Sturgill Simpson: straight not outta Springfield

I am sucker for sweet album art (an under-appreciated art form!), and Sturgill Simpson brings the fire with his fabulous new album (similar to C!NCC!’s Something for Nothing, except way better), and my Album of the Week and Month, A Sailor’s Guide To Earth. If you don’t know, Sturgill is “defined” as a country music envelope-pusher with rock-n-roll roots. The Kentucky native’s previously acclaimed albums compared him to outlaw country music, a “non-imitator,” and listed him on all the top 2014 album lists. Well he changed the game again with A Sailor’s Guide To Earth, making things very Van Morrison-y (the album is framed as as a sailor’s letter home to his wife and newborn son – Sturgill was in the Navy, so the album name starts to make more sense given context :-/), and I never heard anyone complain about too much Van Morrison. I wonder if the name was also a nod to “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”? cuz that all I can think of. Prob not though… Oh ya, he also covers Nirvana’s “In Bloom” on the album, and I have to say, it’s quite lovely.

The quality on the youtube below is pretty poor (but you can listen to the whole thing there)… I suggest to going to Spotify or iTunes – Spotify link below (check out “Sea Stories” & all the others).

Feli Says this is the Album of April