Sturgill Simpson is an Americana buccaneer. This album, his ninth since 2023, is his second under his new alias: Johnny Blue Skies, now officially accompanied in the credits by the Dark Clouds.
Our Johnny aims high; right from the first track, he wishes for America to fuck again (“Make America Fuck Again“), a hedonistic and playful declaration that manifests throughout the album.
We find a proposal with prominent funky basslines, a groovy feel, and a sought-after ’70s disco emotion that he manages to combine with the personal imprint we’ve grown accustomed to. Who said you couldn’t mix a silver disco ball with the slide?
But it’s not all about fucking; amidst that declaration of intent, we’re soon reminded that he’s capable of dragging us with a dirty, fast blues to the top of a hill and screaming out of necessity (“Excited Delirium”); because this album screams (though not in the usual way) just like a protest record would, it simply leads us down a less traveled path.
“Don’t Let Go” is a prime example of the sensitivity and narrative command in his songwriting: emotive, deeply felt, and driven by riffs that accentuate the journey.
It is worth mentioning “Situation,” the most disco-leaning track on the album—a five-minute groove that locks into a loop making it physically impossible not to move and snap your fingers.
A separate shoutout goes to the horns heard across the album, such as in “Venus,” which makes it incredibly difficult to pigeonhole this LP into a single, stagnant style. From our desk, we propose the (hopefully) illustrious moniker: lascivious outlaw Americana. (Ain’t that a bitch!)
Simpson, or Blue Skies (it’s hard to tell who is behind the wheel these days), already warned us in his anime-prog epic Sound & Fury (2029): “make art, not friends.” He seems hell-bent on unraveling the American songbook and, right from the belly of the beast, showing us all its variables, styles, and addenda. We’ll be waiting for him.