Ladies and gentlemen, it’s official… Sturgill Simpson is back and maybe, just maybe, better than ever.
Stu’s finally back on tour after a multi-year hiatus due to the “end” of Sturgill as we knew him after releasing his 5th and final solo artist record The Ballad Of Dood & Juanita in 2021 and a vocal cord injury that kept him sidelined from live performances.
Fortunately for all of us, Sturgill didn’t actual hang it up and disappear to some small mountain town in Thailand and earlier this year rebranded to Johnny Blue Skies, an alter ego of sorts that’s been kicking around for a little bit (he was referenced in the liner notes for Sailor’s Guide to Earth back in 2016 and featured on a Diplo and Dove Cameron song titled “Use Me” in 2023), before releasing the album Passage Du Desir.
While Passage is by no stretch of the imagination a country record in the sense of High Top Mountain, it’s an incredible body of work that really creates a world of it’s own to live in, even if that world is just the expansive musings of Stu’s own mind.
It features one of the saddest songs you’ll ever hear in “Jupiter’s Faeries” along with some Steely Dan-esk beach songs like “Mint Tea” and “Scooter Blues” (my personal favorite on the album).
The Why Not? Tour 2024 was announced shortly after the new album, which kicked off last month at Outside Lands in San Francisco and runs through November 24th with a show at MGM Music Hall at Fenway in Boston, but last night he was in Moorhead, Minnesota at the Bluestem Center of the Arts Amphitheater and from what fans are saying, it was one of the most impressive and absorbing performances of all-time.
Fortunately for all of us who weren’t able to be in Minnesota on a Tuesday night (and trust me, I’m so jealous of those who were) a great guy named Kyle grabbed some incredible footage of the show and posted it on X for us all to enjoy.
With his big head of hair flapping around, gorgeous Telecaster (that he may have built himself) ripping, and signature vocal style on full display, these videos prove that Sturgill is more than back to his old tricks, he may be on a whole new level.
Here’s “Long White Line”
Oh my. pic.twitter.com/XBX67leQp4
— kyle (@___solace__) September 25, 2024
And “Turtles All The Way Down”, which should put to rest concerns that he’s gonna only play new and potentially weird music…
Turtles 🐢🐢🐢 pic.twitter.com/ZjcaH3LS1f
— kyle (@___solace__) September 25, 2024
You can check out Kyle’s page for a ton more videos (and can we talk about how clear this is for a cell phone video?) but here’s a run of “One For The Road” into “Purple Rain” into “Just Let Go” that’s pure magic.
One for the Road->Purple Rain->Just Let Go pic.twitter.com/jQCobk2Z2u
— kyle (@___solace__) September 25, 2024
Pictures of his set list from previous shows had found there way online and showed that he was playing a ton of songs and pushing concerts to nearly 3 hours, but last night the groove was just too good to stop and Stu and the band decided to push the limits a bit…
The jam session went over three hours (!) which may have resulted in some type of penalty but it didn’t look like Stu cared all that much, and what else would you expect? He addressed the time at the end of his set by saying:
“Thank you very much! We might have just got fined but f*ck it. We love you have a great night.”
Absolutely classic Sturgill.
If this isn’t a sign to grab some tickets to a Sturgill show near you than I don’t know what could be. Head over to Vivid Seats to grab some tickets, you know you want too…
They did it…
“we might have just got fined but fuck it.” https://t.co/WOgYZ0yfxK pic.twitter.com/YU7QGavlLu
— kyle (@___solace__) September 25, 2024
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