What happens to a seven year old girl from Texas who is turned down at an audition for the Barney TV show because her voice is too "unique"? She grows up, moves to the Front Range of Colorado with her husband, becomes an integral part of the thriving local bluegrass scene and eventually releases a mega hit song that has record companies banging down the door because people recognize that voice is...unique. Of course, what else would you expect? Bonnie and Taylor Sims have been making music together since they met in college and have been known to fans of bluegrass and roots music here in Colorado as a duo and as the leaders of Bonnie & the Clydes where they amp up the old time alt-country vibe with some serious twang.

They've released a series of excellent songs over the past years to a dedicated fan base but over the summer

something unexpected happened and the duo's new project called Everybody Loves an Outlaw was born. Bonnie tells the story:"We started this project for licensing and music placement in movies and commercials with a company called Extreme music, never thinking it would explode like it did. The song 'I See Red' was placed in the netflix movie 365 Days which gave us the initial push into the spotlight but the song has since outgrown the movie. 'I See Red' spent 11 days at #1 on the global Spotify charts and charted very strong on various Billboard and Rollingstone charts. Now the song has been streamed more than 40 million times, needless to say, we are blown away by the attention it has gotten". That attention landed the duo record deals with many record labels around the world but they ultimately have signed with Columbia Records.

We spoke about their sound and how it ties to bluegrass music and the future of the genre as it changes and grows.

Bonnie explains: "It's an elemental thing. We will always have elements of bluegrass in our sound. We haven't ever really stayed inside of any box, but we use different genres to make our sound. Folks do tend to describe our music as bluegrass and we love that. It might be our drive or how I play the mandolin. We've always incorporated that bluegrass feel but we've never exclusively done it either. I feel like bluegrass has always been a social thing that I've done all my life, literally, the language that I can speak." Taylor adds: "Bluegrass has always been a part of our existence and always will be, especially the community aspect of it, which is hugely important to us as a way to connect—something that is very important and very vital to our existence as humans in 2020. It's a way to connect with people that I might only see once a year at Rockygrass but we jam and we feel eternally connected by that and I will always love the community and the language of bluegrass."

Artists like Molly Tuttle, Billy Strings, Sierra Hall and others are expanding the language of bluegrass in exciting ways and Bonnie and Taylor/Everybody Loves an Outlaw are part of that trend. While some might listen to each new recording with the intent of judging if it is or isn't bluegrass, I'd suggest we listen and enjoy first and then if you really love a good discussion, think about how these artists and this music is expanding and enriching the genre we love. - Kevin Slick

Bonnie and Taylor - Everybody Loves an Outlaw