Lukas Simpson grew up with dreams of becoming a professional NBA Basketball player. He took piano lessons at age nine and played trombone as a young teen, but never took music as seriously as he did basketball.  When Luke was eighteen he got his first acoustic guitar and that all changed. The guitar became an outlet for his weird teen angst that most early 90’s Gen X teenagers had and Luke began playing a lot of Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana and Pearl Jam songs. It didn’t take long for him to rediscover his love for his parent’s old John Denver and Simon and Garfunkel records which he seemed to connect with in a much deeper way. His rekindled love for folk music grew with his discovery of Bob Dylan, Nanci Griffith and Neil Young.

In Luke’s late teens and early twenties, he went on tour with Phish and listened to a lot of Grateful Dead and The Samples. He took classical guitar lessons with Dean Whachs, studied improvisation with Brendan Bayliss (Umphrey’s McGee) and played in a world fusion folk rock band. In Luke’s late twenties he picked up the mandolin and started taking lessons from Jay Lapp. Jay and Luke decided to start a bluegrass band together which eventually became Goldmine Pickers. Lukas has also studied guitar with Steve Doyle (Hoyle Brothers), Harry Gray and Chris Walz (Special Concensus) and mandolin with Colby Maddox (Special Concensus) all at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago and clawhammer banjo with Adam Carter-Nafziger (Hard Travelin’ Boys).

Luke’s song “Conversation’s Free” was used by Nissan in a commercial aired in over 35 countries around the world in 2006 and his song “Barroom Waltz” was adapted for stage play “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea” directed by Eric Meyer that same year.

Lukas is currently playing guitar, mandolin, bouzouki, banjo, harmonica, singing and writing songs for Goldmine Pickers, Hard Travelin’ Boys, solo concerts and duo shows. He is also teaching private guitar, mandolin and banjo lessons and guitar camps for kids two weeks every summer.