Press Play: Sturgill Simpson

Music is a form of art. Art is a form of expression. And Sturgill Simpson is an artist who uses his music to express the most intimate details of his life.  Sturgill Simpson released a new album on April 15, 2016 titled A Sailor’s Guide to Earth. It is his third studio album and it shares the precious and proud moments that Simpson has enjoyed with his baby son.

A Sailor’s Guide to Earth is predated by Simpson’s first album High Top Mountain, and his second album Metamodern Sounds in Country Music. Simpson stretches his alternative wings in this new album with his bold cover of Nirvana’s song “In Bloom”. The new album is written as a message from a sailor to his wife, and child.

The album opens with a sentimental track “Welcome to Earth (Pollywog)” that details Simpson’s emotions. Specifically, the joy of loving his son, and the despair he feels when he has to leave him. Simpson could not have made an album about his baby boy without mentioning the love of his life that helped create this newfound happiness. He pays tribute to his wife with his song “Oh Sarah” where he discloses his interpersonal failings, and his appreciation of his wife’s acceptance.

A Sailor’s Guide to Earth is an outlaw alternative country album with a rock finishing. It will surely climb high on the college music charts. It is a concept album that details life lessons for Simpson’s son to use as a guide to navigate his own life. Creativity and reality meet in a beautiful collision of actuality and imagination in Sturgill Simpson’s A Sailor’s

Guide to Earth.