Ryan Sims Announces New Country-Rock EP 'My Side Of The Story'

RYAN SIMS--Arizona-based singer, songwriter and country-rock-americana musician--will release a new seven-track EP MY SIDE OF THE STORY on Friday, November 17 on HIGH 4 RECORDINGS. The album's rocking lead single "Get Away" premiered yesterday (10/12) on TheDailyCountry.com, with Tara Joan raving, "...the instantly infectious 'Get Away' is built on a dynamic backbeat and driving guitars that, alongside Sims' distinctly weathered vocals, encourage hitting that open road, escaping life's struggles, and expanding your horizons." The just-released music video, directed by Mike Rhodes. has already received over 19,000 plays.

MY SIDE OF THE STORY showcases SIMS' natural ability to translate heartbreak and the human experience into song with a warm sound pulling from country, Americana and southern rock. The EP springs directly from a particular love gone bad, outlined in standout cuts such as "Get Away," "Black and Blue," "Red Head" and "Tragedy." Recorded with an all-star band--Jason "Slim" Gambill (Lady Antebellum, guitars), Darryl Jones (Rolling Stones, bass), Kenny Aronoff (John Fogerty, John Mellencamp, drums) and Kim Bullard (Elton John, keyboards)--the collection of songs is without glitz or guile, just rough-edged and hard-hitting, fed by a volatile blend of pain and ecstasy, anger and regret.

"This EP shows a vulnerable side to me I've never really exposed before," SIMS admits. "Every one of these songs is true. Every story they tell actually happened. I even questioned whether I should record some of them because they were so personal. But I did it because ultimately it's not me but it's the music that's important."

From the first notes he strummed, sang and wrote, SIMS has seen music as inseparable from emotion. He grew up in Indiana and Minnesota, one of three children raised by a single mother. Young RYAN began looking around for something to keep his spirits afloat. He found it when he was about three-years-old. "I began to feel this strong urge to make music," he recalls. "I can still remember listening to and understanding music even as a really small child. I understood chord changes and melody at some deep intuitive level. I never dreamed about being a policeman or a fireman or anything other than a musician."

SIMS didn't act on that urge until age 10, when his mother remarried. Her new husband introduced RYAN to the guitar. When the family moved to Arizona, RYAN held even more tightly to his lifeline. That summer, as a high school junior in a wildly unfamiliar place, he found solace in writing. He performed in local coffee houses; he began booking them shortly after he turned 17. Midway through his senior year he gave up his spot on the football team to sing the lead role in the school musical. Most important, he remembers, "I realized pretty quickly that being able to play guitar was a fantastic way to meet girls."

Thoroughly enamored with music and these residual benefits, SIMS plunged into performing right after graduation. At 21 he co-founded the band EastonAshe. Their debut album Can I Drive It dropped in 2006 and quickly sold 10,000 copies without any label affiliation. The Los Angeles Music Awards singled it out as Independent Rock Album Of The Year. The group took first place in the LA Music/Hollywood Fame Awards' Performer Of The Year category in 2007 and '08. As the band's lead singer, SIMS earned the Phoenix Music Awards' Singer/Songwriter Of The Year honors in 2009. His following exploded in 2011 when he was invited to participate in the FOX television show "The X Factor."

TRACKLISTING FOR MY SIDE OF THE STORY:
"Get Away"
"American Things"
"Black And Blue"
"Red Head"
Tragedy"
"Little Ms. Bad Decision"
"Before I Sell Myself"

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