Johnny Blue Skies (Sturgill Simpson) Reveals New “Disco-Hedonism” Album

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Laur Joamets, Miles Miller, Johnny Blue Skies (Sturgill Simpson), Kevin Black


When the new Johnny Blue Skies & the Dark Clouds album Mutiny After Midnight comes out on March 13th, I will do whatever I can to commandeer a copy, and be as excited to listen to it as any album from any artist who releases highly anticipated records because they’ve earned that distinction and grace over the years. Sturgill Simpson has most certainly ensconced himself in that “highly anticipated” field with his output, even when he’s veered well off the country path.

And it doesn’t even matter if the album is country or not. Every indication we have about Mutiny After Midnight so far is that it probably won’t be country at all. But a lot of people believed that about 2024’s Passage Du Desir when it actually had a handful of country moments, and the very country “Mint Tea” has emerged as the album’s most popular track.

And even though it wasn’t exclusively a country record, Passage Du Desir was still a great work of music, and was even nominated for Album of the Year here. An open heart and mind will be brought to whatever Sturgill Simpson … or Johnny Blue Skies releases. And it’s a shame when others recuse themselves from music that might resonate with them due to preconceived biases.

But man, if Sturgill Simpson hasn’t given into the most insufferable aspects of his persona with the rollout of Mutiny After Midnight so far, cementing negative sentiment with multiple cohorts, and acting like he is so above us all and beyond reproach as a “true artist” that us peons should be happy to vacuum up whatever refuse is left in his wake because his iconoclastic brilliance is so beyond our even wildest comprehension.

If you’re reading this right now, you’ve probably already seen the letter Johnny Blue Skies posted on Thursday (2/12) ahead of formally announcing the new album’s release date on Friday. You can see full letter below if you haven’t. The upshot is that the album was recorded with his touring band, was all self-produced and written on the spot, and that Sturgill considers it a, “a dance record,” a “protest,” and “pure, unfiltered, unapologetic, relentless disco-hedonism.”

More specifically he states, “…we decided to make an album centered firmly on groove. We started every day from scratch with a basic groove, I wrote the songs and lyrics in the moment on-the-spot, and everyone established their individual parts servicing the songs and not the individual ego.”

Joining Johnny Blue Skies on the album will be drummer and backing vocalist Miles Miller, lead guitarist Laur Joamets, bassist Kevin Black, and keyboard/saxophone player Robbie Crowell. “Each is a star in his own right. And together, we reflect each other’s shine,” Simpson says.

Mr. Blue Skies seems patently aware that where this album goes, not everyone will follow. “Everything won’t be for everyone, but everything tends to eventually find everyone it was meant for. You win some, you lose some, but in the end you’re left with the real ones. And the real ones are for life…”

Sure, that goes for any artist or work of music. But let’s please not imply you’re an inauthentic human if you’re not willing to follow Johnny Blue Skies on his journey of “relentless disco-hedonism.” Let’s just wait and hear the music before we make such proclamations.


Music is supposed to be for everyone. It’s supposed it create a bridge, and open hearts and minds. You want to protest? You want to move the needle of public sentiment? You want to make a difference in the world? You do that by making music that casts a wide net of appeal across ideological, geographical, and genre barriers, not by creating speed humps so you can siphon down a message until you’re only preaching to your preferred flock.

Sturgill says that he’s taking his cues for protest from the French. After spending time in the country, he says he admires, “their unmatched ability to threaten injustice with a good time. If they feel infringed upon by overreach in even the slightest form, French people will simply go on a country wide labor strike, shut down the subways and the economy, and completely fill the streets with music and people from all walks of life dancing together, sometimes butt ass naked on top of bus stops.”

Boy that all sounds like a big party. But Sturgill forgot to mention the destruction and violence that has permeated French protests, including back in 2023 when “3,880 fires were started, 2,000 vehicles were burned and 492 buildings were damaged” during only one such protest according to ABC. More recently, this summer a 17-year-old and 23-year-old were killed, and 192 were injured in riots after a soccer game.

Perhaps the most controversial move by Sturgill is choosing not to release the music digitally whatsoever. Mutiny After Midnight will only be available via vinyl, cassette, and CD … at least to start. Johnny Blue Skies has decided to take a page from the Garth Brooks school of making your music irrelevant by making it inaccessible to the vast majority of people where they are and how they listen—meaning in their cars, at or during work, or working out.

Yes, we’re all extremely, extremely aware that Spotify only plays out 0.0003 per stream, or whatever it is on average. This model has also made a millionaire of Sturgill Simpson and many others. It’s really the little guy who can’t go physical only and expect their music to reach a sustainable level that is getting squeezed in the system. And sure, the fact that nobody just puts on a record and listens anymore as a primary activity is a shame. That still doesn’t feel like a good reason to limit an album’s reach.

Also, Sturgill Simpson has decided to partner back up with Atlantic Music Group’s Atlantic Outpost to release Mutiny After Midnight. Remember the whole kerfuffle in 2019 when Sturgill swore that Atlantic and the entire music industry had screwed him over so royally that he made an entire protest noise rock album called Sound & Fury complete with an anime video?

If this is all about the music and the little guy, why wouldn’t Sturgill stick with Thirty Tigers? Why funnel any money to a major? And by the way, shout out to Jason Isbell, the Turnpike Troubadours, and others for staying independent even when their careers exploded.

Sturgill says in the Atlantic press release, “This is a new and very different Atlantic Records than my last go-around. Mostly, I’m very excited and honored to be working with my dear friend Ian Cripps, and to finally bring to fruition a vision we initially shared together over ten years ago.”

Though we don’t have any music or a single from the album just let, they have released some of the lyrics to the opening song “Make American Fuk Again.”

Been learning lessons and getting bubbles busted
Learning how to turn ADHD into hyper-focus
Getting my heart broke by people I trusted
Weaponizing my autism to shit out an opus
Been coming to terms with my obsolescence
Taking ketamine to kill my depression
It beats being fogged out on anti-depressants
Wait, that reminds me, time to book another session…
Maybe things have been worse but I can’t remember when
Wanna start a revolution and watch it begin

As Simpson also mentioned in his lengthy letter, he seems to have either been diagnosed, or come to terms with an autism prognosis. Perhaps that explains, or maybe even excuses some of his mercurial and curious tendencies, including with this album rollout.

There’s just a lot to unpack here. And if Sturgill Simpson ultimately wanted the music to speak for itself, he kind of failed in that endeavor. But if you write off Sturgill Simpson/Johnny Blue Skies summarily, you run the risk of failing yourself as a music fan. Not Simpson’s words, but the music is what will matter here.

To pre-order physical copies of Mutiny After Midnight, click here.

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TRACKLIST:

01 “Make America Fuk Again”
02 “Excited Delirium”
03 “Don’t Let Go”
04 “Stay On That”
05 “Viridescent”
06 “Situation”
07 “Venus”
08 “Everyone Is Welcome”
09 “Ain’t That A Bitch”

WHAT’S BEHIND THE “MUTINY AFTER MIDNIGHT?

In a word, kinship…

The majority of this band has been on the road together on and off and on again for over thirteen years. We have all grown sometimes together and sometimes apart. But we’ve never felt more “together” than right now. I couldn’t be happier. This is the band I’ve dreamed about being in since middle school. Last year we did two complete laps around the U.S. and a tour of Western Europe. Between gigs this past September, we went into a brand new gorgeous studio in Nashville, Tennessee. Inspired heavily from endless hours on the bus watching old clips of the great fusion-funk band ‘Stuff, and revisiting off-the-beaten-track concept records like Marvin Gaye’s “In Our Lifetime”, where, in what looks like the end of the world, the artist’s response is, “Let’s dance and make love.”…we decided to make an album centered firmly on groove.
We started every day from scratch with a basic groove, I wrote the songs and lyrics in the moment on-the-spot, and everyone established their individual parts servicing the songs and not the individual ego.

You can break down the songs on this album into two categories-the dark state of the world and the bright state of love. Light lives in darkness just as darkness lives in light. I have come to find over time that it’s far easier to just embrace contradictions rather than attempting to resolve them.
Hence “Johnny Blue Skies & the Dark Clouds…

The enjoyment we experienced in making this album of songs will be quite evident for the listener. But it’s a lot more than joy. You can call it a mutiny,… an open rebellion.
In any case, despite the motivations behind it the mutiny in the studio turned into a party. To categorize Mutiny is tricky, but many will no doubt come with their glass ceilings to try. We believe the term American Music pretty much says it all. And for all the big ideas behind the ‘Mutiny,’ there’s a simple goal we as a band set out to achieve: to make a dance record.

So this protest, this mutiny is really more about the primary dance. The dance of all creation. To be clear it is a protest against oppression and suppression, and the only tried & tested true antidote to that is pure, unfiltered, unapologetic, relentless disco-hedonism

My voice is just one element in this band and at all times this band is far too good to ever be overshadowed by a vocalist. So I just want to say how grateful I am to be a part of this band of brilliant musicians-drunner and backing vocalist Miles Miller, lead guitarist Laur Joanets, bassist Kevin Black and keyboardist/saxist Robbie Crowell. Each is a star in his own right. And together, we reflect each other’s shine.

I’ve spent the greater part of the last few years trying to escape what we shall refer to as “the static”. Mostly through intense travels. One thing I will say based on observations about the French is their unmatched ability to threaten injustice with a good time. If they feel infringed upon by overreach in even the slightest form, French people will simply go on a country wide labor strike, shut down the subways and the economy, and completely fill the streets with music and people from all walks of life dancing together, sometimes butt ass naked on top of bus stops. It’s refreshing and beyond inspiring to witness this type of manifested unity in humanity. You could say this is where the idea was born.

Touring behind ‘Mutiny’ is something we greatly look forward to. Something we will cherish. Just as I have come to see and harness my own neurodivergence and the weaponized autism of our collective members as a superpower in the studio—the same is true live. We’re going out to play arenas and theaters with a vengeance. No opening act. We’re going to take every minute the venue gives us. We’re gonna rock this Mutiny as hard as humanly possible. It is our privilege and our honor because our fans deserve it.

Beyond the static, the only things that truly matter are the sounds we make and the ears that absorb them. Everything won’t be for everyone, but everything tends to eventually find everyone it was meant for. You win some, you lose some, but in the end you’re left with the real ones.
And the real ones are for life…

For over a decade of navigating and charting the depressions of this industry’s cold and salty trenches, I have found my true North. I now wake up every day with the sole intention of doing my best at what I’m best at simply being a pirate. And by now everybody knows our crew runs the tightest and deadliest ship on the water. This band has less than zero interest in accolade’s, trophy’s, or being the definitive this or that of our generation. We’re in search of something far more meaningful and rewarding…and we’re collecting heads for the journey.

So with that all said, to any and all who see our flag flying off your stern, know this… There will be no quarter nor mercy offered nor given.



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