A respected veteran rock journalist, Sylvie Simmons had been writing about music for nearly four decades when she finally stepped forward as a performer. Simmons was born and raised in London, and was fascinated with music from early childhood. She learned to play a secondhand guitar, but an attempt to perform at a school function led to a painful case of stage fright, and Simmons channeled her interests into writing about music, while she only played and sang at home. in 2013 she joined Giant Sand's Howie Gelb at Wavelab Studios in Tucson, Arizona for a series of recording sessions. The result was Simmons' first album, Sylvie, which was released by Light in the Attic Records in November 2014. ~ Mark Deming