ESPN Anchor John Buccigross is Obsessed with Sturgill Simpson
SportsCenter anchor John Buccigross is head over heels for Sturgill Simpson and his new record a Sailor’s Guide to Earth. Or hell, his entire catalog. And if you’ve been paying attention over the last week or so, Buccigross been dropping references to Sturgill and singing his praises left and right.
One of the strange, but cool side stories to the emergence of a new independently-minded insurgency in country music—spearheaded by artists like Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell, and Chris Stapleton—has been how the sports journalism world has been on board with it since its inception. How this exactly happened is anyone’s guess. Sturgill Simpson’s music doesn’t really have any sports tie-ins. Simpson doesn’t even seem to be a very sportsy guy. But if you’re apt to listen to sports talk stations or closely follow baseball stats, for whatever reason, you might also find yourself bobbing your head to Sturgill’s music.
This is what happened to the hosts on The Hardline—the afternoon drive show on Sports Radio 1310 The Ticket out of Dallas, who’ve been singing Sturgill’s praises for years now, and even once broadcasted remotely from a Sturgill Simpson gig at Billy Bob’s Texas in Ft. Worth.
That is also what happened to ESPN’s John Buccigross:
The artist that is currently dominating my eardrums at the gym, my 1795 farmhouse, my truck as I drive around my small, rural town of Ellington, Connecticut, and during my 45-minute commute to and from ESPN is Sturgill Simpson. I hadn’t heard of Simpson until I received the following text at 7:56 p.m. ET on March 10 (I still have the text thread, hence the accuracy). It was from a hockey-and-music-loving friend, Jason Burch, in Columbus, Ohio:
“I hesitate to put my perfect record on the line with the country genre, but I am hooked on the album ‘Metamodern Sounds In Country Music’ by Sturgill Simpson. Great voice, lyrically unique, and an epic cover [of] ‘The Promise.’ Give it a shot and let me know if it grabs you.”
This is how Buccigross explained it while writing an article comparing and contrasting the NHL playoff teams intermixed with Sturgill Simpson lyrics called Face the Music, Hockey Fans: The NHL Playoff are a Country Song.
Buccigross continues:
Grab me? It now owns me … So, for the past seven weeks I’ve been consuming the 19 songs from Simpson’s second and third albums. (I bought his debut the day I wrote this blogumn.) This joyful music discovery has coincided with spring, a new life in a new/old house and the fertile canvas of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Music and sports. It dominates my DNA like it does many of yours.
Then a few days ago, during his regular gig on SportsCenter, John Buccigross dropped in a Sturgill reference during some basketball highlights. With a lack of radio support, this is the type of organic connections that occur, and can eventually result in a relatively-unknown songwriter from Kentucky landing the #1 album in country music.
John Buccigross with a Sturgill Simpson reference on Sportcenter @galleywinter pic.twitter.com/wYHtDMGFpm
Matt Kennedy (@mattkennedy58) May 2, 2016
May 3, 2016 @ 9:59 am
Darn. Yep the cat is out of the bag, even the WWL is on to Sturgill. Took the mainstream media longer than I thought to catch on. A part of me wishes they never discovered him, because once they get their tentacles in you they normally ruin most everything they touch. I realize that’s selfish on my part though.
Good pub for Sturg though!
May 3, 2016 @ 11:35 am
Don’t worry, there’s no way to ruin Sturgill.
May 3, 2016 @ 9:59 am
I caught his on air call out the other day on Sportcenter but wasn’t surprised because I had previously read the article where Bucigross described hockey teams with Strugill’s lyrics. I guess he is a brand new superfan.
May 3, 2016 @ 10:32 am
Shark is officially jumped.
May 3, 2016 @ 10:44 am
I noticed that Saturday night! Good for him and hopefully Simpson can get some more popularity.
May 3, 2016 @ 10:46 am
This is totally unrelated, I just need somewhere to let it all out.
Fuckin’ uncultured millenials! People sometimes sing on a portable stage in front of the Student Union at Ole Miss. It’s usually pretty harmless. Not today. I heard this guy sing one pop song I didn’t recognize as I was walking. He was embarrassingly dull, at least to me, but no big deal. But what happened next? The douchebag belched out Merle Haggard’s “Mama Tried” in the most overdone fake accent I’ve ever heard. It’s an insult to anybody who has ever been a country fan since the genre started. The fact that did this to a recently deceased legend makes it that much worse. I’m sure he was trying to honor Merle in some way, but he came across like he was making fun of country music. It makes me sick. Don’t sing country unless you respect the genre and can actually sing it right!
May 3, 2016 @ 2:06 pm
Dude, I go to UNC and if I heard anyone even say Merle I’d call it a win. No one here even has a clue who he is, but they went nuts for Chase fucking Rice. At least Ole Miss guy tried.
May 4, 2016 @ 7:30 am
Raleigh isn’t too far, right? Isn’t there a songwriter community there?
May 3, 2016 @ 11:35 am
Saving Country Music, or what’s happening this week in the life and career of Sturgill Simpson and Chris Stapleton.
May 3, 2016 @ 12:21 pm
The last time I wrote an article about Chris Stapleton was April 4th, so basically a month ago. Sturgill Simpson just released an album, and that always always results in a greater focus on an artist for a period, especially when they’re as impactful as Sturgill, or Stapleton. So the focus will pass on to another artist, and Sturgill won’t be moentioned for months.
May 3, 2016 @ 12:38 pm
And yet you took the time to click the link, presumably read the story, and commenting.
I don’t know if you missed it, but Sturgill and Stapleton are kinda big deals in the fight to save country music.
May 3, 2016 @ 11:36 am
I’m convinced that Sturgill Simpson and Chris Stapleton will be remembered as the Willie and Waylon of this generation.
May 3, 2016 @ 2:09 pm
Maybe if they start doing duet albums, or either of them do one with Isbell. But on their own its not enough, and three guys getting deserved attention isn’t enough. We need at least 8 or so legit country acts that are famous-ish (big -ish) before I’ll say the problem has been solved.
May 3, 2016 @ 11:50 am
Dang, that boy loves him some Sturgill. Kinda makes me wanna let out a nervous chuckle.
May 3, 2016 @ 11:54 am
Cool story. I think part of the explanation could just be that great writers/journalists are attracted to great songwriting.
I’ve noticed tweets or stories about Sturgill & Jason Isbell from several other sports writers in addition to the ones named in the article: Rustin Dodd (KC Star), Andy McCullough (LA Times), Dave O’Brien (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) and Spencer Hall (SB Nation). Mostly baseball writers – which I’m sure is no coincidence. I have no data to support this but I imagine there’s a significant overlap in the demographics of hockey and baseball fans and Sturgill/Isbell fans.
May 3, 2016 @ 1:57 pm
Adam Jacobi (Iowa Hawkeyes writer) is another one to add. Isbell follows him and has interacted with him many times. Marty Smith at ESPN (who covers college football and NASCAR) is another who has praised Sturgill on Twitter. I like to think after having to listen to crappy music they use for bumpers all day it drives them to find great music after being surrounded by bad.
May 4, 2016 @ 2:54 pm
I’m by no means a great writer/journalist, but I do cover sports and can provide anecdotal confirmation of your hypothesis. The writing is what caused Sturgill to stand out after hearing him two or three times on a Jason Isbell Pandora station. It didn’t hurt that I had been seeking a vintage country sound at the time.
May 9, 2016 @ 6:19 am
A lot of baseball writers I follow talk about Isbell quite a bit. The older guys seem to like Springsteen and the younger guys are all on Isbell.
May 9, 2016 @ 7:26 am
Being a huge Braves fan for years, I read Dave O’Brien a lot. He’s a huge music fan and always prints out song lyrics to close out his daily blogs on AJC.com/Braves.
May 3, 2016 @ 6:03 pm
Buccigross blocked my Twitter in August after I called him out when he was praising some awful Cole Swindell song I told him then to check out Sturgill but I guess it took him a few months.
May 3, 2016 @ 8:26 pm
One at a time they’re being converted.
May 4, 2016 @ 5:04 am
What’s espn ?
I haven’t watched it in years.
May 11, 2016 @ 8:44 am
I hear Linda Cohn really liked “Southeastern” and Mike Tirco was big into “The Blade”. Seriously though, I’m happy that Sturgill is getting mainstream cred. Maybe one day enough of what guys like Simpson, Isbell, and others do will bleed over enough to make mainstream country tolerable again.