Country Maverick Plays Sold-Out Benefits In San Rafael, SF

By Dave Pehling

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- While Sturgill Simpson was tagged as a rising star of alternative country in 2014 after the release of his celebrated album Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, the Kentucky-raised musician actually got his start over a decade ago. Simpson formed the roots band Sunday Valley in 2004, but would put the group on hiatus for several years after relocating to Nashville where the act found little outlet for their mix of raucous honky tonk and bluegrass amid the explosion of pop country.

Simpson eventually reconvened the group in 2010 and put out the album To the Wind and on to Heaven. Despite excellent reviews and a growing fan base from festival appearances and regional touring, the band decided to call it quits in 2012. Simpson would re-emerge recording under his own name the following year with his solo debut High Top Mountain that earned rave notices with its soulful, Waylon Jennings-influenced tales of hard luck and heartbreak.

His follow-up effort Metamodern Sounds hit stores to wide acclaim two years ago. It expanded on Simpson's traditionalist style with a significant dose of psychedelia on the expansive lead single "Turtles All the Way Down" (complete with lyrical references to mind-altering drugs LSD, psilocybin and DMT) and the backwards guitar and drum experimentation on album closer "It Ain't All Flowers."The album became a critical and commercial success, ending up on numerous year-ending "Best of" lists. Simpson's profile was raised even more by tours supporting Zac Brown and The Drive-By Truckers as well as several appearances on late-night talk shows.

Simpson would stay busy on the road, selling out a string of headlining dates across the country for much of 2015, playing festivals and sharing stages with the likes of Merle Haggard, Kris Kristofferson and Asleep at the Wheel for an episode of the venerable music show "Austin City Limits." Simpson also cleaned up at the 2015 Americana Awards, taking home the "Artist of the Year" award and the "Song of the Year" award for "Turtles All the Way Down."

In 2016, Simpson released his highly anticipated follow-up effort A Sailor's Guide To Earth, his first for Atlantic Records. Another daring step into uncharted territory, the compelling song cycle operates within the conceptual framework of letter written by a sailor to his wife and newborn son back home. Featuring ample contributions from the Dap-Kings (the renowned Brooklyn-based soul ensemble that backs Sharon Jones), the album intertwines Simpson's familiar honky tonk with R&B influences and soulful horn arrangements. One highlight is a mournful country torch-song take on Kurt Cobain's alt-rock radio standard "In Bloom" that floats on swells of pedal steel and strings before erupting in a heart-tugging bridge powered by Stax-style horns.

Simpson toured extensively with an expanded version of his stellar backing band augmented by a full horn section to promote the album for the better part of the next two years, including sold-out appearances at the Fox Theater in Oakland and a blistering appearance at the 2017 edition of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass that found Simpson back in guitar hero mode following the exit of longtime six-string virtuoso Laur Joamets.

The songwriter was quiet for most of 2018, though he admitted in an interview that he was already working on music for his next album. Described by Simpson as a sleazy rock and roll record, the new effort Sound & Fury marks another significant departure for the artist. With his distinctive vocal twang standing as one of the only remaining constants from Simpson's earlier work, the songs on Sound & Fury are built around wailing, heavily distorted guitar and synth that more closely resembles the music of '80s hitmakers the Cars and alt-rock outfit Queens of the Stone Age than alt-country.

Simpson also worked with Netflix to commission an album-length anime video with different Japanese directors creating visuals for each individual song to tell a surreal, apocalyptic tale of a dystopian future. The songwriter returns to the Bay Area this week to play two special shows as part of a brief string of U.S. dates at intimate venues on both coasts that will benefit the Special Forces Foundation. The concerts at Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael and the Independent in San Francisco both sold out in seconds.

Sturgill Simpson

Tuesday, Oct. 1, 8 p.m. $75 (sold out)
Terrapin Crossroads

Wednesday, Oct. 2, 8 p.m. $75 (sold out)
The Independent