the Sturgill Simpson c/d

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/

Great news, looking at cover art and his manifesto hoping he’s going the full glitterball route.

If it’s anything like Shooter Jennings tribute to Giorgio Moroder I’ll be very happy.

Always a good opportunity to post this old nugget for anyone that's never seen it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsrsrOB0zNQ

Like, it's insane to me that, say, a Morgan Wallen fan could watch that and think, nah, I'm good with Morgan Wallen.

YES that SNL performance goes so hard, it’s a real all-timer for me

and its a great appetizer for what the band is like live: like if you thought ~that~ ruled wait til you get 2 hours uninterrupted of that

I saw him (and most of that band?) behind "Metamodern Sounds." He was great, but yeah, two hours of the above would rule.

our boy Sturg just dropped the whole new album on YT “for the real ones”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKHGmFvzjJ4

hell yeah, tho I'm tempted to wait for my copy to get here for a proper spin.

Listened to the first couple of tracks, which were fantastic. Excited to hear the rest. He should be much bigger around here.

And speaking of the xxxxxxxxxxetcpost 2014 Tiny Desk Concert (when you need a lil pick-me-up):, as I posted on RC lately:

Oh yeah, heard a four-song rerun of Sturgill's solo Tiny Desk Concert last night, from 2014: voice and guitar sounded good, maybe 12-string? Fave was "Water From The Well," which I'd like to hear Willie cover

and from prev RC (2025):

Another recent Austin City Limits: Sturgill as Johnny Blue Skies,presenting songs from Passage Du Desir, at first seeming merely retro, self-importantly slow Southern Rock, but he and the other guitarist soon turn out to be as effective at accompaniment as solos, supporting songs of late-breaking self-insight, pushing out of the past, the weight of years, chain o' fools, personal and musical histories---and coming out country after all.
(only weak link is the keyboard player, w merely nostalgic organ and [that's not writing that's typing] piano, also an inert "sax solo," but Stur responds well on guitar and at least it's brie.f)
Haven't heard the album, but if it's like this, might be his best, in terms of writing, anyway.

Foe a couple of non-conseq days, been coming back to Passage Du Desir, getting strung-out, the good kind of medicated, vs. sucker punch (life)--lots of perfectly considered moments, at least as delivered:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHdWLowILSg

On Rolling Music Writers, curmudgeon reported that Marc Masters' 7-year-old Experimental Music column on Bandcamp has been cancelled due to "restructuring" of the site. Looks like current ownership should restructure the following kind of shit, which I don't recall happening on the previous incarnation of BC----Stereogum quotes Sturgill:

No ..we are not selling the digital album on bandcamp kids…but somebody pretending to be us is claiming they are. Do not buy this because: 1. It doesn't exist 2. They ain't him

We are in contact with bandcamp and all appropriate parties in the process of acquiring all cc and transaction information / TC dump IP related info. We got all them tools bitches! All those affected will be refunded and the miserable shit asses responsible will be keelhauled

we're gonna duke nukem

Kind of wild that he managed to hit #3 on the Billboard album charts without any streaming numbers or digital release.

i tried to find a cd copy locally & they didnt really have any around here but it was cool to see everywhere was sold out of vinyl by like Saturday

Yeah, I was really glad I pre-ordered this went it went up (CD version anyway), but good for him.