The return of Guitar Zombie: Sanjoy Narayan writes on Sturgill Simpson
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At a recent gig in Oklahoma, during his ongoing Why Not? tour of the US, UK and Europe, Sturgill Simpson and his band launched into a medley. They segued seamlessly from his song, One for the Road, into Prince’s iconic Purple Rain, before diving into another of Simpson’s songs, Call to Arms. The medley lasted more than 27 minutes and was emblematic of what his music is all about.
Critics often pigeonhole the 46-year-old as a country musician, but he is only sort of that. Born in Kentucky, he lives in Nashville, Tennessee, which is the centre of the universe as far as that genre is concerned. Country music does form the roots of his style. Yet his influences extend far beyond it.
Even as he pays homage to greats such as Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard and their quotidian storytelling style, Simpson is deeply influenced by psychedelic rock, blues, soul and funk. The aforementioned medley was an example of this.
One for the Road, off his latest album Passage du Desir (released this July) is a hauntingly beautiful track that combines elements of traditional country with introspective lyricism.
“I’ve been searching for a way to say that you should move on /
And I think we both know that you’d be better off after you’re gone /
You’ll find somebody that looks at you the way you used to look at me /
And we both know it’s been awhile since I was the man you used to see...”
The song has a melancholic, reflective tone, and rich instrumentation, which includes acoustic guitar, slide guitar and some subtle string arrangements.
The famous Prince song, of course, is a true-blue rock ballad with soaring guitar solos and an anthemic chorus. Finally, there was Call to Arms, from Simpson’s 2016 album, A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, a deeply personal and ambitious project, written as a letter to his (then infant) son.
The song is a fiery, rebellious anthem that blends elements of rock, blues and country. It has an aggressive, fast-paced rhythm, and biting lyrics. Simpson’s vocals are raw and gritty and are accompanied by searing guitar licks and powerful drumming.
“I done Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran /
North Korea tell me where does it end…/
Son I hope you don’t grow up believing /
That you’ve got to be a puppet to be a man…” it goes
It’s been quite an evolution.
Simpson’s debut album as a solo artist was High Top Mountain in 2013. His big leap forward would come with his second, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music (2014). This is a psychedelic trip through the human experience, and fuses traditional country with rock, soul and elements of electronic music.
The album opener, Turtles All the Way Down, dives into existential and spiritual themes, while Just Let Go is a soaring, introspective ballad. Metamodern… was a breakthrough album, earning him critical acclaim and a dedicated fanbase.
In 2016 came his next, A Sailor’s Guide…, its narrative structure taking listeners on a journey from the joys of fatherhood to the challenges of life on the road. Musically, it continued Simpson’s trend of genre-blending. He even included a cover of Nirvana’s In Bloom, a surprising but ultimately fitting touch. The album won Simpson a Grammy for Best Country Album and further established his position in the music industry.
Then, just as critics and fans were wrapping their heads around this new rising star, he sprang another surprise. The 2019 album Sound & Fury plunged headfirst into gritty rock, blues and electronic music, with a distinctly dystopian soundscape.
Elton John, on his Apple Music radio show Rocket Hour, featured tracks from it and called it “a rock and roll record” and said: “If you were expecting a country record, you are wrong with a capital W!”
In another surprise, the album was released alongside a gritty, 41-minute Netflix anime film in which a lone animated motorist makes his way through a hellish, post-apocalyptic landscape.
Simpson released three other albums in quick succession after this one. Two were bluegrass re-imaginings of his own songs. The third, The Ballad of Dood and Juanita (2021), was a concept album set during the American Civil War.
His latest, Passage du Desir, offers many new twists. For one thing, he has adopted an alias, Johnny Blue Skies (a name that a Kentucky bartender called him by, he says). He recorded Passage… partly at Abbey Road Studios in London. In it, he attempts to capture his introspective journey through themes of identity and lost connections. The lyrics are deeply personal and emotional, and while country music’s core elements abound on most tracks, there is a cosmic, soulful atmosphere to it all.
It’s an album that marks Simpson’s continued evolution as a musician unafraid to push the limits and redefine what country music can be.
Readers may have caught a glimpse of him in other avatars too: in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), he played a bootlegger involved in the Osage Indian killings; and in Jim Jarmusch’s The Dead Don’t Die (2019), he wrote and sang the theme song and played the character Guitar Zombie.
It is Simpson the musician that his fans will be watching, however, as he keeps blurring genre boundaries and finding new ways to experiment.
