Johnny Blue Skies (Sturgill Simpson) Reveals New “Disco-Hedonism” Album
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.
– – – – – – –
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.
February 13, 2026 @ 12:30 pm
Speaking of disco, Ella Langley just dropped a new song from her upcoming album Dandelion, “Be Her,” this morning, and it’s definitely in the disco/’70s mode of Miranda Lambert and Chris Stapleton’s “A Song to Sing.” Is this a trend in the making? It certainly wasn’t what I was expecting from Langley, just as disco is not what anyone was expecting of Sturgill Simpson, regardless of his motivation for making a disco record.
February 13, 2026 @ 1:07 pm
Is disco what that was?! Not trying to be snarky, I swear, I just genuinely didn’t know what the hell Ella’s Be Her was supposed to be. I personally thought it was absolutely terrible and a strange departure from everything Ella’s done well on her more recent and more clearly country songs, but it’s interesting to read your comment and see that there’s some precedent for country artists going in that direction, so thanks!
February 13, 2026 @ 1:21 pm
It seems to be an attempt to solidify crossover airplay and sales now that “Choosin’ Texas” has broken through on pop radio. I’ve actually warmed up to the Miranda and Chris song. It’s pleasant in its odd “Kenny and Dolly meet the Bee Gees” way, and the video with Stapleton lumbering around on roller skates is funny, It’s not only Ella who’s drawing on disco influence. I hear that beat in Megan Moroney’s newest one, too. As a trend, it’s less offensive than bro or hip-hop, but that’s a very low bar to climb, and it poses a threat to the resurgence of traditional-ish country on mainstream radio.
February 13, 2026 @ 3:23 pm
I don’t know if anyone else will draw this comparison but the Eagles hit the pinnacle of the Country Rock Disco sound with ‘One of These Nights’, and I can draw a comparison between that song and ‘I Can’t Tell You Why’ to the pseudo Disco Rock Country sound here. Morgan Wallen had a song on his last album (I can’t remember the name) where the music had this sound despite his vocals being annoyingly the same. I like the sound that the Dandolien track has. Not sure how I feel about her vocal styling on it yet though.
February 13, 2026 @ 4:00 pm
The commenters on the Pulse Country board are likening the sound of “Be Her” to Shania Twain. I’m not hearing that at all, though. Anyway, this thread is supposed to be about Sturgill so I’ll just sit on the sidelines until (or unless) Trigger writes an article on Langley.
February 13, 2026 @ 12:34 pm
Paragraph four 🤌🏽
February 13, 2026 @ 12:39 pm
I bet it will pop up on a digital a couple weeks after release. Excited though, his last record was great.
February 13, 2026 @ 12:42 pm
I received an email about this new Johnny Blue Skies album from info@sturgillsimpson.com this morning. I’ve been waiting to see if you would post more information about it. Thanks for providing a little more insight to Sturgill’s latest product. I know I will be buying the CD and looking forward to hearing these tunes. ‘Til then… I’ll be looking for tour dates.
February 13, 2026 @ 12:43 pm
It’s a no from me, strictly on principle. This whole tortured artist shtick is so worn out.
February 13, 2026 @ 12:44 pm
What a wack job
February 13, 2026 @ 12:45 pm
Let the boy do what he wants..accepting or rejecting the content on your own musical taste..He’s so far been a astounding live performer and self satisfying recording artist..A visit to any mid America honky-tonk will find rap and EDM on the jukebox or sound system betwern live sets of hard-core country..The Hopi Native Americans chant ” Witchi Ti To ” Everything is Everything. He has plenty of time to pump out another bluegrass/country project.
February 13, 2026 @ 12:46 pm
Awesome, can’t wait! Like Snipe Hunter this new JBS joint is sure to cause some heads to explode. Especially here among the hyper-arrogant “independent” country gentry. And it appears that it will be protest tinged. That is sure to bring out the best in the maga crowd. Thank you Sturdill!
February 13, 2026 @ 12:51 pm
Trigger getting pre-triggered by an album not even out yet is hilarious. I dont think theres a protest singer in the world that thinks that their goal is to “make music that casts a wide net of appeal across ideological barriers”.
Somewhere Frank Zappa and the Plastic People are rolling in their Graves over this pre-review screed.
February 13, 2026 @ 2:14 pm
???
Don’t understand this take at all. As it says in the article, QUOTE:
“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.”
It also states, QUOTE:
” 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.”
It goes on to further conclude at the end, QUOTE:
” 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. “
Anyone concluding anytime less than this entire article being written with the express purpose of telling people they should approach this album with an open mind is delusional. Basically, you have imposed a preconceived opinion upon me, based I guess off the fact that I also acknowledged the self-absorbed nature of some of his letter, and the unusual way he’s chosen to release it, including through a label he previously believed screwed him over so demonstrably, he wrote and recorded an entire protest album about it.
DO NOT MISREPRESENT MY OPINION HERE
As I have said many, many times over many years, you ALWAYS have to listen to music before coming to any conclusions. This point was the entire arc of this article. and to say I am “pre-triggered by an album not even out yet” is hilarious. It’s also categorically false.
February 13, 2026 @ 3:04 pm
Cmon trig… like 15 comments in here had the same reaction that I did. I dont think we’re misreading what you wrote at all. Its almost as if the second the word “protest” showed up we knew you’d have gripes.
February 13, 2026 @ 12:51 pm
Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed today.
February 13, 2026 @ 12:52 pm
I’ve always liked the Sturg, but this hard of a pivot might give a us a case of pemanent whiplash. Think Chris Gaines (Garth) doing a collaboration with the Dixie Chicks. Guess we’ll find out.
February 13, 2026 @ 12:58 pm
This is something I would listen to at least once and do it with an open mind with no expectations (knowing most likely it won’t be for me). Too bad I no longer have a CD player, turntable or cassette player, so might not have a chance.
February 13, 2026 @ 1:08 pm
“Light lives in darkness just as darkness lives in light”
This is one of the dumbest things ever said or written or even thought. He sniffs his own farts much more and South Park will have him on.
“the depressions of this industry’s cold and salty trenches”
yeahhh mannn, being a music artist is so much like being in a war, dude. Come to think of it, I feel like some guy in France in 1917 bro.
” to any and all who see our flag flying off your stern, know this… There will be no quarter nor mercy offered nor given.”
so Sturge has gone back to jr high or had someone in 7th grade write that.
He is 100% nincompoop now.
February 13, 2026 @ 1:26 pm
Fuck it I’m in. I’m down for a little bit of nostalgia you used to get on buying an album and cant wait to pop it in (I realize lot of people still do that). Between live shows and albums Sturgill has enough goodwill built up for me to see how this goes.
February 13, 2026 @ 3:37 pm
That’s where I am on this. The biggest sin he committed was shitting on his first album – “That’s how people got into you in the first place dood! WTF”. He dropped that first album when Country music was in a complete Bro Country wasteland. His ramblings remind me of reading Kerouac and Bukowski – at times I don’t know if certain passages are brilliant or just verbose douchebag nonsense…but it sounds good.
February 13, 2026 @ 1:38 pm
Man, I don’t care about Sturgill loving on the French and I don’t care about the genre (at least until I hear it), but not releasing digitally is beyond stupid.
Sorry, if you don’t want to make it streaming I can understand that. But most new cars don’t even have a CD (much less cassette) player and Vinyl may not be practical for people living in big households or apartments (noise).
Like – at least let me buy a digital copy off Bandcamp or something…
Dumb, dumb, dumb.
February 13, 2026 @ 2:53 pm
While I’m still very much a CD person, I just think it’s absurd not to offer at least a try-before-you-buy option in this day and age (such as putting the tracks on YouTube, plus I like your Bandcamp suggestion).
February 13, 2026 @ 1:55 pm
Oh, it’s a PROTEST album?! So I can *finally* hear CNN’s and MSNBC’s and internet randos’ various derangements set to *music*?! That’s amazing! How groundbreaking!
/A Sailor’s Guide to Earth/ and /Sound and Fury/ are desert island albums for me, and I love disco and funk. If he were streaming it, I’d probably give it at least one shot but there is a 0% chance that I’m going to go out of my way for this thing with that kind of promotion.
I doubt either of us will lose any sleep over the whole thing.
February 13, 2026 @ 2:06 pm
Have you actually listened to the lyrics of “Call to Arms”? Seems like it may have flown over your head…
February 13, 2026 @ 2:52 pm
Do you assume I’m pro-war for some reason?
February 13, 2026 @ 3:15 pm
He probably never saw the music video to All Around You either…
February 13, 2026 @ 3:37 pm
My man, Sturgill has been on Joe Rogan numerous times – I would hardly call him the CNN/MSNBC crowd. And has written pretty pointed “political songs” before.
Maybe I end up being proven totally wrong, but I doubt we are gonna get “use my preferred pronouns” songs from Sturgill f’n Simpson. The fact you are seemingly so triggered by the thought of an artist with a track record like Simpson even touching “political content” indicates to me you have more in common with Laura Ingraham than you would like to admit.
Just say “shut up and sing” and be done with it.
February 13, 2026 @ 4:00 pm
Yawn.
February 13, 2026 @ 1:57 pm
Hey Trigger,
Man, oh man, where do I even start with this hit piece? You’ve got your panties in a bunch over Sturgill Simpson, sorry, Johnny Blue Skies, daring to evolve as an artist and drop a disco infused protest album that’s basically a middle finger to the status quo. But let’s call it what it is: you’re pretriggered (pun very much intended) because this record threatens your narrow, gatekeeping vision of “real” country music, which apparently can’t handle a little funk, hedonism, or, God forbid, actual political bite. You’ve built your whole schtick on championing “independent” country, but here you are clutching your pearls over an artist who’s been indie as hell, calling out the corporate machine, and now flipping the script on oppression with grooves that make you squirm.
First off, your gripe about the physical-only release? That’s rich coming from someone who romanticizes the good ol’ days of country. Sturgill’s not gatekeeping; he’s forcing fans to engage with music like we used to—tangible, intentional, away from the algorithm overlords at Spotify and Apple that chew up artists and spit out pennies. But no, you’d rather whine about convenience because it doesn’t fit your narrative. And reuniting with Atlantic? After he torched the majors? Come on, that’s called strategy in a rigged industry dominated by billionaire-backed labels that prop up bro-country hacks while real innovators starve. Sturgill’s playing 4D chess, using their platform to subvert from within, but you’re too busy defending the establishment to see it.
Now, let’s get political, since that’s where your bias really shines through. This album’s got “Make America Fuk Again” a blatant roast of the MAGA cult that’s turned patriotism into a grift for fascists and frauds. Sturgill’s out here protesting “oppression” through relentless disco hedonism, channeling Marvin Gaye and fusion funk to fight back against the darkness of late stage capitalism, white supremacy, and the authoritarian creep we’ve seen since 2016. But you? You’re out here acting like that’s a bad thing, pooh-poohing it as pretentious or divisive. Newsflash: Art has always been political, from Woody Guthrie to Johnny Cash calling out Vietnam. Sturgill’s just updating it for the era of Trumpism, climate denial, and billionaire bootlickers.
Your “wide net of appeal across ideological barriers” nonsense? That’s code for “don’t rock the boat, don’t alienate the red-hat crowd.” Independent country ain’t supposed to be safe or bipartisan, it’s supposed to challenge power, speak truth, and make the comfortable uncomfortable. But you’ve got a site full of commenters frothing about “hyper-arrogant independent country gentry” while you subtly pander to the ones who’d rather blast jingoistic anthems than face real issues like inequality or corporate greed. Sturgill’s letter about light in darkness, industry trenches, and no quarter? That’s poetry for the resistance, man. It’s a battle cry against the very system that lets labels exploit artists while folks like you play hall monitor.
Look, I’ve been following SCM for years because you do spotlight some gems, but this? This is you exposing your conservative underbelly, scared of an artist who’s pro-union, anti-war, and unapologetically left-of-center. Sturgill’s not a “tortured artist” he’s a truthteller in a sea of sellouts. If this album explodes heads among the MAGA types, good. We need more of that, not less.
Trigger, maybe try listening with an open mind instead of a closed fist. Or keep writing these screeds It’s just proving Sturgill’s point about the salty trenches.
February 13, 2026 @ 2:09 pm
Preach.
It’s clearly personally for Trigger when it comes to Sturgill these days.
February 13, 2026 @ 2:09 pm
And Isbell
February 13, 2026 @ 2:27 pm
I review about 120 albums a year. Out of those 120, Jason Isbell’s “Weathervanes” was nominated for Album of the Year in 2023:
https://savingcountrymusic.com/saving-country-musics-2023-album-of-the-year-nominees/
Also in 2023, Jason Isbell’s “King of Oklahoma” WON for Song of the Year:
https://savingcountrymusic.com/the-saving-country-music-2023-song-of-the-year/
Sturgill Simpson’s last album “Passage Du Desire” was also nominated for Album of the Year.
https://savingcountrymusic.com/saving-country-musics-2024-album-of-the-year-nominees/
So why is a country music website selecting out albums and songs that aren’t even really country for very top distinction when there is some “bias” at work? This is a completely ridiculous assertion.
And to the accusation about this being all about undergirding right-leaning politics, why would I then be highlighting left-leaning artists? Why would Jesse Welles and James McMurtry be the 2024 and 2025 Songwriters of the Year?
February 13, 2026 @ 2:34 pm
Well Jesse Welles is right wing
February 13, 2026 @ 3:02 pm
See Harris, You just gave away the whole game right here. Jesse Welles puts out a series of anti-ICE, anti-Trump, anti-fascist, pro Greenland songs, but then goes on Joe Rogan, and gets labeled right wing. Why? Because he’s willing to engage in cross-ideological dialog, because Jesse Wells knows that the way you change the world is by creating a consensus, and that music has a unique power to do so. That’s also why he probably has a bigger culture footprint than Jason Isbell and Sturgill Simpson combined at the moment. That also why he gets attacked by left-leaning journalists and musicians, in part because of jealousy for the platform he’s built for himself. That’s also why I get label as right wing and left wing over the same exact articles and over the same exact lines. If you’re disrupting the political binary, you’re probably doing your job right.
And just like the portions that AdamAmericana and Mike Annoys Trigger selected out of this article to make their unfounded claims, you just selectively glossed over my Jason Isbell, James McMurtry, and Sturgill Simpson coverage. Are they right wing? Sturgill went on Rogan, THREE times! He had Rogan appear on “Metamodern Sounds.” Guess where the “reptile aliens made of light” line came from. There’s a lot of people who are not comfortable with what that answer is.
February 13, 2026 @ 3:06 pm
Hey trigger I’m not glossing over anything. My thought on Jesse Welles are based on his music. I haven’t accused you of anything. We just disagree about that one guy.
February 13, 2026 @ 2:38 pm
Extremely well written response. I agree with every point made. It is also disappointing that the author of the article seems to think a few throw away lines in support of Simpson can hide his obvious negative view of a work of art not even released yet. I have learned that this site has very little room for innovation in country music and certainly despises any political thought. Here, independent country has become an oxymoron.
February 13, 2026 @ 2:48 pm
QUOTE:
“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.”
QUOTE:
“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.”
QUOTE:
“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.“
The only way anyone could every conclude that this article is asserting “negative view of a work of art not even released yet” is if they followed some sort of social media node that mischaracterized this article as such, or they simply didn’t read it. It is an empirically false statement to say this article is telling people to judge the album before it’s released. Literally the exact opposite is the truth.
February 13, 2026 @ 3:11 pm
Nope. No outside influence. I read the whole thing. Sorry, but sometimes perception is reality. More than a few people seem to share my perception.
February 13, 2026 @ 2:41 pm
AdamAmericana,
Just like Mike Annoys Trigger up above, you can here with preconceived notions of how I would handle the information on the new Johnny Blue Skies album, and twisted off on that, as opposed to actually reading and understanding what was written, which was a purposeful and concerted effort to attempt to compel the public to keep their mind’s open when listening to this album. This was presented to country music fans, on a country music website.
That’s what this article is. Characterizing as anything other than that is irresponsible. It’s hard enough for me to defend myself when I take minority opinions that challenge public sentiment or my own readership. I really don’t appreciate when people assign opinions or motivations to me that I don’t hold, like the ones you assert in your comment.
As for the physical product thing, I have been on record from artists as far ranging as Garth Brooks and Petunia and the Vipers strongly discouraging physical-only releases, and for a host of reasons. That said, I acknowledged in this very article how it’s unfortunate that singular listening of music almost no longer every takes place, and why this was probably at the heart of Sturgill’s decision.
As for the Atlantic Records thing, it would have been irresponsible of me as a journalist to not point out the guy released an entire protest album against Atlantic, with accompanying interviews/press, while reporting that he’s now back working with that same company. As part of that reporting, I also included a quote from Sturgill Simpson himself expressing why he’d chosen to work with Atlantic again from an Atlantic press release.
4D Chess? Please. Sturgill took the payday.
As far as all this political shit you keep bringing up, you always talk about one side of Saving Country Music’s coverage, but you never acknowledge the other. Every single day I am accused of being an extreme right-winger, and a pinko commie fag. And as far as I’m concerned, that’s the way it probably should be if you’re actually doing your job as a journalist. That means you’re on the right track.
But please don’t lump me into your political binary, and then impose beliefs/opinions upon me that I never shared. I’m a writer. I choose my words carefully.
February 13, 2026 @ 3:02 pm
I didn’t say anything about your politics… I think i rarely do unless I think its coloring your impressions of a particular song in a review.
I would like credit for the term “pretriggered” tho…
February 13, 2026 @ 2:07 pm
Knew you’d have a bunch of negative commentary about this lol
Long live Johnny Blue Skies & the Dark Clouds!
February 13, 2026 @ 2:52 pm
Why?
February 13, 2026 @ 2:08 pm
oh boy, he done riled you all up again. hoping he has a ‘make america fuk again’ hat so it’s not all you red caps having all the fun.
February 13, 2026 @ 2:58 pm
Indeed, it’s the red caps who are having more sex, happier lives, and babies. But let’s see if that attractive sex pot pied piper of a Johnny Blue Skies can turn the cultural tide.
February 13, 2026 @ 3:12 pm
yeah, the hats will make everyone have sex. that’s definitely what i said.
every right wing person i know is miserable and none of them can figure out why. they terrified of everything they don’t know why. they have less money and they can’t figure out why.
February 13, 2026 @ 3:23 pm
If we get into straight political discussions here, this comments section is getting shut down, and comments are getting deleted. This is an article about the new Johnny Blue Skies album. Have your comments be relevant to that, or go to a political website to leave your political comments there.
February 13, 2026 @ 2:13 pm
Can’t wait for this one
February 13, 2026 @ 2:15 pm
Thing is I don’t mind him being a weirdo cause well I like a weirdo with my art. But also if it’s not on streaming I’m probably not gonna listen to it. My car doesn’t have a cd player and my apartment isn’t big enough for vinyl (one day I hope).
I do think sound and fury has with the passage of time proven to be a record that stands up and is great. We all had that fight then and I think the people who liked it have proven more correct than not. Not that anyone’s taste is wrong I just mean I’m still listening to sound and fury and the songs are still mainstays of his setlist. So I don’t think he has any misses in his catalogue. I bet this will be good. I hope I get to hear it one day.
February 13, 2026 @ 2:29 pm
Pumped for it, but I’m definitely with you of not understanding why he would go back with Atlantic….
Such an odd move given his latest trajectory. Only thing I can think of is that he negotiated a marketing budget to light on fire.
February 13, 2026 @ 4:02 pm
Yeah….. talked all that shit about Atlantic, then jumped back in bed with them.
February 13, 2026 @ 2:36 pm
I already bought the local record store red. I’ll put my MP3’s onto my Spotify. Whoot
February 13, 2026 @ 2:51 pm
I might be in the minority here but I don’t mind that it’s only released on physical copies; especially on cassette since I’m one of the few people with a cassette player in their car. This really is the only reasonable action artists can take if they want to “stick it to the man” in regards to streaming royalties. Everyone who doesn’t have a CD or cassette player in their car at least has an aux input. Get a $20 CD player off Ebay and purposefully put the smartphone aside for once.
February 13, 2026 @ 2:53 pm
It’s a pretentious and embarrassing manifesto, on an equal low footing with the tiresome and joyless hectoring of AdamAmericana.
I’m looking forward to hearing this album. It sounds like the work of musicians who like each other and want to record, live, whatever they want. Cool, let’s hear it. There’s a mini-boom of audience interest in the 70s, for whatever reason, and this catches that small wave. I hope they do a good job. Turn it up and let’s see what you’ve got.
But does everything now have to come served with a steaming pile of positional horsesh*t?
February 13, 2026 @ 3:05 pm
I have a fascination with 70’s and 80’s New York culture so I am interested.
February 13, 2026 @ 3:16 pm
You didn’t just miss the point: you proved it, line by line, paragraph by paragraph, while insisting you were above it.
What’s striking isn’t that you disagree with Sturgill Simpson’s rollout or his choices; disagreement would be healthy. What’s striking is how personally affronted you seem by the fact that he is not particularly interested in accommodating you, your expectations, or your preferred consumer habits, and how quickly that affront turns into moralizing.
You begin by bending over backward to establish your good faith. You’ll listen. You’re open-minded. You’ve given grace before. You’ll bring an “open heart.” Fine. But then the essay becomes a prolonged argument that Sturgill has somehow failed an obligation to be legible, accessible, conciliatory, and broadly appealing while you insist you’re not asking him to do exactly that.
You accuse him of acting “above us all,” yet the entire piece is written from the assumption that artists owe audiences a particular posture: humility, transparency, convenience, and ideological crowd-pleasing. When he declines that posture, you read arrogance where there is simply indifference to your approval. That’s not him posturing as a “true artist.” That’s you bristling at the loss of leverage.
The “music is supposed to be for everyone” argument sounds noble until you interrogate it for more than ten seconds. Music has never been for everyone. Not historically, not culturally, not politically, not emotionally. Every meaningful artistic movement excludes far more people than it includes: by taste, by temperament, by timing. To pretend otherwise is to confuse art with product design. Wide appeal is a commercial goal, not a moral one.
Your criticism of the “real ones” line is particularly revealing. You read it as a loyalty test, a purity oath, an implication of inauthenticity. But that interpretation only works if you already feel accused. The line doesn’t exile anyone; it simply acknowledges a truth every artist eventually learns: some people stay, some people don’t, and neither outcome requires permission or apology. The fact that you hear condemnation says more about your own anxiety about opting out than about his intent.
Then there’s the protest argument, which is where the piece really collapses under its own certainty. You insist that protest must cast a “wide net,” must appeal across ideological and geographic divides, must avoid “speed humps.” That’s not protest, that’s marketing. Historically, protest works precisely because it disrupts, irritates, polarizes, and refuses to be easily absorbed. You don’t have to like his chosen metaphor or influences, but reducing French protest culture to a body-count rebuttal is a spectacularly shallow dodge of the actual point he was making: joy as defiance, pleasure as refusal, celebration as resistance. You didn’t rebut that idea, you sidestepped it.
The physical-only release criticism is where your frustration becomes naked. You frame it as concern for accessibility, but what you’re really upset about is inconvenience. You invoke “the little guy” while discussing a man who has already exited the hamster wheel and is explicitly rejecting the model you’re defending. That model didn’t accidentally make him wealthy; he used it and then decided he no longer wanted to participate in it. You don’t have to applaud that choice, but calling it hypocritical ignores the obvious distinction between benefiting from a system and choosing when to disengage from it.
Your Atlantic-versus-independence argument fares no better. You treat label affiliation as a moral purity test, selectively applied. Independence is admirable. So is choosing collaborators you trust to execute a vision. Neither choice automatically validates or invalidates the work. Invoking other artists as counterexamples doesn’t strengthen your case; it just reveals your desire for consistency in a world where artists are under no obligation to be consistent on your terms.
Even your handling of his lyrics and neurodivergence feels less like analysis and more like unease. You hover between critique and excuse, never quite comfortable with the idea that some of his abrasiveness may be intentional, some unfiltered, some simply none of your business. You want context, but only insofar as it makes him more digestible.
And that’s the throughline here: digestibility.
You say he failed to let the music speak for itself, but you’re the one shouting over it: projecting motives, litigating logistics, adjudicating tone, and constructing a case against an album you haven’t heard. You’re not reacting to the music; you’re reacting to the loss of control over how, when, and why you get to experience it.
Sturgill didn’t alienate you. He got under your nails. He reminded you that art doesn’t need consensus, access optimization, or your comfort to justify its existence. And instead of sitting with that discomfort, you dressed it up as concern for community, protest efficacy, and the soul of music itself.
You’ll probably still listen. You’ll probably have something thoughtful to say once you do. But let’s not pretend this essay is about accountability or principle. It’s about an artist refusing to meet you where you are and you being far more bothered by that than you want to admit.
Like he said: Make Art, Not Friends.
PS – Jeremy Pinnell rips.
February 13, 2026 @ 3:44 pm
So I’ve already addressed some of this in other comments, so I’m not interest in re-treading the same ground. But what I will say is that an article that emphasizes, re-empahsizes, underscores, and then ultimately concludes that consumers should keep an open mind about the new album getting attacked for closed-mindedness really illustrates the point I made that Sturgill and many of his fans believe that he is above reproach. ANY criticism or even commentary that can be construed as such is seized upon and must be quashed with long-winded character assassination and accusation of ulterior purposes. Sturgill’s word is EVERYTHING. And we must just adhere and obsequiously cow to his genius.
I do want to address this physical copy issue though. If nothing else, people need to recognize how unusual it is. As multiple people have said in this comments section alone, it’s a no go for them, irrespective of anything else. I have written articles upon articles about this subject, including about Garth Brooks and GhostTunes, the time in 2014 when Taylor Swift and Jason Aldean pulled their music from Spotify—only to re-upload it later.
There is one model and one model only to distribute music: Make it as readily available to as many humans as possible. Otherwise, you’re failing the music. The last project I can recall that when physical only was Robert Earl Keen’s “Western Chill” in 2023. It was a disaster. Nobody bought it. I expect Sturgill to fare much better. It will still fare much worse than if he releases it digitally. But my deeper point is it’s in no way out-of-bounds to discuss or even scrutinize that decision. I think it would be extremely strange if I didn’t. I also find it extremely strange that people find that discussion out of bounds, bias, or anything of the sort. It is an extremely rare decision that was worth remarking on.
February 13, 2026 @ 4:09 pm
I’m all for sticking it to the streaming sites. Artists are not paid what they should be. However…. You can still accomplish that by allowing us to purchase a download of it. Makes zero sense to not offer that. The profit would be great with no shipping and handling and tons of fans such as my self would do that in heartbeat. I feel he completely missed the mark on that and the self bloviating letter. From someone that saw him 3 times in 3 states last year, puts a bad taste in my mouth.