Country Star with Artistic Spurs

Despite tendencies of mainstream country radio to slick-ify and pop-ify the music it proffers, elements of “classic country” continue to sneak in the side door. It filters into the music like deep-rooted, stubborn volunteers in the soil of country’s great American musical soil. Currently, artists like Sierra Ferrell and Charley Crockett are making classic country-grounded sounds worth cherishing, mixed with their own hybrid-style home brews.

And starting a decade back, the Kentucky-born man called Sturgill Simpson showed us how roots and “outlaw country” attitude mattered, off to the side of “today’s country” and the Americana zone. That demonstration process and evolving story continue: Simpson brings his new-old country aesthetic to the Santa Barbara Bowl, on Sunday, September 15, on the road to promote his first new album in three years, Passage Du Desir.

Or should we say Johnny Blue Skies is comin’ to town? Simpson, who has always found ways to balance authentic twang — Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings echoes in the mix — with quirky personal and sometimes slightly surreal touches in his lyrics and songwriting approach, has opted to change his name to Johnny Blue Skies.

Simpson, who has dealt with and spoken openly about his struggles with substance abuse and depression, felt the need to expand and recharge his public identity. This twist is hinted at in the marketing of his current Why Not? Tour, as “An evening with Sturgill Simpson, featuring the very special guest Johnny Blue Skies.” Apparently, both personae will hit the Bowl.

In an interview with GQ recently, Simpson explained his need for disassociation from his God-given moniker, especially after a frightening bout with losing his voice due to burnout in 2021. “I’d be at an airport or a restaurant, and I’d hear somebody say my name and I’d turn around and realize I had no idea who the person is,” Simpson said. “All of a sudden, I’d hear that name and it was like it didn’t belong to me. It was just a commodity or a brand. Sturgill served his purpose, but he’s dead, he’s gone, and I’m definitely not that guy anymore….

“When I was about 21 years old, there used to be this bar in Lexington, Kentucky, with this bartender named Dave who was like Silent Bob and Charles Bukowski, literally in the long trench coat, and he could do way more Zippo tricks than anybody should know,” Simpson said. 

“When I started performing and getting my confidence at open mics and stuff, he’d come to this other bar and see me because it was his night off. And he started, every time I’d walk into his bar, he’d say, ‘Johnny Blue Skies.’ So I just started using it.”

Simpson’s musical saga gained its first strong burst with 2014’s Metamodern Sounds in Country Music and has shifted through various concepts — the rock-’n’-roll-fired Sound & Fury and the rootsier bluegrassy two-volume Cuttin’ Grass and The Ballad of Dood & Juanita. Now comes another strong album full of classic-yet-maverick goodness from Skies/Simpson, who also touched on his urge to evolve as he goes. 

“There’s a contrarian in me that always wants to push against any kind of expectation,” Simpson said. “If something works, there’s a thought in my brain, like, ‘No, I’m being told to do that again.’”

Sturgill Simpson and Johnny Blue Skies will perform at the Santa Barbara Bowl (1122 N. Milpas St.) Sunday, September 15, 7 p.m. on. See sbbowl.com.