Simon Joe "Sime" Nugent is an Australian multi-instrumentalist-songwriter, sculptor and visual artist. He has worked in various groups including country music five-piece

the Wilson Pickers The Wilson Pickers is a country blues band formed in 2008 and comprises three Queenslanders, Ben Salter, Danny Widdicombe, Andrew Morris, and two Victorians, Sime Nugent and John Bedggood. Their 2008 album, ''Land of the Powerful Owl'', earned th ...

(2008–2012, 2015–2018) and as a solo artist. Nugent is also a furniture maker.

Biography

Simon Joe Nugent, spent his early years in Melbourne and then

Castlemaine Castlemaine may mean: * Castlemaine, Victoria, a town in Victoria, Australia ** Castlemaine Football Club, an Australian rules football club ** Castlemaine railway station * Castlemaine, County Kerry, a town in Ireland * Castlemaine Brewery, Western ...

. His Irish-born parents and elder siblings had emigrated from

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

in 1969. He attended schools in both Melbourne and Castlemaine before studying sculpture at

Victorian College of the Arts The Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) is the arts school at the University of Melbourne in Australia. It is part of the university's Faculty of Fine Arts and Music. It is located near the Melbourne city centre on the Southbank campus of the ...

(VCA). In the early 1990s he formed Sedan, which released two albums, ''Coaster'' (1997) and ''Elevator'' (1999). From 1994 he was also a member of an

a cappella ''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...

trio, the Acapelicans, with Sarah Liversidge and Carl Pannuzzo, which issued three albums ''Those Acapelicans'' (1994), ''Hear from Happiness'' (1998) and ''Little Mountains'' (2000). In 1999 Simon Nugent and No Feathers were formed; they issued a self-titled album in that year. The group evolved into Sime Nugent and the Forefathers, which issued an album, ''More About the Benefit of Hindsight'' (2002) with Nugent on lead vocals, guitars and harmonica joined by Roger Bergodaz on drums, Steve Hesketh on piano,

Wurlitzer The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati in 1853 by German immigrant (Franz) Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company initially imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments ...

and vocals and Amos Sheehan on bass guitar. Their next album, ''Undertow'' (2003), was declared feature album of the week by Australian music journalist,

Ed Nimmervoll Edward Charles Nimmervoll (21 September 1947 – 10 October 2014) was an Australian music journalist, author and historian. He worked on rock and pop magazines ''Go-Set'' (1966–1974) and ''Juke Magazine'' (1975–92) both as a journalist a ...

. Nimmervoll found that most of its tracks deal with Nugent's recent separation from a domestic partner and their child. While Tim Cashmere of ''Undercover'' felt it was "an eclectic form of acoustic folk that needs to be felt as well as heard." The artist provided his next album, ''Broke & Banned – Songs of Sime Nugent'', in 2005 via Low Transit Industries. D W May of ''theDwarf.com.au'' observed, "sparse instrumentation is clever and considered" where "space opens up around the sublime lyric, enabling the song to breathe and adding weight to his vocal." In 2008, on harmonica, guitar and backing vocals, Nugent formed a country music five-piece

alongside John Bedggood on fiddle, mandolin and backing vocals, Andrew Morris on acoustic guitar and vocals,

Ben Salter Ben Salter (born 23 March 1977) is an Australian musician currently based in Hobart, Tasmania, in addition to being a member of bands including Giants of Science, The Gin Club, The Wilson Pickers, Hownowmer and The Young Liberals. Solo c ...

on banjo and vocals and

Danny Widdicombe Daniel Marsden "Danny" Widdicombe is a musician from Queensland. Career In 2008 Danny Widdicombe, on resonator guitar and vocals, formed a country blues band the Wilson Pickers alongside John Bedggood on fiddle, mandolin and backing vocals, ...

on resonator guitar and vocals. His next solo album, ''Happy Hour'', appeared in November 2007. His next solo album, ''Ten Years at the Table'', was released in 2010. In parallel with his solo work he formed a duo, Sweet Jean, with Alice Keath on acoustic guitar, autoharp, banjo, electric guitar, keyboards, piano and vocals in 2010. Their debut album, ''Dear Departure'', appeared in 2013 and was followed by ''Greetings from Goodbye'' (2014) and ''Monday to Friday'' (2016). Outside of his music career Nugent has worked as a sculptor, visual artist and furniture maker.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nugent, Sime Living people Australian guitarists Australian harmonica players Australian male singer-songwriters Australian singer-songwriters Australian multi-instrumentalists Musicians from Melbourne Year of birth missing (living people)