the Sturgill Simpson c/d

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

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.