Sturgill Simpson | ||
| Allmusic Biography : Formerly the leader of Sunday Valley, an energetic roots outfit that made some waves in the early years of the new millennium, Sturgill Simpson gained greater renown as a solo artist, initially thanks to his muscular 2013 solo debut High Top Mountain. An outlaw country record in form and feel -- its debt to Waylon Jennings clear and unashamed -- High Top Mountain became a word-of-mouth hit in 2013, thereby establishing Simpsons country credentials and opening the door to a wider future. A native of Jackson, Kentucky raised near Lexington, Simpson has deep southern roots, but he moved out west once he reached his late teens. In 2004, he formed Sunday Valley, receiving a big break when they played Portland, Oregons Pickathon Festival in 2011. Sturgill went solo in 2012, beginning work on the album that became High Top Mountain, which appeared the following year. After extensive touring, Simpson settled down in studio to concentrate on his next recording. He experimented with stretching the boundaries of his chosen genre, digging deep into topics like physics and evolution, as evidenced by his pre-release single "Turtles (All the Way Down)." The Dave Cobb-produced album, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, appeared in May of 2014 and peaked in the Top Ten on all of the country charts. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award for best country album. Simpson won Best Emerging Artist at that years Americana Music Awards, and in 2015 was named Artist of the Year by the same foundation. In March of 2016, he released "Brace for Impact (Live a Little)," as the first single from the full-length A Sailors Guide to Earth. The self-produced album was released in April and featured a guest appearance from the Dap-Kings. It earned rave reviews plus a surprise nomination for Grammys Album of the Year. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 4 Title: High Top Mountain Released: 2013-06-11 Tracks: 12 Duration: 37:35 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Life Aint Fair and the World Is Mean (02:06) 2 Railroad of Sin (02:04) 3 Water in a Well (03:19) 4 Sitting Here Without You (02:11) 5 The Storm (04:02) 6 You Can Have the Crown (02:50) 7 Time After All (02:37) 8 Hero (04:02) 9 Some Days (03:30) 10 Old King Coal (03:07) 11 Poor Rambler (03:45) 12 Id Have to Be Crazy (04:02) |
| High Top Mountain : Allmusic album Review : As soon as High Top Mountain begins to unspool, its hard to shake the feeling that Sturgill Simpsons 2013 debut isnt some kind of tribute to Waylon Jennings. When the tempo slows down and the arrangements are stripped to an acoustic guitar, he can at times recall Jamey Johnson, but that troubadour himself owes a significant debt to Waylon, so having the slow tunes conjure Johnson isnt a dramatic shift in tone, but it does give High Top Mountain a bit of depth, suggesting Simpson knows he does not reside in 1978. Hell admit as much in the lyrics -- hell grudgingly accept the internet and other inconveniences of modern life -- but the sound belongs to the late-70s and Simpson is particularly fond of the hard, lean, rolling sound of Waylons outlaw period, molding his band and songs after the records that came after Honky Tonk Heroes. If Simpson doesnt have the gravity of Jennings in his voice, he compensates with attitude, taking his sweet time to re-capture the long, languid strut of Waylon. Simpsons ace in the hole is how he can craft a song -- he can conjure the spirit of Jennings, never sounding as overwhelming as Waylon, but he can capture the muscular inevitability that pulsated through the peak of outlaw country. High Top Mountain doesnt succumb to the weaknesses of prime outlaw -- the tunes arent tired, theyre fresh, often deriving from Simpsons pen -- and his evident passion means High Top Mountain feels fresh even if it so clearly means to conjure the ghosts of the 70s in every one of its songs and every one of its performances. | ||
 | Album: 2 of 4 Title: Bastard Children Released: 2013-09-09 Tracks: 2 Duration: 06:23 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Hey Now (02:22) 2 Four Flame Candle (04:01) |
 | Album: 3 of 4 Title: Metamodern Sounds in Country Music Released: 2014-05-12 Tracks: 10 Duration: 34:26 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Turtles All the Way Down (03:08) 2 Life of Sin (02:26) 3 Living the Dream (03:51) 4 Voices (02:47) 5 Long White Line (04:01) 6 The Promise (04:17) 7 A Little Light (01:39) 8 Just Let Go (02:32) 9 It Aint All Flowers (06:43) 10 Pan Bowl (03:02) |
| Metamodern Sounds in Country Music : Allmusic album Review : Sturgill Simpson won many fans with his 2013 debut album, High Top Mountain. It is unapologetic in its evocation of 70s outlaw country. For his sophomore date, he and his band entered a Nashville studio with producer/engineer Dave Cobb (Jason Isbell), and cut Metamodern Sounds in Country Music live-to-tape in four days. These songs and their production values, though immediately reconizable, are more varied and textured than those of his debut--theres no pedal steel here for one thing. The Waylon Jennings-esque quality in Simpsons singing voice remains, but thats built in. His songwriting and confidence have grown exponentially. The set is introduced by his 82-year-old coal-mining grandfather Dood Fraley on opener and first single "Turtles All the Way Down." The track features Cobbs nylon-string guitar, the wafting tapes of a Mellotron, electric bass, acoustic and electric guitars, and sharp drums framing Simpsons lyrics that refer to Jesus, the Old Testament, Buddha, mythology, cosmology, drugs, and physics, before concluding that "love is the only thing that saved my life," making it a glorious cosmic cowboy song. On the rocking "Life of Sin," Simpsons acoustic guitar meets Laur Joamets razor-sharp Telecaster leads in a cut-time shuffle that explodes in a country boogie. "Voices" addresses the collective and troubled history about coal-mining with wisdom--all inside a spacious yet lean three-minute country song. There are two covers here: One is a killer reading of Charlie Moores and Bill Napiers trucker anthem "Long White Line" that careens and chugs with Joamets razor-wire Telecaster and Simpsons flatpicking. The other is "The Promise." Originally a hit for the British pop band When in Rome in 1989, Simpson utterly transforms it into a progressive honky tonk love song and makes it his own. "A Little Light" is rockabilly-country-gospel with wrangling guitars, handclaps, ragged-but-right vocal harmonies, and plenty of spiritual swagger. "Just Let Go" is Buddhist gospel, with gorgeous harmonies, spiralling mellotron, slide guitars, poetic lyrics, and organ--its one of the sets finest moments. It introduces the acid-drenched psychedelic country that is "It Aint All Flowers." Simpsons prescient, philosophical lyrics are framed inside phased, wah-wahed, and reverbed guitars, crunchy snares, haunting mellotron, spacy slide lines, and instrumental backmasking that wind into the stratosphere. His strident, passionate vocal is so tough, soulful and spiny, it bleeds through genre definitions as it rocks, rolls, and wails. Metamodern Sounds in Country Music is wildly adventurous; it extends the musical promise outlaw music made to listeners over 40 years ago. Simpson is too honest, restless and dedicated to country musics illustrious legacy to simply frame it as a musical museum piece. As an artist of uncommon ability, he has learned from its hallowed lineage and storied past that in order for it to evolve, it cannot be reined in; it must be free to roam in order to create its future. His visionary work on this album opens the gate wide on that frontier. | ||
 | Album: 4 of 4 Title: A Sailor’s Guide to Earth Released: 2016-04-15 Tracks: 18 Duration: 1:17:48 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Welcome to Earth (Pollywog) (04:53) 2 Breakers Roar (03:32) 3 Keep It Between the Lines (04:01) 4 Sea Stories (03:16) 5 In Bloom (04:00) 6 Brace for Impact (Live a Little) (05:49) 7 All Around You (03:35) 8 Oh Sarah (04:15) 9 Call to Arms (05:29) 1 Welcome to Earth (Pollywog) (04:53) 2 Breakers Roar (03:32) 3 Keep It Between the Lines (04:01) 4 Sea Stories (03:16) 5 In Bloom (04:00) 6 Brace for Impact (Live a Little) (05:49) 7 All Around You (03:35) 8 Oh Sarah (04:15) 9 Call to Arms (05:29) |
| A Sailor’s Guide to Earth : Allmusic album Review : Back when he released High Top Mountain in 2013, the retro sensibilities of Sturgill Simpson seemed to be rooted solely in outlaw country: he swaggered like the second coming of Waylon Jennings, a man on a mission to restore muscle and drama to country music. Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, his 2014 sophomore set, was a curve ball revealing just how unorthodox his rulebook was. After nearly two decades of alternative country doubling down on po-faced authenticity where simpler was better, Simpson embraced indulgence, pushing new wave, psychedelia, and digital-age saturation, all in an attempt to add the cosmic back into American music. A Sailors Guide to Earth goes one step further: its an old-fashioned concept album, one that tells a story -- its a letter to his newborn son, telling him how to become a man -- and is dressed in garish art suited to the side of a Chevy van. The overarching aesthetics are a throwback to the golden age of vinyl but Simpson is too smart to succumb to mere revivalism: he seeks to expand, not retract. To that end, hell posit that Nirvanas "In Bloom" exists on a continuum that runs back toward Glen Campbells renditions of Jimmy Webb tunes, which hints at how, for as steeped in the 70s as A Sailors Guide to Earth is, Simpson doesnt limit his prog to merely rock. Hes equally attracted to the symphonic haze of progressive folk and the boundary-blurring soul of Muscle Shoals, using its thick swathes of horns and smears of slide guitar as binding agents in songs that occasionally need to be pulled together. Blame that on Simpson sometime prioritizing the journey over the destination. Hes certainly not indifferent to songs -- strong ones punctuate the voyage, ones that veer closer to soul than country -- but he cherishes the voyage, so there are times when A Sailors Guide to Earth threatens to float away on a slipstream of strings and melodies that are heartfelt and hookless. Even at these moments, his ambition remains ingratiating: he might not quite arrive precisely where he intended, but as he makes it so clear throughout the album, what matters is the journey itself. | ||