Years before releasing his first album of American roots music, Stephen Simmons grew up in small-town Tennessee, raised by a family of guitar pickers, preachers, and storytellers. He eventually left that town — and those relatives — and headed to Nashville, where he launched an acclaimed career whose highlights have included 11 studio albums, more than 1,000 shows, and tours across a dozen countries. Even so, he’s never forgotten about his rural roots. Albums like Last Call and Hearsay have nodded to the classic country music and family values that once filled his childhood home, but it’s Simmons’ newest release, Family Album, that serves as his clearest tribute to the place (and people) that shaped him.