the Sturgill Simpson c/d

for those of us without the patience for the rolling country thread

lol this was supposed to say The Sturgill Simpson thread

but I guess we can also discuss THE Sturgill Simpson

like him, wish he'd enunciate better

Yeah, after many of my friends raving about him, when I got around to hearing him he's kinda like honky tonk Eddie Vedder.

He writes better lyrics than vedder ever did.

His cover of "The Promise" is stunning.

Hard or soft 'G'?

Hard

Ta. Liking Metamodern Sounds on first listen

Yeah it's pretty great

Just got it the other day myself. Not disappointed.

"Yeah, after many of my friends raving about him, when I got around to hearing him he's kinda like honky tonk Eddie Vedder."

thanks for ruining the recod for me now!

I liked it a lot when I first heard it, and I guess I still do, but it kind of feels like he uses the exact same songwriting trick on every song.

That thing where the verse sticks on the I with a little V7 thrown in and then the chorus comes a-roarin in on the IV

he uses the exact same songwriting trick on every song

hallmark of classic songwriting

well, few country singers have the Gene Clark/Parsons talent.

i think the production is somewhat too clean and upfront.

still, it's better than most of the genre

Yeah I found it really refreshing when I first got into it, then I just bored of it quickly because it felt so samey. But it has a great sound and some great lyrics.

thanks for ruining the recod for me now!

Haha sorry, I'm not even entirely sure where my Vedder comparison came from! Sturgill's not yarly at all so much as mumbly. There's definitely stuff about him I like though.

i have found myself returning more to the last one even though i normally have a little bit of a year-end-list mania that keeps me focused on new releases instead. probably he seems less awesomely fatalistic on the newer one otherwise i'd spin it.

wait ... hard G? is that really right?

I doubt it

rhymes with gurgle? c'mon now

http://www.pronouncenames.com/pronounce/sturgill

http://youtu.be/_70HJMikcBo?t=2m46s

dude's got pipes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eWJmN8D820

Simpson's guitarist is really good. I love the solo on this one. I'd have to figure they are using the studio echo chamber on the solo, being that is a famous one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK4UFSNGRdE

FYI I live in Kentucky where this guy is a something of a local hero and I've never heard it pronounced any way other than to rhyme with 'Virgil.'

Album is great, hope he continues in the 'Reptilian overlords and DMT' mode, and hope he keeps whoever is playing lead guitar on this thing, damn.

Yeah his lead player is siiiiick as fuuuuuck

good interview with the guitarist: http://www.thefader.com/2014/09/18/another-country-interview-laur-joamets-sturgill-simpsons-estonian-guitarist

sturgill's a damn good guitarist too.

opening for Willie seems like a no-brainer

i've been off the country wavelengths for a while but just took a listen to this - as good as advertised!

his voice is very much in the classic merle mode and i can totally dig it

as anyone points out, correctly, he sounds a LOT like waylon

i'm not even a drug fiend but the lyrics to turtles all the way down are fantastic

estonian dude is becoming an american pretty quick when he says things like "amen to that"

next interview he'll be all "you're darn tootin!"

There must be a hundred guitar pickers in Nashville muttering 'coming over here, taking our jobs' like some UKIP neanderthal in a dead English seaside town...

saw these guys open for Willie Nelson last night and they were straight fire. Laur Joamets is indeed an amazing guitarist, he was very much the star of the show, although Sturgill is a pretty sick guitarist too.

Xpost There seem to be a lot of Aussies in Nashville.

i like him fine, but i'm reactionary wrt his rise in popularity - a) i'm not so fond of the voice (nor waylon's, of which he's too derivative), and b) he's caught too much of the dudebro-ish fetish for rock-enough-to-not-be-uncool "outlaw"/druggy country males that usually extends to dreck like Hank 3 and rarely crosses the gender barrier

i'm kind of a fan but he's not as good as probably a dozen other current country artists i can think of off the top of my head tbh

and the backlash begins

I think he's great. He's a great musician, his band is great, I like his singing and I like the songs he covers along with his originals. I like Waylon, and I like that he is not afraid to sound like Waylon. I don't get a dudebro vibe from him at all, if anything there's sort of a jam band thing going on at times.

i'm kind of a fan but he's not as good as probably a dozen other current country artists i can think of off the top of my head tbh

― LIKE If you are against racism (omar little), Wednesday, December 31, 2014 6:19 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

want this list

i think it's right to be wary of the "i hate all current country music, but i like this" line that so often accompanies praise of sturgill simpson, but that has very little or nothing to do with sturgill simpson.

i'm a little amazed that a country fan can dislike waylon's voice (see benbbag above), but i have enough non-acquired tastes to give it a pass, i suppose. (btw christgau didn't like waylon's voice much either.) but i think waylon's voice is a thing of beauty, and as much as i love strugill simpson, he can't (yet) approach it in subtlety and flexibility.

I'm a country fan always suspicious of Waylon. Not hard. A fair amount of outlaw bathos.

Btw this guy closer to early eighties "Big City" Hag.

I'll totally cop to not being a country fan and being hardly familiar with Waylon and having never heard of Sturgill Simpson prior to last night. Still was a good show though...

i guess i go so deep with waylon -- i think i have every LP of his, at least up until the late 80s -- that i forget about the whole outlaw thing, which is really not a huge part of his oeuvre all told, even if it defined his public persona for a lot of people.

watch this and see if you don't love it -- his singing, the drumming, his minimalist guitar solo, everything:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1-_cZoUOEE

(that's from the pre-outlaw period, before he grew a beard, obv.)

want this list

― man alive, Wednesday, December 31, 2014 10:23 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Laura Cantrell
Brandy Clark
(Drive-By Truckers)
Merle Haggard
(Jason Isbell)
Miranda Lambert
Ashley Monroe
Kacey Musgraves
Willie Nelson
Brad Paisley
Angaleena Presley
Billy Joe Shaver
(Lucinda Williams)

I don't get a dudebro vibe from him at all, if anything there's sort of a jam band thing going on at times.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, December 31, 2014 10:17 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That's exactly what, or who, I meant by dudebro. Perhaps I've misunderstand the term.

last track on metamodern is fucking brilliant

i'm a little amazed that a country fan can dislike waylon's voice (see benbbag above), but i have enough non-acquired tastes to give it a pass, i suppose. (btw christgau didn't like waylon's voice much either.) but i think waylon's voice is a thing of beauty, and as much as i love strugill simpson, he can't (yet) approach it in subtlety and flexibility.

― I dunno. (amateurist), Wednesday, December 31, 2014 10:40 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I don't dislike Waylon's voice, I just don't have a particular like for it, even as I've recognized or even admired its fine quality at times. There's something a bit too good old boy-ish in its mix of basso, molasses, and, perhaps crucially, certainty that sets off my regional prejudice along with political suspicions in a way that the more wavering John Anderson's, say, does not. I mean, I find Randy Travis' politics pretty offensive, but I don't find them suggested much by the sound of his voice, which I sometimes love.

(and that was supposed to be "I" misunderstand, or I've "misunderstood," up there)

You are the worst poster

voices dont have political properties

My comments from the Nashville Scene ballot (album kept growing on me, though not quickly enough to make Top Ten; def an Hon. Mention though)

Sturgill Simpson, Metamodern Sounds In Country Music: the only really weird thing about this famously “weird” album: his herky-jerk delivery of the reviewer-bait lines, minus words he’s dropped along the way. The ones that get through (I envy him any encounters with those aliens who “cut away the pain”) are even more appreciated than they would be if we could take said delivery for granted---especially because I keep glimpsing a basic/potential resemblence to Waylon Jennings singing Billy Joe Shaver (who can also write assertively quirky; does it lots, dang it).Perhaps this tendency is what he’s resisting, although it works great when he lets it flow over that “Long White Line.” He lets himself fall between the Waylon and the herky[jerk cadences, settles down like a tired old dog, but quite clearly conveys points about the “Voices” that won’t leave him alone, but “ain’t got nothin’ to say.” Could be the “they” who say say so much received wisdumb to everyone all the time, in the media, way down deep like the stronium-90 in post-WWII mother’s milk, all over the world (hence the title of Captain Beefheart’s album Safe As Milk). And/or the voices that Brian Wilson has also said he’s learned to ignore. It’s a fine song.
The herky-jerk itself becomes meta on “The Promise,” as Simpson huddles defensively/doggedly in your gaze, while trying to declare his intensions, before a climatic outburst: “WHAT AH’M TRYIN’ TO SAY---”, and he says it, yay. This leads to more sympathetic listening, as far as I’m concerned: professional performers are often isolated figures, and country artists in particular often have to go through some kind of careful (if not palpably torturous) process to sell anything oh so different. Psychedelic insights/experiences, if any, would seem especially hard to bring into the spotlight: you know it’s likely to sound like bullshit to most folks, and just a novelty buzz (good bullshit) to others. Which would also explain some of the tension, the reluctant pushme-pullyou in his vocal phrasing.
But the most unabashed, still somewhut humble psych offering, “It Wasn’t All Flowers,” is so good that it makes some sense for him not to deliver more like this, ‘cos like I said before , we might take it for granted. (On my copy, he immediately reverts to a look awaaay back over “Panbowl,” though not for nostalgic bliss, but more a sense of who, what and where now seem gone forever---the why of it is missing too, unless maybe that’s in the rest of the album?). Just speculative notes, still being made. Ready for his next, too.

xpost some of 'em have political properties to some ears: Greg Tate's written about getting creeped out (vs. critical appreciation) by Sinatra's voice, ditto Gary Giddens by Hoagy Carmichael's voice, despite loving, say, Sonny Rollins' version of "Skylark," and other covers of HC songs.

In both cases, has to do with old schools of racism (although Sinatra was liberal when that was risky for a young singer-actor, McCarthyism-wise, the New Joisey Italian sound reminded Tate of some early encounters/associations...) (Hoagy made Giddens think of an old dude in a rocking chair, waiting for his fellow Klansman to come moseying through the winter corn, on the way to this evenin's get-together)

I can't explain why Jennings' outlaw material comes off posturing in ways that Haggard and to a lesser extent Cash's doesn't. Certainly he's written fine material. But he's not weird enough to record reactionary plaints, dry love songs, kitschy love songs, all on one album -- and inhabit them like Hag. It's possible I've listened to the wrong albums.

Because Jennings as outlaw essentially was posturing? Playing a character, playing dress-up, etc. Willie just lets his freak flag fly. Merle, like Cash, essentially is (was) himself. But that whole outlaw movement thing, it's like this period where a whole bunch of real characters started playing fake characters. Granted, the likes of Hank Jr. was much worse at this.

I'm confused. What are we defining as outlaw material? My favorite of Waylon's outlaw material are the love songs, like Dreaming my Dreams with You, Wurlitzer Prize, Amanda, etc. He's a great stubborn wallower. I would say he really inhabits these songs.

"Wurlitzer Prize" is lovely, agreed

Uh how is Willie's transformation from suit wearing brylcreemned Nashville dude to hippie any more or less authentic than Waylon? Waylon rules y'all crazy

Yup. He did write a song about how that outlaw thing done got outta hand iirc

Also he covered Norwegian Wood in the mid 60s, and "Nashville Bum" feels like the first articulation of the "too badass for Nashville" thing that really fueled the outlaw scene, which frankly I guess I see Hag as his own man and not really apart of outlaw proper, though not to say he wasn't influential and IMO is the best country artist ever

Waylon was sly and funny in a way his fellow outlaws werent (mostly)

Waylon also more genuinely rooted in rock than the rest

I'm confused. What are we defining as outlaw material? My favorite of Waylon's outlaw material are the love songs, like Dreaming my Dreams with You, Wurlitzer Prize, Amanda, etc. He's a great stubborn wallower. I would say he really inhabits these songs.

― Heez, Friday, January 2, 2015 9:12 AM (35 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Yep. that's the basic appeal, and as for the capital o Outlaw bit, let's remember that WJ's "Don't You Think This Outlaw Bit Has Got Out of Hand" is one of his best, ditto "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way": his signature take much more about the drive-by humor than any macho posturing---and when it comes to love songs, yeah, "a great stubborn wallower," which is in Sturgill too: something that can be abject, but assertive too, come hell and high water. Wounded macho mebbe, and why they both can sound a bit gutshot, so outlaw in that sense. So a lot of it comes down to how you hear his voice, which can seem way less agile than Willie's, for instance, but they make a pretty interesting duo.
Also, I seem to recall somebody, maybe Jennings' buddy Dave Hickey, writing back in the mid-70s that Waylon seemed very dubious about the proposed outlaw hype, a country parallel to the Southern Rock bandwagon (which, for that matter, Gregg Allman later said he found disconcerting: "I thought all rock was basically Southern.") And see Hickey's overview of Waylon's life and take on same, "His Mickey Mouse Ways":
http://www.texasmonthly.com/contributor/davehickey

And merle - did he go through the nashville grinder machine like the rest? Always seen him as part of the bigger bakersfield scene.

Waylon was sly and funny in a way his fellow outlaws werent (mostly)

― Οὖτις

Merle, bro

Idk in some ways I kinda wanna say if they werent on the outlaws album then they werent part of it tbh. Merle is great but he's a different thing

Yeah, he already had his own thing going, though prob the outlaw ad men had him in mind as an influence, re independent-minded-Bakersfield-bohemian manliness. But they wanted an image without the uptight right-wing connotations: less Eastwood, more Peckinpah. Speaking of the outlaws album, the deluxe reissue of Wanted! The Outlaws, from maybe a decade ago, is really good, esp. cause get more Jessi Colter (really enjoyed her brief, post-Waylon return, Out of the Ashes).

Core outlaw clique: Willie, Waylon, Billy Joe Shaver, Kris, David Allan Coe,Jessi Colter, Hoover

(Hoover? J. Edgar?)
Funny that Merle's independence eventually had him denouncing "Bush Wars" (all three of 'em!) in post-9/11 shows, and yet he never got Dixie Chicked---maybe because he was considered an outlier by then, or maybe because if even he was doing it, might lead some others to go public with their doubts, at least at that point (though even Toby Keith did eventually confess that he never quite got the connection between Osama and Saddam).

"if even he was doing it, might lead some others to go public with their doubts," therefore unwise to publicize by denouncing him

Oops forgot Tompall Glazer

Dow I'm really surprised you don't know Hoover!great stuff

http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Outlaw-Album-Hoover/dp/B0000AINR4

M@tt otm re outlaw canon

this conversation is so weird

the whole "outlaw" thing was more PR than anything else, it's not the subject or even the subtext of all that many of waylon's songs.

and the "don't you think this outlaw bit's done out of hand" thing was a reference to being arrested for possession, like "wait, i didn't mean i was _literally_ an outlaw." it's a joke.

Yeah

Of course, I took it as more outlaws of the Nashville machine

Except David Allan Coe that guy is a fucking lunatic

And/or crazy good (enough) at self-hype, also made some good albums.(warning: the following contains a favorable mention of Kid Rock, but he had recently made a good album too)(1999 also the alibi for any stylistic excesses) Some Coe-rrespondence:
http://www.villagevoice.com/1999-08-03/music/fumin-emotions/full/

Can't believe anyone would forget Tompall. That guy was great.

As long as we're derailing poor Sturgill's thread, anyone read this?

http://www.amazon.com/Outlaw-Waylon-Willie-Renegades-Nashville/dp/0062038192/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420249260&sr=8-1&keywords=outlaw+kris

I saw this cable doc on DAC, and it was amazing, he was drinking with Pantera dudes and telling the most outlandish stories...his racist album is a real pile of shit tho kinda kills the charm of his persona

Still haven't heard that, and hope I never

Friend gave me a CDR years ago listened to it a couple times and felt embarrassed to have it & gave it away

it's not even funny. if you've gotta be misogynist and racist, at least be funny.

iirc a lot of the stuff circulating on those albums - at least the 'unofficial' ones - aren't by DAC but by some dude called "Johnny Reb" or some dumb shit. I don't know that DAC had more than a couple of those sorts of tunes (not that that excuses it).

Anyway, his first album, Penitentiary Blues, should be in everyone's collection. After that, err, not so sure you need too much DAC (though I will admit a certain fondness for "You Never Even Called Me By My Name" and his version of "Slide Off Your Satin Sheets"). Anyone ever hear his 'psychedelic' album, mostly spoken word and sound effects? It's way crazier (and way more entertaining) than his 'x-rated' stuff. I can't recall the name of it but it's tough to find.

Yeah, I've heard that a lot of the DAC stuff circulating is actually Johnny Reb(el) stuff. My uncle had a tape full of the latter's stuff, much more horrifying than most of DAC's racist stuff.

Funny that Merle's independence eventually had him denouncing "Bush Wars" (all three of 'em!) in post-9/11 shows, and yet he never got Dixie Chicked---maybe because he was considered an outlier by then, or maybe because if even he was doing it, might lead some others to go public with their doubts, at least at that point

not being a "chick" probably helped, too

he wasn't selling many albums either.

Good song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evw-vjclHg0

The stuff I heard was all DAC and the Johnny Reb stuff I heard once was different sounding so I wouldn't let DAC off the hook that easily

The DAC one is kinda half sex stuff I guess, Johnny Reb I only heard once but it was way old fashioned sounding iirc

The moody, downbeat, beat-down, and kinda Beat Generation fatalism x restlessness, sometimes flairing way up, and mebbe out, for a while: you find that in some country artists, def. in both Coe and Simpson (ditto Townes Van Zandt). Also, something I wrote about DAC later, speaking xpost of Penitentiary Blues, and how the jailbird flights still seemed to pertain in '06 (glib-ass ending is cos this is taken from some show previews, re him and irrelevant etc)

In 1969, Dave Coe was a 30 year-old parolee, resident of a hearse parked outside Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, home of the Grand Old Opry...Coe told tall tales of his years behind bars -- unless you believe he really did teach Charlie Manson to play the guitar, and that the State of Ohio lost all evidence of his alleged time on Death Row. With the name on the contract now matching the one on his rap sheet, David Allan Coe's life after prison soon became equally improbable, as he got a chance to make his first album, Penitentiary Blues, backed by some of Nashville's finest.

Among the prime Nashville Cats on Penitentiary Blues was the late drummer Kenneth Buttrey, who had played on Bob Dylan's "Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35." Buttrey got to march, pound, and roll Coe through the echoing halls of this portrait of the Longhaired Redneck as young bluesman. Its songs don't all deal with prison life, but, in this context, they sure seem like cells, both connected and separated. Places where your thoughts crowd you and people are alone together, in little cages like stages, because somebody's always watching and being watched.

Penitentiary Blues -- long out of print, recently reissued by Hacktone/Shout! Factory in time for Coe's 66th birthday -- now seems like the blueprint for Coe's enduring worldview. He sees himself and his lady friends as forever finding and losing each other in the maze of life, like ships that go bump in the night. If one of the pair discovers or accuses the other of bumping someone else, Coe's always ready (sometimes eager, sometimes sad) to hit the road, to stay away from conflict, and any other confinement.

And that applies to most other situations too, as in Coe's most famous song, "Take This Job And Shove It" ("I ain't workin' here no more"). Another standby, "You Never Even Call Me By My Name," establishes an ironic distance between himself and the clichés expected of country performers, which allows him to come back and use them again per his mercurial mood. Like the latter-day Dylan, he seems to live and thrive on an Endless Tour, and in endless reissues. Performing combinations of old and (carefully rationed) new songs, he moves kinda slow onstage now. But still, when Coe appears, it's nature's way of telling us to party.

so I wouldn't let DAC off the hook that easily

Far from my intent, he has enough odious stuff fairly credited to his own name.

i'm pretty sure the DAC x-rated stuff i have is DAC and not johnny reb -- i'm familiar with those johnny reb 45s and they aren't the same.

i think DAC has a /ton/ of great albums, like way more than one could possibly imagine given, you know, who DAC is. he's a straight-up great ballad singer, not quite in the johnny paycheck or merle stratum but close. i fuck with a lot of DAC albums all the way through the 1980s.

I've never seen a derail quite like this.

i agree, this derail bit's done got out of hand

:)

all the outlaw country stars were real outlaws, sticking up small town convenience stores for Grapette n shit

That's actually a pretty rare bunch: outlaws who were actually outlaws. Haggard, Paycheck, Shaver, DAC, Cash, Steve Earle, all pretty much badasses who served time, were shot and/or shot people. Who else?

lol Cash just did a bunch of overnight/misdemeanor stays, hardly "outlaw"

out there obeying the law

all those other dudes were in for violent crime (well, I dunno about Earle, assume that could just as easily be drug charges), kinda different imo

xp

i feel like shel silverstein probably killed someone but got away w. it

Randy Travis seems pretty outlaw, in a drunk-spousal abuser way. (Could include John Denver too if we're going by that criteria).

Well, Cash, like Earle, was usually picked up for drugs. He never stayed more than a night in jail, sure, but he did get jailed on multiple occasions. He's no DAC, or Paycheck, or Shaver, but no one could call the dude a poseur.

anne murray was involved in a driveby shooting in ontario in 1987

garth brooks has several outstanding warrants for doing the dine-and-dash at a string of Applebees

At the least, his wife should be arrested for that breakfast recipe.

anne murray was involved in a driveby shooting in ontario in 1987

http://images.coveralia.com/audio/a/Anne_Murray-Something_To_Talk_About-Frontal.jpg

wearing this outfit

Coe and Haggard done time for property crimes---Coe vastly and variously exaggerated his exploits, while Hag told the story on himself, in one of his memoirs, went a little something like this: he and another young punk were discovered by property owner, who called the cops, and they hid under a house, where they were discovered by an armed kid, who made then wait for the cops. Cops said, "You boys that scared of a bb gun?" They thought it was a .22.
Shaver killed a guy in a bar a few years ago, successfully pleaded self-defense.
Paycheck, who got his name for forgery, for which he also done time, later wounded a guy, also claimed self-defense, served about two years.
Spade Cooley, the very talented western swing star, killed his wife in front of his daughter, served eight years before dying of a heart attack.

Not that those other guys aren't very talented (and not that the late Paycheck wasn't), but Cooley was almost as good as he was bad, at times.

I thought Merle robbed a bar in Bakersfield, which is why he got sent to San Quentin for 3 years.

That may have been the property in question, I don't remember, but def. cornered by the BB Kid, or so he wrote.

Would make it even better if he, the budding sticker-upper, was foiled by his ballistics ignorance.

I don't think Shaver killed him, just shot him in the face. Here's a quote for you:

"I am very sorry about the incident," Shaver said outside the courtroom. "Hopefully things will work out where we become friends enough so that he gives me back my bullet."

There was also that stretch where Shaver's son OD'd on heroin and he had heart surgery right after. The last time I saw him, a few years ago, he ripped open his shirt to show the scar, basically a cross in his chest.

Glad the guy didn't die! Shaver credited Willie Nelson with persuading him to perform the night his son died, said it might make him feel better (think he did a guest turn during WN's set, but might have been more). Shaver knew about Nelson's son killing himself, trusted Willie, and found that he was right. Also, his wife died, and yeah the heart surgery too---then Kinky Friedman drafted him for a tour. "But I need to recuperate." "I need you."

Good 2014 Billy Joe album: Long In The Tooth.

Slate's Carl Wilson from their end of the year roundtable chat-- on 2014 country albums he likes, and then starting trouble re Sturgill:

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/the_music_club/features/2014/slate_music_club_2014/the_best_podcasts_about_music_2014_s_best_protest_songs_and_answer_songs.html

I’m glad Craig also shouted out the new albums from Lee Ann Womack and Angaleena Presley, whose incisive American Middle Class dramatized a woman’s perspective on the 99-percent experience even more assertively than Kacey Musgraves’ “Merry Go ’Round” did last year. Womack’s indie-label The Way I’m Livin’, with its unsparing portraits of hard-drinking, hard-loving, self-snafu’ing lives, would gobsmack anyone who knows only her hit high-school-grad valedictory, “I Hope You Dance.” There was also Sunny Sweeney’s Provoked, Lydia Loveless’s Somewhere Else, and the big sister many of us have mentioned, Miranda Lambert’s Platinum, one of the most fully realized albums of the year, which still earned it only middling airplay.

I’ve been just a tad chagrined to see Sturgill Simpson’s Metamodern Sounds in Country Music get so much more notice on year-end lists than most of the above. Maybe people are thankful to hear a male pick up the clue, or maybe when they think of trad country they just want to hear someone with a deep Johnny/Conway/Merle voice. Not that Simpson’s music isn’t singular and strong, but it’s also the sort of album we heard fairly routinely at the peak of “alt-country” a decade-plus back, a period many critics seem to scorn. Why the turnaround? To me Metamodern didn’t have the crackle of necessity that, say, Presley’s set did. What’s more, why always Simpson and never Ray LaMontagne’s Supernova, for instance? As with hip-hop, there’s a rock-crit default country album every year, too.

idk what "crackle of necessity" means

So he's singular and strong and has a deep voice that sounds like other singers people like. That's a pretty high start for a supposedly undeserving album. I'm not sure I recall much alt-country stuff from back in the day that sounded like, dunno, Waylon or Merle. Bit of Buck Owens and the Byrds, etc., plenty of rock-country fusion, Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly and Sun stuff and whatnot, but stuff that sounds like Merle Haggard or Jennings? Not so sure about that. While I haven't paid attention to any 2014 year-end stuff, and would be sad if Sturgill made it on lists that Womack and Presley missed, I'm not sure how anyone could say the Simpson is somehow not worthy of any year-end ranking that those others deserve.

So his point is that if you were obligated to include one and only one country record, it should not be the Simpson?

I don't see the connection here either: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X294h3dl2_I this sounds like some shitty generic indie rock

xp

I do like that Womack record, that's a good 'un

I'm not sure I recall much alt-country stuff from back in the day that sounded like, dunno, Waylon or Merle. Bit of Buck Owens and the Byrds, etc., plenty of rock-country fusion

I didn't pay much attention to alt-country but what I did hear it seemed like the major reference point was Parsons, not Waylon/Merle/Willie

What’s more, why always Simpson and never Ray LaMontagne’s Supernova, for instance?

lol

that dude isn't country is he?

ray lamontagne sings like the iron & wine dude so to me that is a point decidedly in sturgill simpson's favor

re: that piece, the lambert/presley/womack/loveless albums are all genuinely great but i think simpson feels a bit apart from the country scene, which is why he's mentioned by many year-end listmakers who don't even think about considering 'platinum' or 'american middle class' or some others.

those felt too radioish to me, didn't feel like putting in the work to get comfortable with them

i just kinda hate the whole backlash aspect where it's like i get it i'm sure there are albums in all sorts of niches that ppl with broad tastes by nature just don't find out about or dig but you can't dig deep into EVERYTHING and the sturgill record is good, and the kinda hardcore outlaw/merle thing meets the druggy/psych aspects did feel unique in some ways to me

yeah I don't like being browbeaten about how I'm supposed to be more invested in a particular genre

I spent most of my young childhood digging George Strait records & now as an adult I'm burnt out on booze + weed + cosmic anguish so Simpson is catnip for me. I think the Lee Ann Womack record is great too fwiw, Angaleena Presley less so but it has its moments.

the Carl Wilson thing is annoying because it reminds me of how uncomfortable critical acclaim for a relatively uncommercial/unpopular album makes critics as a whole - without the validation of the market, they start to get nervous, it's pretty clearly a "well we all like it, but the market doesn't, what's WRONG with us" dynamic at work; it's pre-emptive anxiety about potential charges of elitism.

that goes double for pop/populist genres like country and r&b

that… doesn't sound like a thing?

i don't know how successful they want the record to be, i imagine that for this day and age it's sold well. certainly his shows do well.

i mean they keep multiple copies in stock at every record store (ha!) i know. clearly people are buying it.

also, you may or may not like it, but simpson is bringing something /relatively/ new to the idiom he's chosen to work in. i'm not sure that i can think of many autodidacts with quite as eccentric an intellectual pedigree who show their hand so boldly in a country-music context.

I wanted to see him but he had a State Fair gig he canceled to go on tour w Brad Paisley or someone big like that then his solo club show sold out super fast

Sturgill just signed to Atlantic. Interesting.

What <is> Atlantic these days anyway?

With over 60 years of recorded music history, our passion for artistry in music continues today as a new generation of incredible artists including Bruno Mars, Coldplay, fun., Jason Mraz, Ed Sheeran, Wiz Khalifa, Janelle Monáe, Skrillex, Trey Songz, Hunter Hayes and more continue to further the Atlantic Records legacy.

Nevermind...

sturgill simpson and my mans trey songz

I predict this goes really well lol

http://www.twangnation.com/blog/http://example.com/uploads/2015/01/sturgill-simpson-atlantic-001-300x300.jpg

Nick Tosches on Willie Nelson's Shotgun Willie: "...horns, and basically just what you'd expect of a country album on Atlantic." Yeah, and I like it. So, here's hoping...(Carla: "Otis, you country! Straight from the Georgia woods." Otis: "What!")

And maybe a little more for Light In The Attic's stoned Country Funk series.

OTIS REDDING, RAY CHARLES, WILLIE NELSON, ARETHA FRANKLIN.....SKRILLEX

I think Sturgill is one of those dudes who, due to his blooming popularity, really do need the larger distribution power of a major. Or needs a major to take it to the proverbial next level, in terms of sales and whatnot. Esp. in the country world, which really has never cottoned well to "independence," at least not beyond the 4th of July.

I wonder if they're going to reissue Metamodern first before putting out his next one.

Posted in the Rolling country thread:

http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/metamodern-sounds-and-facebook-country/Content?oid=4888206

Results of the Nashville Scene Country Music Critics Poll are up. Which seem to have been posted with relatively little fanfare.

Unsurprised that Sturgill Simpson edged Miranda Lambert for Best Album based upon the Pazz & Jop results.

― jon_oh, Thursday, January 22, 2015 11:53 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The triumph of Sturgill Simpson's Metamodern Sounds in Country Music as the Best Album in the Scene's 15th annual Country Music Critics Poll is significant for several reasons. For one, it was the narrowest victory in the poll's history. If just one voter had added Miranda Lambert's Platinum as the ninth-best album, she would have won. As it was, she won the Best Artist category by a comfortable margin over runner-up Simpson.

― curmudgeon, Friday, January 23, 2015 12:46 AM (14 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The latter paragraph is me quoting Poll poobah Geoff Himes

Nick Tosches on Willie Nelson's Shotgun Willie: "...horns, and basically just what you'd expect of a country album on Atlantic." Yeah, and I like it. So, here's hoping...(Carla: "Otis, you country! Straight from the Georgia woods." Otis: "What!")

b/c today's atlantic records is no doubt the same as it was when jerry wexler was running things?

I will concede to the "Sturgill Simpson isn't real country" crowd that it doesn't look like he's coming to Georgia, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, or Mississippi on his tour

he just toured the south in November.

also country music isn't really a southern phenomenon (although in the popular imagination it's very much tied to the south)

williamsburg show is sold out, kinda want to find tix

also country music isn't really a southern phenomenon (although in the popular imagination it's very much tied to the south)

Yeah, seriously. Aside from the cities, most of this country really is a giant Texas. It doesn't take long to find places full of people in hats and boots with big belts or camo caps and gun racks. I saw more rednecks at a recent Brad Paisley show 45 minutes outside of Chicago than I saw on my most recent trip below the Mason-Dixon line. And even the cities are packed with country fans.

Its a red region thing

And for some a rejection of rap and r'n'b thing,

he'll be on AC Limits stream tonite, 9 PM EST yes Ma'am:

http://www.youtube.com/user/AustinCityLimitsTV?app=desktop

http://klru.vo.llnwd.net/o36/acl_homepage/SturgillSimpson_slide.jpg

@TwangNation @SturgillSimpson @acltv lead player trippin on "Long White Line" yay And now ditto on very electric bluegrassActually enunciating too: "Lawd that her-oi-n (heroine?)dee-stroyed me."

"Sick of that bank, cain't take no more crank."

"Medicine Springs," excellent

wooooow

MN State Fair this year: Merle Haggard, Kris Kristoferson, and Sturgill Simpson

fuckin' good times there.

tickets $35 too which seems like a bargain

I "saw" Merle and Kris at Hardly Strictly a few years ago (I could not actually see the stage). they sounded good tho, did a lot of old chestnuts (Mama Tried, Sunday Mornin etc.)

$35 is a total deal!

yeah i mean i guess i figure both merle and kris by themselves would be a $35 ticket and sturgill is probably in the $20 zone by now

he's playing the Fillmore this Saturday for $25 but I am poor and don't have babysitting

but I do wanna go

You probably can't get a funnel cake at the Fillmore show.

nothin on a stick, at all

they give out free apples

(which are good for throwing at Bill Graham's portrait)

New album April 15th

http://www.spin.com/2016/03/sturgill-simpson-brace-for-impact-new-song-beats-1-zane-lowe-stream/

ooh!

Cool. Saw him in Seattle last November. His guitar player is very good.

Looking forward to it a lot.

apparently it will feature an "In Bloom" cover. intrigued!

WTF I'm not sure I'm into this. Sounds like some post-Eagles Don Henley shit with more distortion.

more like Turgid Simpson

Sounds like some post-Eagles Don Henley shit with more distortion.

I'll be the judge of that!

(listens)

I dunno, seems like he's really committing to being that "Country Guy Only Rock Fans Listen To"--serious Mitchell Froom/Tchad Blake vibes from the production. Most Henley thing about it is how it just keeps going and going after making its point.

Weird single, kind of an early or mid-90s adult rock vibe and the production doesn't sound great.

I relistened to the first album a few months ago and decided it kinda sucks

Yeah I pretty much stand by what I said upthread -- it's one good song but it's a whole album.

You guys are nuts. The new single is good.

so, for the first time, somebody owes dan auerbach money?

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/sturgill-simpson-on-staying-country-covering-nirvana-on-new-album-20160321?page=2

I see Dave Cobb is not part of this new one.

Good

This cover of "In Bloom" is hilariously inept:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpDYfkymaSE

he seems even more full-on into bad 70s country trope mode. WTF, cotton in his gums like Brando in the Godfather?

terrible

whut the heyul

the addition of "to love someone" at the end of that line is hilarious unintentional irony

You guys go to hell

kinda wish he'd gone all the way with it

He likes to shoot his gun
But he don't know what it means
To love someone
The way I love you...

really not sure why anyone is bemused by this cover, it...sounds like a sturgill simpson song, just like he made "the promise" sound like one of his songs

tbf it's not half as good as "the promise" but it's totally fine

NYT Profile

...it’s Elvis on Mr. Simpson’s mind, and in his mouth.

“T.C.B., baby!” he yelled, a reference to Presley’s band. Mr. Simpson is partial to Presley’s later years, the Stax era, “when they were laying it down hard and heavy. Elvis was a way bigger influence than Waylon Jennings, but you don’t wanna tell people, ‘I never really listened to Waylon.’”

in fact he does seem to wanna tell ppl he never really listened to waylon.

from the quoted lyrics to that father-son song, i'd guess jason isbell's "outfit" made an impression on him when they toured together.

http://www.npr.org/2016/04/07/473237504/first-listen-sturgill-simpson-a-sailors-guide-to-earth

I see Dave Cobb is not part of this new one.

― van smack, Tuesday, March 22, 2016 1:

I think in the NYT profile he talks about why he produced this one himself

this feels kinda half baked with a lot of strings on top

It has its moments, but it ain't great.

Album works pretty well as an entry point to his music (which this is for me, never got around to Metamodern, will probably go back now though).

Liking this a lot.

Haven't had time to absorb much of the lyrics, which might be a bit heavy-handed from what I read. But it sounds fine overall.

Welcome To Earth (Polywog) is my favourite song so far this year

Rest of the album is very strong too, I think

Finally listened to it this morning after not caring for either of the songs he released beforehand. I don't even know if I like it or not. I don't hate it, but it's just so fucking dull.

Saw his performance on The Daily Show and liked it.

Streaming the album on Spotify and it seems like it'll be the one country album I like this year.

From FB:

http://www.musicrow.com/2016/08/acm-creates-award-to-celebrate-merle-haggards-legacy/

Many years back, much like Willie and Waylon had years before, Merle Haggard said,
"Fuck this town. I'm moving." and he left Nashville.
According to my sources, it was right after a record executive told him that "Kern River" was a bad song. In the last chapter of his career and his life, Nashville wouldn't call, play, or touch him. He felt forgotten and tossed aside. I always got a sense that he wanted one last hit..one last proper victory lap of his own, and we all know deserved it. Yet it never came. And now he's gone.

Im writing this because I want to go on record and say I find it utterly disgusting the way everybody on Music Row is coming up with any reason they can to hitch their wagon to his name while knowing full and damn well what he thought about them. If the ACM wants to actually celebrate the legacy and music of Merle Haggard, they should drop all the formulaic cannon fodder bullshit they've been pumping down rural America's throat for the last 30 years along with all the high school pageantry, meat parade award show bullshit and start dedicating their programs to more actual Country Music.

While Im venting about the unjust treatment of a bonafide American music legend, I should also add, if for no other reasons than sheer principal and to get the taste I've been choking back for months now out of my mouth, that Merle was supposed to be on the cover of Garden & Gun magazine's big Country Music issue (along with myself) a few months back.
They reached out to both of us in October of last year while I was on a west coast tour. Merle was home off the road so I took a day off and traveled up to Redding.
He was so excited about it and it goes without saying that I was completely beside myself along with my Grandfather who has always been a HUGE Merle fan. We spent the whole day of the interview visiting in his living room with our families and had a wonderful conversation with the journalist. Then we spent about two hours outside being photographed by a brilliant and highly respected photographer named David McClister until Merle had enough...he was still recovering from a recent bout of double pneumonia at the time and it was a bit cold that day on the ranch.
But then at the last minute, the magazine's editor put Chris Stapleton on the cover without telling anyone until they had already gone to print. Don't get me wrong, Chris had a great year and deserves a million magazine covers...but thats not the point.
Its about keeping your word and ethics.
Chris also knows this as he called me personally to express his disgust at the situation. Dude's a class act.
The editor later claimed in a completely bullshit email apology to both Merle's publicist and ours (Chris and I share the same publicist) that they didn't get any good shots that day.
David McClister..
2 hour shoot..
no good photos..
OK buddy,..whatever you say.
Anyway, Merle passed away right after it came out.

Some days, this town and this industry have a way of making we wish I could just go sit on Mars and build glass clocks.

Sturgill

Right on

Saw him live to celebrate a friend's birthday. It's not a show I would ever have chosen to see myself, and yet the sheer galactic maximalism of it all was completely mesmerising. And the crowd! What a lovely crowd. Everyone dancing!

If Sturgill was a rock artist, I'd be telling him to chill the fuck out and just roll with the progression of things, but since he's not and country actually HAS BEEN a bunch of bullshit for 30 years that has zip to do with the traditional songwriting style and musicianship of country music, I am pumping my fist.

Sturgill is mythologizing. His past never existed.

never MIND the fact that Miranda Lambert has made better records

Inasmuch as country industry has always been dominated by "inauthentic" hucksters and jingoism u are correct

Country industry has also always been about a mythological past too tho

I love u Alfred, but I can't understand the manner in which you staunchly defend the most garbagey ends of Nashville.

I want him and Isbell to sell records (even though Isbell's records are the equivalent of dust on old furniture), but, really, they've done well on AAA/Americana insofar as anybody does in 2016, and they (and Lucinda Williams) would've joined Uncle Tupelo or whoever on that format twenty years ago too.

I love u Alfred, but I can't understand the manner in which you staunchly defend the most garbagey ends of Nashville.

― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever),

love you too boo but I can't understand why you're such a reactionary. And are you suggesting Lambert, Clark, Jackson, etc are garbage?

Lambert and Ashley Monroe are two of the best singer-songwriters in any genre at the moment.

xp Brandy Clark is delightful, as a musical writer of course, but particularly as a lyricist/storyteller.

Ashley Monroe and Miranda Lambert are hardly any different than top 40 factory pop, only with "Nashville" signifiers—musically, at least. And since I'm always a music person first and lyrics person a distant second, I get turned away by how ordinary the songs sound.

I was pleasantly surprised by some of that Lee Ann Womack album from 2 years ago that you championed because of how musically rich it was.

Ha -- to me they play as _sound_ first. Lambert's records sound great: full, lived-in like good Martina McBride, expert dynamics.

(And I do agree with you on Isbell. Dust on furniture is a perfect visual.)

Ashley Monroe and Miranda Lambert are hardly any different than top 40 factory pop, only with "Nashville" signifiers—musically, at least.

Ashley Monroe and Miranda Lambert sound like the Chainsmokers, Sia, and Rihanna? Oh.

We better drop this subject.

Chainsmokers and Rihanna, no. Sia? I hadn't thought about her, but totally in some cases.

Someday I'm gonna lock myself up for an entire weekend and trace how we got from the very vibrant musicality of the 80s (and every decade before them) to what happened in the 90s and beyond where everything got really blocky and cut-and-paste with numbing cadences and geometrically square bass lines. Started with Nirvana and Garth Brooks, moved into Weezer and post-Weezer rock and Shania Twain, took hold in teen pop boom at the end of the 20th century, and then Coldplay and OneRepublic oozed it all over everything since.

I know I've talked about the Mutt Lange-ification of Nashville in the past, but it's a real thing that happened, and it took a subsection of popular music that had, for many decades, sounded completely different and then sounded very much NOT different.

I will shut up now.

I am interested in this theory and would like to subscribe to your newsletter

I know I've talked about the Mutt Lange-ification of Nashville in the past, but it's a real thing that happened, and it took a subsection of popular music that had, for many decades, sounded completely different and then sounded very much NOT different.

The country and A/C charts of the '80s had records whose sounds and mixes were indistinguishable (Ronnie Milsap, Kenny Rogers, Crystal Gayle). It's true that Van Shelton, Yoakam, Travis, Rosanne Cash, etc dropped much of the gloss but not by much.

I only know enough musical theory to be dangerous. Not enough to actually describe the whys and hows popular songwriting got super boring in the last 25 years (other than a lot of it has to do with Logic/Pro Tools and digital recording). xp

I like what our Jess said on FB: "this strikes me as very similar to indie hip-hop at the height of the shiny suit era: the rhetoric was so confused because they were simultaneously saying "i don't want your damn recognition" and "why won't you fuckers pay attention to the *real shit*?" you can either attempt to change the system or you can stand proudly outside of it. this wishy-washy in between shit just makes you look like a chump."

The country and A/C charts of the '80s had records whose sounds and mixes were indistinguishable (Ronnie Milsap, Kenny Rogers, Crystal Gayle). It's true that Van Shelton, Yoakam, Travis, Rosanne Cash, etc dropped much of the gloss but not by much.

interesting that sturgill specifically calls out the last 30 years of nashville vapidity, when 30 years back is exactly the beginning of yoakam, travis, van shelton, black, et. al., which i would think would be up sturgill's alley. i'd think he'd be totally into what music row was pushing 30 years ago.

but if he can get his own "are you sure hank done it this way" out of all this, then power to him and good for everybody.

Sturgill is mythologizing. His past never existed.

Country industry has also always been about a mythological past too tho

both otm. and sometimes they get really good songs out of it.

The country and A/C charts of the '80s had records whose sounds and mixes were indistinguishable (Ronnie Milsap, Kenny Rogers, Crystal Gayle).

what i want to know is WTF happened to country-music rhythm sections in the 1980s? you still get some great songs, but even many of the best albums--like say merle haggard's--have this no-bottom, metronomic, equalized-out-the-motherfucker rhythm section sound that seems deliberately lifeless to me. i don't get it.

i mean compare that to waylon's rhythm sections -- even into the early 1980s -- which have a lot of bottom and are almost funky. well actually they /are/ funky at times. and of course much earlier country where the WHAP of the drums is always there.

i was listening to some country station out of virginia recently, they play "classic" country which to them means 60s-80s, i guess. and the shift from almost anything pre-1982 or so to anything later was often really pronounced. the bottom just disappears, the dynamic range shrinks.

(there's this other thing where in a certain subset of country balladry of the late 1970s through the early 1990s, a premium seems to be placed on sounding as sedated as possible. i'm all for minimalism, where a height of expressivity is reached via a minimum of means or at least a minimum of perceivable strain and variation. but some of this stuff---like kenny rogers and ronnie milsap and eddie rabbit, and those are the dudes i kind of LIKE--sounds like they invented the singing somnambulist.)

i guess this belongs on another thread or something.

i like sturgill simpson well enough except sometimes his aesthetic (and voice) gets uncomfortably eddie bedder-like.

*Vedder

Thee Anthony FantanoVerified account ‏@theneedledrop 14 hours ago
There's no better person than Sturgill Simpson to really GIVE IT to the country industry right now. I'm getting hot just thinking about it.

I love Eddie Vedder and I don't really hear it in Sturgill, who I also lost

the opening track to the latest album is still the best thing I've heard all year

Someday I'm gonna lock myself up for an entire weekend and trace how we got from the very vibrant musicality of the 80s (and every decade before them) to what happened in the 90s and beyond where everything got really blocky and cut-and-paste with numbing cadences and geometrically square bass lines. Started with Nirvana and Garth Brooks, moved into Weezer and post-Weezer rock and Shania Twain, took hold in teen pop boom at the end of the 20th century, and then Coldplay and OneRepublic oozed it all over everything since.

I've definitely been similarly bothered by these standards in pop music approach and production. It's the kind of approach and sound that instantly takes me to a grocery store in the suburbs, or the music/movie department of a Walmart, or a Ford commercial break during an episode of House Hunters. And like reality show editing/production, there is a distinct formula that is designed to be as unchallenging as possible to whatever excessive degree necessary.

that's not the approach in The Chainsmokers, Drake, and Panda.

"Panda" rather

Am I to understand there is currently some pop group called the Chainsmokers

Varies per artist of course

I'm saying – I hope I'm not being a dick – that current pop doesn't really sound like car commercials, and when I hear The 1975 in a VW commercial I wonder why more pop on Y-10 doesn't sound like VW commercials.

Certainly if a particular artist has nothing else redeemable about them cookie cutter production becomes a bigger distraction, and it's the landfill that I'm referring to as the worst offenders. So many of them sound like they're being groomed to the point that they aren't part of genre as much as they are just being targeted towards a demographic instead and don't actually sound that much different from each other because of the formulas JF touched on.

the new sturgill album was such a huge bummer for me, loved the last one's kinda cool late 60s private press stoner country vibe and this was is just fucking barf to me self conscious tom waits rips and "important" elvis gloop and shit, just lifeless as fuck compared to meta-modern sounds which staked out some really cool territory in alt country

i'd have to know more of what you're talking about in re. "cookie cutter production". there's a lot of music out there, a lot of pop music. in any era there's bad and there's good. it seems weird to say something like "90s pop music sucked" or whatever. that's using a very broad brush.

all the criticisms evan is making are very similar to criticisms made in the 1990s, 1980s, 1970s, 1960s and probably every decade previous.

I'm trying to think of Hot 100 charting pop that sounded like Weezer.

all the criticisms evan is making are very similar to criticisms made in the 1990s, 1980s, 1970s, 1960s and probably every decade previous.

― wizzz! (amateurist), Tuesday, August 30, 2016 11:05 AM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

True there's just a particular 2000s version of it I hear in the production that JF described as "in the 90s and beyond where everything got really blocky and cut-and-paste with numbing cadences and geometrically square bass lines."

i don't know how that applies to miranda lambert or ashley monroe or brandy clark or angaleena presley tbh, among others. there's not much ordinary about any of them and i don't think simpson's sound is so extraordinary and *real* in comparison.

or Eric Church and Brad Paisley

I wasn't really personally commenting on how it may or may not relate to those particular artists, was more broadly responding to JF's post.

I'm with upper mississippi sh@kedown, the new sturgill album was such a let down.

I'm trying to think of Hot 100 charting pop that sounded like Weezer.

I bet you won't find any. It's more about the approach to constructing a pop song, in a very rigid manner, than it is about how fuzzy the guitars are.

hook, pre-chorus,chorus!

what else do you need

I'm not even talking about the parts. I'm talking about how they reach those parts.

I know I'm incapable of accurately verbalizing my complaint in any coherent matter because, like I said upthread, I only know the bare mins re: music theory.

There's just a stiffness in songwriting now, not just rock, pop, and country, that didn't used to be there when everything was written out of jamming/live playing instead of being jammed into 4/4 bars in Pro Tools for easier post-production. I don't know if technology is completely to blame, or if people just became less interested in the swinging looseness popular music used to have, but too much stuff sounds like it was written with the metronome as the starting point and built outwards.

jammed into 4/4 bars in Pro Tools for easier post-production

digital editing is def the culprit of the phenomenon you're discussing imo

when everything was written out of jamming/live playing

i don't think that was ever the case in pop music.

if you're talking more about recording than writing, which you might be, then it should be noted that bands were recording to click tracks long before digital editing existed, and long before the '90s came around to apparently ruin everything.

recording to click tracks long before digital editing existed

these are two v different things imo

true. i'm just not clear on how working in protools forces artists to be any more or less swinging or loose than working with click tracks.

oh for the days when Script Politti and Kraftwerk jammed in the studio

hey those early Kraftwerk records are really good

I like the Script Politti stuff there they are more like pop group or the slits

People have been talking about Nashville going to hell since Patsy Cline added strings.
Zzz.

The great Jimmie Helms expressed it well in 1978:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=El9UwK9U4Z4

And Inventor of Outlaw Country James Marvell of the Country Cavaleers took a synoptic approach to country's identity crisis in 1981. I know Sturgill has heard this groundbreaking--and breathtakingly arrogant--single, because a copy lies buried in the Country Music Hall of Fame:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tRUkSOafYA

Slave to the metronome and editing pencil tool is the bane of pretty much everything from pop to country to death metal.

It's been going on a while, I remember an article about Clint Black from quite a few years ago talking about him building up everything via MIDI by himself in the studio.

Pop country should probably been pushing more Merle Haggard as that tune he did with Willie from last year "Gone to Pot" would have been a big hit back in the 80s, but in a way, Simpson doesn't really have anything to with that stuff anyway. Dude's more like Wilco than Miranda Lambert when you get down to it. Pop country is about making money, fxxx art, it's just when Billy Sherrill was doing it, the music was still good.

cool opinions

Dude's more like Wilco than Miranda Lambert when you get down to it

colorless?

No Depression fans vs. Bro Country

i think country is probably stronger than it's been in a long, long time. the pistol annies albums (and each member's solo albums) have kinda led the charge for me but i also have a soft spot for little big town, jason eady, brandy clark, kacey musgraves, lindi ortega, and a few songs here and there from some others. i can't claim to be an expert on the genre at this point, i think i spread myself a bit thin across genres to focus on any one, but i will say the albums i've listened to most over the past year (after 'art angels') were probably 'the blade' and 'platinum'.

The industry viewpoint.

"Where would Sturgill Simpson be without Nashville?"

Counterpoint: He could have gone to Austin/Memphis/New Orleans and perhaps have been just as successful.

Counterpoint: He could have gone to Austin/Memphis/New Orleans and perhaps have been just as successful
Just as successful, I don't think so. Somewhat successful--a live act people liked who made seoond-tier Americana records for the faithful--maybe. I mean I don't buy into the let's-give-credit tone to the Tennessean piece, that's just the way people think in Nashville. He ain't on country radio even coming outta Nashville and he sure wouldn't be had he matriculated from the above cities, seems to me.

so... I like his cover of Slim Slow Slider. His voice really fits the song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRYnLbstn5g

Thing I think is that Sturgill's fans are really more rock and roll folk than country pop people. I'm sure there are plenty of Nashville fans of the arty persuasion that get into Gillian Welch or Buddy Miller digging Simpson, but I don't think he really is apart of the big blonde hair and songs about beer and bonfires folk buying his records.

By comparison, Dale Watson's beef with Nashville to be is a bit more legit in a way, as he was apart of the label system and he had the old codifiers down cold yet was spurned. My parents that saw Buck Owens, Dolly with Porter and the Johnny Cash show with the Statler Brothers courting in the 60s and really like Watson's music they have heard. Dale Watson has that old sound down cold. Watson perhaps kinda feels he got robbed of picking up that mantle, so I can see his beef is a bit more legit in a way perhaps in a way Simpson's is not. Both make cool tunes to me, just discussing the politics of country music business.

It kinda sucks that magazine dissed Merle, but they probably didn't figure on him dying either in hindsight. The big country station in this part of KY plays mostly old stuff just like classic rock radio with smattering of the big hair stuff. Being that Simpson is a local guy, you would 'think' he would perhaps fit into programming but shit man that stuff is probably decided in LA or Mumbai by aggregate databases.

One son of a redneck reporters opinion...

the merle thing... that happens all the time in journalism... a reporter or even editor promises you a cover, there's a last-minute editorial change. it happens, it's a little crummy, but it doesn't seem like synecdoche for nashville's corruption or something. it could happen anywhere. in any milieu.

but a lot of sturgill's criticisms of the country-music establishment seem a bit in bad faith, in part for the reasons earlnash describes.

the merle thing... that happens all the time in journalism... a reporter or even editor promises you a cover, there's a last-minute editorial change. it happens, it's a little crummy, but it doesn't seem like synecdoche for nashville's corruption or something. it could happen anywhere. in any milieu.

yeah that has nothing to do with nashville or the country music establishment at all. and it does happen. but it's still wrong, assuming they made a promise, did an interview based on that promise, and then broke it without telling anyone. that's wrong and shitty no matter how common it might be.

Would think Sturgill and his ilk benefit quite a bit from playing with / rebelling against Nashville's confines/conservatism almost like Madonna did/does w/r/t Catholicism.

David Cantrell's excellent response. I can't recommend his Haggard bio more highly either

David Cantwell's piece does a good job of placing Haggard in the context of country-music history. He offers a solution to Sturgill's problem with Nashville, which is to have modern singer place Haggard in the the context of the past. He says: "For that to happen, though, musicians from all parts of the country music business are going to have to make Merle’s old songs sound brand new for a new generation of fans."
But how would this happen? Cantwell: "That’s how the country tradition, Merle Haggard included, almost always worked. The trick is not to make the new music sound like the old music. It’s to let the music change, often drastically, while doing the work to keep it connected to all that tradition that’s come before."
So who's "doing the work" to link modern country to "all" this tradition? Miranda lambert? Kacey, Brandi, Tomi, Lori, Ashley, or Nikki Lane and Elizabeth Cook and Aubrie Sellers? Or Sturgill and Jamey Johnson? Does singer-songwriterdom, the Eagles, Seger-Fogerty-John Cougar-Fleetwood Mac, et al, constitute the real "past" of country music now? And teen pop? What binds country to the work of past producers like Billy Sherrill or Jack Clement or Jerry Kennedy these days, beyond retro, as in the case of Americana--Daniel Romano. Finally, what does David Cantwell mean by "tradition"? Sonic tradition, songwriting tradition? Or the tradition of the opposition between roots and expansion his piece lays out?
Great piece, and it certainly makes me want to go further into all this.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/06/arts/music/sturgill-simpson-grammy-nominations.html?_r=0

Adele, Beyoncé, Drake, Justin Bieber…Sturgill Simpson?

Bewilderment was the first reaction of many this morning as the Grammy Awards announced its nominees for Album of the Year, pitting four of the most culturally and commercially dominant pop stars of this era against Mr. Simpson, 38, a critically respected but little-known country outsider.

...Are those albums that you’ve listened to?

I loved ‘Lemonade.’ I thought it was genius. I love the Adele record. I really, really wish, honestly, and no [expletive] — I would’ve liked to see Frank Ocean’s name where mine is. But that’s not my place to say. I totally understand [his protest]. I just thought that record [‘Blonde’] was really groundbreaking. I listen to just about everything except country music, so it’s strange.

He's this year's Bon Iver or Beck maybe (surprise Grammy nominee for big award)

quote is pretty pandering afaic. It's like when someone gives you a birthday gift and you're all "you shouldn't have!" even though you know they're not gonna be all "oh, ok, give it back then." Just seems like a gross, hollow-ass gesture to me (and a bit social climb-y to boot).

I just thought that record [‘Blonde’] was really groundbreaking.

wtf does this even mean? I mean, outside of its context in the Spin Alternative Record Guide or some dumb shit

yeah i think the new album is gloppy dross too, no wonder it's getting more attention that the fine little should've-been-private-press psych-country gem that the previous one was

country outsider.

I wish I could summon the Nazgul to do away with whoever uses this dumb fucking appostive

what would you call him? retro rock country ? I'm not a fan either, and yeah his nomination, like last year's for Stapleton is some kind of rockist "real country authenticity" nonsense, but he's not a Nashville industry insider (whether or not that is bad or good)

Stapleton, like Jamey Johnson before him, is no 'country outsider' despite marketing to the contrary. Sturgill, to his credit, is by all accounts every bit the shit-kicking 'outlaw' he appears to be, whatever that's worth

and yeah, the "country outsider" nonsense appeals to the worst kind of rockist, and I enjoy reminding such people that Jamey Johnson is 1/3 responsible for "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk"

None of them get Luke Bryan level radio airplay or media coverage. Stapleton was a Nashville insider songwriter but his own stuff is more barband; Jamey Johnson also can write country pop; but goes in a different direction on his own. Sturgill covers Nirvana...

the whole narrative around him right now is weird considering that the album itself mostly has a soppy '70s MOR sound (not complaining, just observing)

Stapleton was a Nashville insider songwriter but his own stuff is more barband

Generous. To me he sounds like Bob Seger (and not early, raucous Bob Seger, either)

Ann Powers of NPR is calling Sturgill, Maren Morris, Rhiannon Giddens, Lori McKenna and Brandy Clark "third way" Nashville artists in a tweet

Absolutely killed it on SNL. He was not like this at all when I saw him tour behind the last album. Watch the "Call to Arms" clip, it's like they all took whatever EC and the Attractions used to take to get them through the night.

http://www.rollingstone.com/country/news/watch-sturgill-simpsons-fiery-snl-debut-w461175

Country Singer Goes on SNL, Exposes* Afghan Heroin Trade and No One Even Noticed

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/sturgill-snl-military-war-heroin/

*clickbait-y but still...

lol man his bass player is classic-fat-bass-player material, right down to that neck-snapping thing

Country Rock? More like Country Woke, amirite?

Yeah, fat guy with the bass butting against his double chin, the best.

I never got around to listening to this new one based on all the reviews and the Nirvana cover (which I didn't like). I still have hope for this dude though.

I never got around to listening to this new one based on all the reviews and the Nirvana cover (which I didn't like). I still have hope for this dude though.

lol this is me exactly

i didn't like the Nirvana cover either, and i'm not sure i like the new one *quite* as much as the previous one, but it is impressive and ambitious and well-crafted, imo.

i think you can stop having hope for him, he's gonna be ok.

I meant hope in the sense that I have hope he will make some more music I want to listen to

I watched the SNL performance thinking that maybe a live performance would clarify why ppl find this dude appealing. I came away from it desperately wanting a Yarl translator and still wondering why this dude over any other random country person.

i liked the new one a lot btw esp shakey i think you would dig a bunch of it

i don't hate 'in bloom' but it's not among the best stuff on the album fwiw

why this dude over any other random country perso

better songs, unusual POV

he's not better than a lot of the recent crop of female country artists but he's probably a lot better than a lot of the dudes.

I couldn't tell you anything about the POV of either of the songs he did on SNL because it literally did not sound to me like he was singing in English. It was like watching an angry male Ariana Grande.

he's not better than a lot of the recent crop of female country artists but he's probably a lot better than a lot of the dudes.

^^^this

I couldn't tell you anything about the POV of either of the songs he did on SNL because it literally did not sound to me like he was singing in English.

you realize this is how old white guys complain about rap right

Angry male Ariana Grande sounds pretty cool to me. She's the newest character in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, I'll hope for Sturgill Simpson next.

i don't think of him as angry really at all. he just has a lot of intense feels.

you realize this is how old white guys complain about rap right

You realize this is the definition of a false equivalence, right

how so

also idk how much you guys listen to country radio but i listen to it every so often bc my brother has it on in his car and his stuff sounds like nothing on it totally different sound. agreed that some of the women who get radio play are often doing equally distinctive stuff but even there like miranda lambert gets radio play i can't imagine "Brave for Impact (Live a Little)" getting play on XTU

"you can't criticize a singer's diction because sometimes people are racist" isn't a position that actually makes any sense

I'm not talking about ppl who dismiss rap as not being "actual music" or because they're racist or whatever. I am talking specifically about the phenomenon of not being able to understand the diction/slang/vocal delivery of a subculture you may not be directly familiar with, and using that as critical grounds for dismissal. Sometimes understanding stuff takes work. There's plenty of times I've encountered artists where I could not understand a damn thing they were saying until I really paid attention or looked it up or had someone else point things out etc. I get it that you don't like his vocal delivery and that's fair, but saying you can't understand his POV cuz you can't understand what he's saying - which is about *content*, not delivery - that's on you.

slippery slope from criticizing diction to musical theater

or GLEE

I'm not talking about ppl who dismiss rap as not being "actual music" or because they're racist or whatever. I am talking specifically about the phenomenon of not being able to understand the diction/slang/vocal delivery of a subculture you may not be directly familiar with, and using that as critical grounds for dismissal.

No you aren't, otherwise your qualifier wouldn't have been "old white guys", it would have been "people not down with current slang" which does actually include a fair number of people who are not old white men. If you're going to shorthand an argument, you should be pretty confident that your shorthand matches the point you want to make.

Furthermore, nowhere did I say "dude is a bad singer"; I said "I couldn't understand a word this dude said on SNL". It is not actually incumbent upon me to watch the SNL performance multiple times with a lyric sheet before I decide whether this music sounds like something I would want to spend my time on.

you're right I did substitute "old white guys" for "people not down with current slang" and I guess that muddied the waters when really my point was just about dealing with a singing style that draws on a different dialect(?) than the one you're used to. I suppose a more value-neutral (or at least non-racially loaded) example would be British stuff that's heavy on slang/local idioms/accents (the Fall? Dizzee Rascal? idk) that might take a little bit of work for an American listener to understand what's going on.

anyway take my word for it this dude doesn't sing in the usual way about the usual things current country dudes sing about

the fall is a great country band

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A91ANoS-_7g

excruciating pedantry on this thread

that's why I listen to Miranda Lambert

I like her too! it's not an either/or thing.

I'd no idea -- I thought you didn't care for her.

it's true I can count the modern country acts I enjoy on one hand - Simpson, Lambert, Musgraves, Lee Ann Womack - all of which I learned about from ILM

i liked the new one a lot btw esp shakey i think you would dig a bunch of it

― Mordy, Friday, 20 January 2017 21:31 (three days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i don't hate 'in bloom' but it's not among the best stuff on the album fwiw

― Mordy, Friday, 20 January 2017 21:32 (three days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Agree with Mordy. And as a dad who occasionally had to travel for work the opening song never ceases to choke me up. Eep the bit where he sings "That the answer was so easy" - gah, waterworks.

yes otm; that song is fantastic.

Laur Joamets has (or is soon) leaving the band. Cuts my interest in Sturgill records by at least half.

Wow, that's some bad news-- Simpson's got a major US tour in the Fall booked and already on sale that was primed to be StarTime for him and his band.

read Sturgill's statement ... he doesn't sound too worried:

We've been trying to keep it under wraps to avoid the inevitable rumor mill but last night's gig in Okeechobee FL officially marks the beginning of a new chapter.
We're all very sad to say that after nearly four years Laur Joamets has decided it's time to move on to pursue greener pastures and a gig with little more wiggle room for him to stretch out. It's been a pleasure and an honor watching him grow into one of the baddest guitar players on the planet and everyone in the band wishes him the best in his future endeavors. To be completely honest, I realized last night how much I've missed playing electric guitar without even knowing it so I guess as they say, "it was time".
I'm also proud to say that Little Joe recently became the proud owner of a US green card and is working towards officially becoming a "Muhrican".
Everyone in the band wishes him the absolute best in both his life and career and we cant wait to see what he does with his incredible talents.
It has also been an honor and a priviledge playing with the New Orleans horns boys (Brad Walker, Jon Ramm, Scott Frock) but sadly after touring nearly the entire world, every late night tv program and the Grammy's I felt it was time to move on from the sonic template of ASGTE and get started on "what's next". We all had a wonderful year with them and made some great friends for life. Who knows,..maybe I'll get an itching for the dirty brass again down the road.
With all that said, gonna be keeping it lean & mean with Miles, Chuck, & Bob this year.
After all,..heavy times calls for heavy music.
See ya on the road!!

My understanding is that he was never really a country guy, and had to figure out ways to fit his chops into Sturgill's songs. Obviously it worked out well for everyone.

Kind of interesting going with the smaller band for these bigger shows.

A change is a good thing. Joamets is a great player, but so is Sturgill.

https://www.avclub.com/watch-country-music-shit-starter-sturgill-simpson-busk-1820297790

Probably due a new one soon, no?

I've been listening a lot to his last one. What a weird record. Wish the Nirvana cover wasn't on it. "Call to Arms" is totally his riff on "Life During Wartime," right?

wtf happened with this guy

He's putting out an anime movie on Netflix.

...based off his "Sleazy" new Rock album.

hence my befuddlement

https://www.whiskeyriff.com/2019/07/21/sturgill-simpson-announces-new-sleazy-steamy-rock-album-sound-fury-out-this-fall-along-with-anime-movie/

Disappointed my thread taking off of this one's title didn't, er, take off: The Margo Price c/d

All the DMT trips with Joe Rogan finally caught up with him.

wtf happened with this guy

― Οὖτις, Monday, July 22, 2019 9:24 AM (four hours ago)

idk exactly what's so befuddling, but i fully trust Stu's taste, vision, etc. looking forward to this.

will be interesting to see if he sits down for interviews with the big outlets. he swore them off forever at one point, iirc?

Ha ha, I think this is all awesome news. I went back to his most recent album not long ago and, while I could do without the Nirvana cover, the rest is this awesome country-psych-soul trip that I really dig. So can't wait to hear what he does next.

xpost Why did he swear off interviews?

what's befuddling is he used to have good ideas, and now it seems like all he has are bad ideas

i fully trust Stu's taste, vision, etc.

Really? Even with a Netflix anime movie based on a "sleazy" rock album?

Trust is cool, but I just hope his taste and vision etcetera doesn't lead some of the more impressionable Stu-heads down a path towards full-on fedoras 'n swords.

impressionable Stu-heads down a path towards full-on fedoras 'n swords.

That seems an.... interesting leap. From what I've read, he recorded the album first and came up with the anime idea later, so I'm willing to give it a listen in good faith before assuming its a miss.

it's a pretty plausible leap when you're leaping from Joe Rogan and DMT

I honestly can't see or hear Joe Rogan's name without it immediately being followed in my head by "I smoke rocks"

Didn't he also contribute the titular song for that Jarmusch zombie flick?

new single is...interesting

did dan auerbach somehow get his grubby hands on our precious sturge?

the anime thing seems really stupid but I kinda like the song

i need to listen again to see if i can get past the black keys-iness of it all

halfway thru and this album sounds kind of like one of those kfc menu items that's designed to be so gimmicky that it generates its own free social media buzz

Dude's spent alot of time with Eliminator/Afterburner/Recycler.

Both of those things sound great!

I mean, that album cover!
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5b/Sturgill_Simpson_-_Sound_%26_Fury.png

he tries really hard

XP Yup. Covers Connected!

https://img.discogs.com/RpG-NjC5Y5tRPHuDcqmIE-3SM-M=/fit-in/300x300/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(40)/discogs-images/R-2848159-1413760716-9772.jpeg.jpg

Sturg could do a great cover of "Thug".

heard a song off this oof really bad like Black Keys pretending to be ZZ Top sounded awful like all those Black Keys records do

I haven't listened yet but I'm worried, since I heard the tail end of Sound Opinions yesterday, and both Jim *and* Greg were raving about it, and iirc Jim called it, and I paraphrase, the most radical country record since Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, which made me barf a little.

Guardian and Observer both reviewed the lp this weekend.
Don't remember noticing him before. Just listened to the first track of the lp described as psychedelic in friday's review and I think it's pretty awesome. Guitar is great anyway and vocals do seem to go back to traditional or at least outlaw country which si pretty great.
Must look into him further.

Guardian on Friday
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/sep/26/sturgill-simpson-sound-fury-review-countrys-outlaw-catches-fire

Observer
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/sep/29/sturgill-simpson-sound-and-fury-review-netflix-manga-film

It's the kind of record that will get great reviews and then be totally forgotten

I expect anyone who calls this a country record still thinks Taylor Swift is a country artist.

He's not playing in those fertile fields anymore.

https://i.imgur.com/VO5RLEP.jpg

my review of this album after listening to about 15 seconds: sounds like kings of leon and the mixing is shit

ice cold

I totally thought Kings of Leon too.

Finally listening, sounds okay to me, if maybe a little too 1990s. Would have been cool if he went totally radical and paid RZA to produce or something. Does sound like the sort of album to be totally missed or forgotten and rediscovered years later.

Yeah, I'm digging this, it's fun.

my review of this album after listening to about 15 seconds: sounds like kings of leon and the mixing is shit

Also I appreciate that he wants to lay down a groove or whatever but it feels like I’m being really n over by a train.

Does sound like a Fridmann production, even if it's not.

I can’t believe I had this much nostalgia for Don Felder’s theme for Heavy Metal, or that movie.

Well, yeah.

What is this it’s so bad.

Still think the best thing he ever did was his npr tiny desk concert

Oh man first impression this is bad but I feel the lure of the embarrassment creeping in... I'm soulseeking it.

This disco song "A Good Look", jeez...

This is bad.

watched the film today.
was weird how the end credits kick in, and then after them the so called story is finished, and yet there are visual references to how it ends within earlier sections.
basically, the timeline of the film is an absolute mess.

oh, and i thought i would be all over the music given the AP review, but nah, i've got zz top albums, i'm good.

That album cover looks very stoner rock.

It looks steinmanish, a gargoyle and a girl in ragged clothes wouldn't have looked out of place.

I have a feeling that in 20 years there will be people claiming this album was good.

Well, actually, there's people saying it right now (personally I'm still on the fence)

No need to wait, I've seen multiple people claiming its good right now! Haven't heard it myself yet, waiting for my copy to show up. Can't say I'm thrilled with what I've read about it so far but waiting to judge for myself. (xpost)

Haven't heard it yet, but is this album as bad as The Dead Don't Die? That was the biggest try hard failure of the year on film

Would make sense because he wrote the titular song that is referenced in the film way too many times.

I could see him releasing some de-lectrified of this in six months, just stripped-down versions of the same songs.

i don't think it's terrible, but it's clearly meant to be experienced live. maybe the songs wil lbe able to breathe if freed from the auerbach-aping production

He's recorded 2 albums of bluegrass versions of his tunes, releasing them this fall. Here he's playing them live forn the first time, i get extremely happy seeing this! Excited about those albums.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO73im4J2sU&t=2390s

Looking fwd to those. He takes his record collection personally, maybe especially on this 'un, which made my Nashville Scene Top Ten---ballot comments:

i'm a sucker for gleaming pop-country, sez a fellow Marenite. Wal now, have you heard Sturgill's Sound and Fury yet? I just did, and right off, seems like this ZZ Rex electro-pop-boogie, sometimes also reminding me of Neil and the Trans Band (more the show tapes than studio album), might suit you too. It's much less windbaggy than I feared---and the non-pedantic retro detailing, commercial inclusiveness x righteous fencepost grievances x deserty-hot-cold broodiness, also that voice, keep it all country or countryoid. Also 'ppreciate how he keeps twisting the dial into another track at just the right moment, or close enough. It's another hard candy Christmas alright.

Cuttin' Grass is out now!

pretty close:

I could see him releasing some de-lectrified of this in six months, just stripped-down versions of the same songs.

― ... (Eazy), Tuesday, October 1, 2019 9:17 AM (one year ago)

man i really love Cuttin Grass - his voice sounds so good alongside the arrangements

I guess Sound and Fury somehow has fans among Grammy voters? (Best Rock Album nominee.)

I like the new album!

his cod zz top really sucks ass imo

what does that mean? is he on the call of duty soundtrack?

Cod reggae is widely defined as reggae that is "inauthentic" and lacks the soul of authentic reggae that comes from Jamaica. It's widely used for reggae made by white people, though black artists have also made cod reggae (Maxi Priest).

have not heard that phrase before, thanks

huh, that surprises me given how long you've been on ILX wading with Britishers

not pescatarian enough waters i guess

Hah! New Cuttin' Grass volume is out today. A bit more adventurous, a lot shorter, sounds real good

omg this version of "Call to Arms" !

it's a freaker!

Nothing about his Willie Nelson style concept record (which also happens to feature ol' Willie himself)? It's great, pretty much same lineup as the Cuttin' Grass sessions afaict.

it is really good!

so do i have this right? Stu:
- made a couple real good records on his own
- got signed to a big label
- got pissed off at that label
- spent a bunch of the label's money flying to Japan a few times to make an anime film to go alongside his "fuck my label" album
- said "fuck my label" and got out of his deal (can't remember if he got dropped or the deal was up)
- went home and made three good bluegrass records with basically the best pickers in the world

that's pretty badass

That's essentially what I understand.

The bluegrass albums are ridiculously good and were way underrated last year, especially Vol. 2. The new one is his most reverent effort to date, drawing on old trail and cowboy music, bluegrass, and traditional country and western. His singing's never been better, too. Can't fail with a song about a good boy dog but "Juanita" is probably my favorite.

new album good?

Very good, I'd say.

But I also think he's best when he either leans into self-indulgence or when he goes full-on trad country, rather than when he tries to hedge bets between the two. This is much more the former than the latter, so there are some salty genre purists.

The Ballad of Dood and Juanita is awesome. Sounds like I should be spending time with the bluegrass series too.

Very good, I'd say.

But I also think he's best when he either leans into self-indulgence or when he goes full-on trad country, rather than when he tries to hedge bets between the two. This is much more the former than the latter, so there are some salty genre purists.

― jon_oh, Friday, July 12, 2024 5:44 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

the first half of this is really great

I should get back with him, that "shitty Eliminator" record he made me lose touch

i listen to the cuttin grass releases a ton.

yeah i dug those

i like this new one, he’s def back in his oldschool waylon bag more -i like him in that mode

Yes the bluegrass records are incredible

listened to this yesterday and would be curious to hear what influences you all are picking up, as its overarching sound felt more indebted to 70s smooth rock -- the kind that melded country, blues, and easy listening -- than to anything I've heard in the last 4 decades of country music. gone are the fiddles of "Dood" and "Cuttin Grass," the horns of "Sailor's Guide"...here, he's happy to indulge in an electric guitar solo or a prog-esque pairing of electric piano and operatic strings. much of the album he seems to be deliberately singing in a higher register, less interested in harkening back to Waylon or Johnny than to something closer to Jimmy Buffett, maybe?

yeah its def 70s rock/country/easy listening, a bit flying burrito bros. i think you could connect ~ramblin man era waylon to this. buffet connection works too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3Q0jqDGf2I

I’m digging back in the catalog today, finding myself newly re-appreciating the records I was meh about after watching his set at OutsideLands last night: him & his band rocked the fuck out they were so, so good.

The set lists and vids from this tour…hoo boy. They’ve been playing three hours, tons of covers, stuff from across his catalog. Going next week.

I saw him last week. Played 2 hours and 53 minutes w/ no break, and Stu talked a little but, but not much. I think it was the longest continuous set of live music I've ever seen.

They sounded great, of course. I got a bit bored at points, but I'm very much not a jam guy or a guitar solo geek. It was more impressive than mind-blowing, for me at least. (I enjoyed the two-hour Tyler Childers show I saw in August more.)

his singing is so good on the new album

I loved Metamodern Sounds but had been cool on what I'd heard since. Now my Twitter feed has been like 70% Sturgill propaganda for the past few days, so I need to dig into this new album and maybe revisit the older stuff. He's in town on my birthday so that might be a nice way to celebrate.

lol and I just checked and of course it's sold out. secondary market I guess if he really starts tickling my fancy.

Show was maybe one of the 10 best I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen hundreds and hundreds. No opener, no encore, just three straight hours of absolute rippin rock n roll with freewheeling jams and barely even a moment break between tunes. I was blown away by the musicianship on that stage — they are an incredibly gifted group, and Sturgill is a far better guitarist than I gave him credit. (Just watched that YouTube above and it’s kind of hilarious how he’s unable to dumb anything down.) The whole show felt like something out of a bygone era, like what it must have felt like to see Zeppelin live, maybe. Most revelatory were the Sound & Fury songs — that album is easily my least favorite of his, but nearly all of the night’s most memorable moments came from it.

I kinda regret not going, but I've been pretty wiped out, and the idea of even three hours of awesome sounded too much to take. But I've heard nothing but great things about this tour, not least because Laur Joamets is back. Between him and Simpson it must have been like shred city up there.

I wish I would have been able to go, I've watched that Outside Lands set on YouTube like four times now, he's absolutely killing it right now.

wonder if he's bringing the same group with him to Europe?

intrigues

intrigued*

That's a good question. Those dates are all listed under the umbrella of the "Why Not?" tour, so I'd think it'd be the same but I'm not sure how popular he is there and if it allows for the costs of the full band.

this isn’t really anything but his current bass player played w Margo Price on her last tour, we saw him w her in SF — we only noticed him bc he seemed like he was stoned out of his mind (ie more stoned than the band at least), just grinning away at everything but holding it down bass-wise lol

Austin City Limits festival set tonight was killer

think ive listened to his tiny desk at least once a month since it came out a decade ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5cMqD0WqYE
perfect guitar playing

i have tix to see him next Wed here in Sacramento

no opener! soooooo excited

sick

he's here in a couple weeks, tix are $144! wtf

they def were not that much in Sac - yikes

Dude played for three straight hours on Wed night in Sacramento, no breaks, no talking except for a brief how yall doing <3 … he is truly my platonic ideal of live music right now, the whole show was fucking heaven start to finish

and the band just fucking WHIPS ASS, just tight as hell.

nice!!!

Xp yep