Sturgill Simpson is not your average Country musician. But on the contrary, he probably is one of the most legitimate. Calling upon sounds the likes of Haggard and Jennings, Simpson puts his own unique stamp on the classic country sound. As this March 31st Washington Post article puts it:
“Inspired by the writings of American psychonaut Terence McKenna and Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos,” Simpson sings about the bardo of Tibetan Buddhism in the baritone of Waylon Jennings.
And this quote from the same article gives us a glimpse of the True Detective-esque, Rust Cohle side of Simpson:
”‘I’ve been reading about the idea of cyclical lives — it matches up to the idea of string theory and a multiverse,’ he says in a deep, dead-serious voice. ‘So I wanted to write a record about that instead of another song about broken hearts and drinking.’“
With one album out in 2013, and his second, titled Metamodern Sounds In Country Music, on the way May 13th, Simpson is wasting no time.
Hear the new Sturgill Simpson record, including a masterfully done version of When In Rome’s 1988 New Wave hit, "The Promise,” (track 6, near the 16:00-minute mark) in its entirety prior to its release here on NPR.org’s First Listen.
Direct link: http://www.npr.org/2014/05/04/307746474/first-listen-sturgill-simpson-metamodern-sounds-in-country-music