Sturgill Simpson and his band
Sturgill Simpson has more or less kept his focus on what’s ahead. None of the solo albums he’s released in the past decade have been the same. And even when he rerecorded a bunch of songs on 2020’s two Cuttin’ Grass bluegrass LPs, the arrangements and performances were radically different. The hard-rocking Sound & Fury, released in 2019, came with a companion anime film. Over the past few years, Simpson’s appeared several times in film and on TV, including parts in Queen & Slim, Killers of the Flower Moon and The Righteous Gemstones.
In a 2021 Rolling Stone profile around his most recent album The Ballad of Dood and Juanita, Simpson told sometime Scene contributor Marissa R. Moss that he wasn’t totally sure he’d stick to his self-imposed rule of making only five solo albums. “It really has cemented every step of the way how much I don’t want to carry all that weight,” he told Moss. “Not having to stand up there behind my name would allow me to be even more vulnerable, in a way.”
Just a few weeks after a special 10th anniversary edition of Simpson’s landmark LP Metamodern Sounds in Country Music was released, word came that he has made new music, and indeed has created a new moniker for it to live under. Passage du Desir is coming July 12 (available now for preorder) via Simpson’s High Top Mountain label, and is credited to Johnny Blue Skies. Simpson’s frequent collaborator David R. Ferguson co-produced the eight-track album with him in sessions at Clement House Recording Studio here in Nashville as well as at Abbey Road.
And the release will come ahead of an extensive arena tour called, appropriately enough, the Why Not? Tour. A release notes that Simpson has reconvened a good portion of his Metamodern-era band, including guitarist Laur Joamets, bassist Kevin Black and drummer Miles Miller, with the addition of Nashville MVP Robbie Crowell on keys.
The show comes to Bridgestone Arena on Friday, Oct. 25, and tickets go on sale next week. Per the release, you’ll need to register via the tour site before 10:59 p.m. Central on Monday, June 10; that’ll get you access to the fan presale that opens on June 12 at 10 a.m., and tickets that remain will be available starting June 14 at 10 a.m. The Bridgestone show is one of the dates where there will only be mobile tickets, and there are limits on resale via Ticketmaster’s Face Value Exchange program.
Passage du Desir Track List
1. Swamp of Sadness
2. If The Sun Never Rises Again
3. Scooter Blues
4. Jupiter’s Faerie
5. Who I Am
6. Right Kind of Dream
7. Mint Tea
8. One for the Road
