In the realm of country music, stories rule the land. When an artist can transport a listener out of reality, into a curated space in their mind where lyrics and sounds dictate truth and feelings, they’ve achieved creative genius. This kind of out-of-the-box writer can turn their opinions into absolute truth, expressing their personal perspective as an inarguable fact. Sturgill Simpson is one of the greatest current artists to display this kind of storytelling ability, and has just announced a new album under his new alias “Johnny Blue Skies.” The project, Mutiny After Midnight, releases on March 13th on CD, cassette, and Vinyl only. With very little promotion for the album and a distribution strategy far from convenient, fans were quick to criticize the announcement. Many labeled it dramatic or unnecessary, rarely considering the possibility that Sturgill might be making a deliberate, even constructive artistic choice.
Although Simpson certainly has the respect of his fans, it’s clear that his methods for Mutiny After Midnight raised many questions. Using basically nothing but ridiculous memes in his Instagram stories to promote the project, it can seem, from an outward perspective, as if Simpson is turning a cold shoulder to his longtime, devoted audience.
More likely than that, Simpson appears to be making an effort to spark a cultural shift, transporting listeners back to an era when short-form album streaming, digital marketing, and shuffle buttons didn’t exist. This will allow listeners to sit with the new material, digesting it over and over in the order it was intended to be played in.
Outspoken, forward-thinking, and unique, Simpson has always brought new questions and perspectives to his listeners. Widening the boundaries of what’s appropriate in storytelling, he’s been known to prioritize his messaging over his sound. He has even cut entire albums, entering the studio with half-finished stanzas and stories rather than fully constructed songs, most notably inA Sailor’s Guide to Earth, which went on to receive a Grammy Award for Best Country Album in 2017. Given his credibility, it’s absurd to assume there is anything other than careful intentionality behind his every move. In a long, detailed statement about the record, Sturgill described the album as a form of disco-hedonism, sharing insight on his inspiration:
Between gigs this past September, we went into a brand new, gorgeous studio in Nashville, Tennessee. Inspired heavily from endless hours on the bus watching old clips of the great fusion-funk band ‘Stuff,’ and revisiting off-the-beaten-track concept records like Marvin Gaye’s “In Our Lifetime”, where, in what looks like the end of the world, the artist’s response is, “Let’s dance and make love”…we decided to make an album centered firmly on groove.
In the write-up, he also shared, “You can break down the songs on this album into two categories—the dark state of the world and the bright state of love. Light lives in darkness just as darkness lives in light. I have come to find, over time, that it’s far easier to embrace contradictions rather than attempt to resolve them. Hence “Johnny Blue Skies & the Dark Clouds.” By explaining this, he reveals the intention behind the tracklist’s dichotomy, adding impact to the idea of dancing while the world is ending.
The idea of refusing culture’s chaos, and instead choosing to express themes of love, isn’t careless; it’s care-free. In a constantly polarizing environment, a groove-centered vibe record feels needed, although unfortunately, the inconvenience of obtaining it is inescapable.
In the same statement about Mutiny After Midnight, Simpson wrote, “Everything won’t be for everyone, but Everything tends to find everyone it was meant for eventually. You win some, you lose some, but in the end, you’re left with the real ones. And the real ones are for life.”
More likely than not, the creative statement “Johnny Blue Skies” makes in his unorthodox release strategy prioritizes the listener’s consumption experience. Removing distractions from his art, Mutiny After Midnight will sit far from smartphones and busy fingers, letting the music meet its audience in a space outside of modern reality. If you asked his fans what they love most about Sturgill Simpson, you’d likely notice a frequent recurrence of the word “different.” Being set apart from convention has always been part of his appeal, and given his track record, we should all trust his instincts by now.
