americana circuit and have performed at the Maverick and Truck festivals, amongst others. Their third album, Rocket In The Desert, was recorded in very sad circumstances after their beloved bass player Geoff Easeman, who also played with The Arlenes, told them that he was dying but wanted to contribute to the record. The rest of the group recorded eight songs in two days, the tapes were rushed to the hospice where Geoff was staying and he fought pain and exhaustion to add his bass parts. His son, Richard, added bass to the final two songs a few months after his funeral.

"Home grown talent! It sounded wonderful!”
Bob Harris BBC Radio 2
"Pulls off the tricky balancing act of mixing out-of-left field humour with real emotion and top notched musicianship. Bags of wit and wisdom" Three Chords and The Truth
Startlingly honest country. Not many artists are quite that open at just where they are at. Its honest and its all the better for it. Undoubtedly a name is watch on the UK americana scene”
Ralph McClean BBC Radio Ultser
"Simon Stanley Ward, an old-school country singer at heart. His eponymous debut honks and tonks in a way that fits both bird-wire covered roadhouse stages and the hipster bars of Hackney!"
Q Magazine Andy Fyfe

RJ Hacker is one-half of Morton Valence.