Sturgill Simpson Releases Highly-Anticipated Bluegrass Album: “I’ve Completely Fallen Back In Love With Music Again”

Stuart Duncan et al. playing instruments
Semi Song

It’s HERE.

The highly-anticipated bluegrass project from Sturgill Simpson is finally here, and as expected, it did not disappoint. Earlier this year, while Sturgill was on the mend from Coronavirus, he resurrected his Instagram page, started his “Dick Daddy Survival School” as a joke to pass the time, and wound up selling merch to raise money for charity.

The deal was really simple: if he sold enough DDSS merch, he’s do a livestream show, and if he sold even more merch, he’d put out an album. The fans crushed it.

So as promised, Sturgill assembled one of the finest bluegrass teams the world has ever seen and went into the studio with producer Dave Ferguson. Joined by Sierra Hull, Mike Bub, Stuart Duncan, Scott Vestal, Tim O’Brien, Mark Howard and his drummer Miles Miller, Sturgill cut 20 songs from his back catalog, all bluegrass style.

And Cuttin’ Grass Volume 1: The Butcher Shoppe Sessions was born.

Git your Zyrtec ready.

“There are songs from all my albums except for the last one, and there’s two or three that I wrote 15 years ago back when I was playing dive bars in Kentucky. Those are the songs that were really cool to hear finally realized the way I had always wanted them to be recorded. “I Don’t Mind” is a song I wrote in 2006 or 2007, and it’s probably my wife’s favorite song that I’ve ever written.

So she basically said, “Don’t come home if that thing’s not on the album” I thought it turned out really pretty, really beautiful, everybody did a great job on it.”

“I Don’t Mind”

“If I had to say what’s the most definitively bluegrass song on the record, I would probably say “All the Pretty Colors.” The performance, the feel, the lyrical content, that could be like a bluegrass standard some day. I really loved what Sierra Hull, who sings and plays mandolin, did on “Breaker’s Roar”—she put these lilting harmonies on it that made it just as pretty as the strings on the Sailor’s Guide record. I thought that was really cool.”

“All The Pretty Colors”

“This album also begins a new phase for my career. I’m starting back the way I started out, on my own record label. I’m realizing more and more every day what I already knew, which is that I was always supposed to be an independent artist. I’m just trying to look forward and create without any industry timelines or narratives and all the creative restrictions that inevitably come with them. The real benefit is that I’ve completely fallen back in love with music again.”

“Long White Line”

“The world’s hurting right now in so many ways…there are a lot of people in way worse shape than most of us could ever imagine. I cannot fix or change any of this. But I can change myself. And I can put some music out, and hopefully, if nothing else, it might make some people forget about their pain and troubles for fifty-five minutes.”

“Turtles All The Way Down”

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Tonight/early morning Friday 10/16, 2020 midnight/24:00 hours, I am releasing what I feel to be the best work and truest representation of myself as an artist that I have ever created. It was the last complete album recorded at The Butcher Shoppe, the now non-existent studio once co-owned by John Prine and my dear friend and Producer David Ferguson. I cannot imagine a better final chapter to the legacy of what was my favorite studio on Earth. I am grateful beyond words for the time I was given with John and the love and wisdom he gave to me. I will always miss him and his smile. Always. I am equally as grateful for the friendship and mentorship I have received the last four years from Ferg. He has been a touchstone and a source of education that I will never be able to repay him for. The man has forgotten more about recording music than most will ever know. He helped me and gave me the confidence to self-produce and make “Sailors Guide”. He co-produced both of Tylers albums and Margo’s recent album with me and it has been a source of great personal frustration and pain to see his name as an afterthought to mine or sometimes even omitted in reviews of those bodies of work. He was hired by Cowboy Jack Clement as an engineer at 16 years old and worked for him for almost 30 years before going on to engineer albums for U2 and all of Johnny Cash’s Rick Ruben recordings. More importantly he has been a treasured and trusted friend to me in a town where I have had very few. So I turned myself and my art over to him completely for these recordings so I could focus solely on being just another “member of the band”. I am so proud of this album. I am so proud of all of you for your donations which directly led to the motivation and initiative behind its recording. I am in complete and total disbelief that I got to sing and record these songs with this group of incomprehensibly talented musicians and more than anything I wish both my Grandfathers were still alive to hear this album. But they are not,..so instead I offer it to you. Peace, hair grease, and above all else, immense thanks, healing, and eternal love. About to drop it like its hot. Dick Daddy out

A post shared by Sturg⚡️iLL (@sturgillsimpson) on Oct 15, 2020 at 6:47pm PDT

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