Serving as Bryan Simpson’s individual outlet after his time leading Cadillac Sky, the Whistles & the Bells craft an atmospheric mix of Southern folk, gritty alt-country, and indie gospel that recalls the atmospheric textures of Wovenhand alongside the storytelling approaches of Jason Isbell, Mount Moriah, and Blitzen Trapper. The idea took shape soon after Simpson walked away from the alt-bluegrass group in 2010, freeing him to focus on personal questions of belief. While turning those reflections into new songs, he settled on the name the Whistles & the Bells, drawn from the warning signals mounted on locomotives to announce an approaching train. A brief stretch of recording overseen by Grammy winner Vance Powell, whose credits include work with Jack White, Chris Thile, and Jars of Clay, and populated by a select circle of additional players supplied the foundation for the group’s first album. Simpson issued that debut on his own in the Nashville region during 2014; New West later licensed it for a national release that reached stores in August 2015. February 2017 brought the arrival of “Harry Potter,” a track co-written with Brendan Benson that served as the opening single from the Whistles & the Bells’ second studio album, Modern Plagues, which followed in April of the same year.
