Sturgill Simpson

If you’re just catching up, and this will be the album to catch you up (his third in three years) Sturgill Simpson is one of the finest new songwriters working today. And he works hard. So hard in fact that this album, nine songs (eight originals, one cover) plays through as an album – not so much a concept record as it is a love-letter – is a dedication to his young son. Sturg has been working so hard he’s missed his little boy growing up. Such was the runaway success of the phenomenal Metamodern Sounds In Country Music that Simpson has been out on the road and busy, still writing, and of course contributing to the VINYL soundtrack too.

But A Sailor’s Guide, his first self-produced effort, continues the hot streak, and shows Simpson moving even wider, whilst still following that proud country tradition. That wonderful voice, all Country Music^TM burr and twang, is front and centre, but with some Dap Kings horns and scorching guitars Simpson continues to make music that only he is making, that only he could make. He’s got the tradition aspect down – he is this generation’s Merle Haggard or Willie or Waylon, but he is doing it for this generation. His songs don’t fall into the traps of cliché, of faux-country experience. He takes the language of Nashville, the licks, the sounds and applies them to the story of his life. He takes that language from decades ago and uses it to make his story of today.

And like the very best songwriters when he opts to cover a song it’s a smart choice and you hear it anew. Here it’s Nirvana’s In Bloom, very much a centrepiece of this record, a hinge, four songs of his own hanging either side.

Simpson’s pure country voice is capable of Muscle Shoals grit (Brace for Impact) and teary soul-drenched balladry (All Around You) and no matter the song there’s always the right setting. The closer here, Call To Arms, feels exactly like that, a rousing bless-up of The Band, Little Feat and Dan Auerbach’s recent productions for Dr. John.

A Sailor’s Guide feels ahead of its time – even though everything that’s gone into the record, musically, is something that’s already happened, that’s already been used, and often, elsewhere. That’s the real skill Simpson and his shit-hot backing band possesses – a brand new country music for today, built from the parts of country, funk and soul music of the 80s, 70s, 60s and before. But it sounds so thoroughly modern, so interesting, not just right for today but ready to inform tomorrow.

He’s got so much soul (and added groove on this album – see Keep It Between the Lines for a bit of Lowell George-esque magic) and there’s no contrivance. That’s the key. These feel like real yarns, real comments, real stories from a real person. Here he’s trying to fill his son in on all that he’s done, and yearning for all he’s missed. The experiences he’s having can’t replace the ones he’s missing.

And the greatest gift is nine new songs to have and hold and marvel over. He’s both making country music for people that have never cared for it, and remodelling it for those steeped in the tradition but bored by the way it’s been bent to fit the shape of marketing. This is the guy that sent some 400 emails to music industry insiders in Nashville…just looking for a way in. This is the guy who learned all that he needed to know through that and 10,000 hours spent on the road and living inside his own soul as he explored the soul of others. Now he’s cut his own door in, he’s built a place you go to visit. He greets you with his songs. His wonderful songs, his warm, inviting tone. We listen in to hear his reality.