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Content note: “Jupiter’s Faerie,” the fourth song on Passage Du Desir, concerns the topic of suicide.

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Tyler: Peter, in early 2024, I came across a reasonably-priced secondhand vinyl copy of the second album from modern-throwback-retro-Americana-country artist Sturgill Simpson.  He had been recommended to me in the past, and Allmusic gave the LP five out of five stars, so I opted to give it a shot.  Released in 2014, it’s called Metamodern Sounds In Country Music, and for it I quickly developed an affection.  Damn good stuff.

Inspired by Metamodern, I dug into the rest of Simpson’s catalog, which is full of excellent, genre-blending work.  It happened by chance that my exploration of the man’s discography came as he returned from a considerable hiatus with Passage Du Desir, the album we’re to discuss today.

Well, there’s an asterisk.  Passage is credited not to “Sturgill Simpson,” but instead “Johnny Blue Skies.”  Simpson had pledged to release only five original albums under his actual name, a quota he fulfilled with 2021’s The Ballad Of Dood & Juanita.  Emerging, then, three years later, he ducked the limit he’d established by adopting a new moniker.

Peter: Sturgill is an interesting artist. Wikipedia told me that this album “will be supported with a tour under his proper name with Johnny Blue Skies as a special guest.” Kooky stuff.

I also had that Metamodern Sounds album. It was my introduction to him as well. I was struck at the time by his mixing of psychedelic music with country. I knew a little about Gram Parsons and cosmic country, but not much, so it was quite novel to me at the time. It still is.

Tyler: Have you heard his fourth album, the apocalyptic-rock SOUND & FURY?

Peter: No. Is it good?

Tyler: I’ve come to love it.  It’s a departure, but the songcraft and lyrical power remain.  It’s nothing like anything else he’s put out, not even Passage Du Desir.  If you wanna take a really psychedelic ride, I say give it a shot.

Its release was accompanied by an anime film on Netflix that’s on my shortlist of pictures to stream.

Peter: Interesting. Well, we can add it to the queue.

We’re going to be doing this into our 80s, I think.

Tyler: Take that, AI!

Peter: Hey, remember when Garth Brooks released a pop album as Chris Gaines? And everyone was like, “Naw, we’re good.”

Tyler: He performed as “Gaines” on SNL!

Peter: A friend of mine from college had that album. He had really weird taste in music though. He was really into Toad the Wet Sprocket. No disrespect to Toad the Wet Sprocket, it’s just he was really into them. Like probably more than the guys who were actually in Toad the Wet Sprocket.

Anyway, let’s do this!

Tyler: “Swamp Of Sadness” is the first track on Passage.

Peter: It’s pretty laid back for an opener. It definitely sets a tone.

This has a pretty standard progression. You can sort of imagine where the melody is heading without having heard the song. A lot of country is like that. Not a bad thing at all. It sounds and feels familiar even on the first listen. But it sounds fresh at the same time. It’s good. I like it.

Tyler: I’m a big fan as well.  It’s a melancholy introduction to the new sound.

Peter: Yeah, I shouldn’t oversimplify things. Sturgill experiments with a lot of different sounds and genres. It’s not standard “country” by a long shot. (But he is firmly rooted in that tradition, I would say.)

Tyler: His songs here have both twang and grooves.  You can air guitar a slide line while bobbing your head to the rhythm.

Peter: The second track, “If The Sun Never Rises Again,” is a whole different thing. It’s got like a 70s soft rock, adult contemporary vibe, and it’s really great. Maybe my favorite song on the album.

Tyler: So good.  It, incidentally, was my top track of 2024 on Spotify.  Another terrific backbeat, another indelible hook.  He’s crooning on “If The Sun…”.

Peter: I saw someone describe it as “Country Yacht Rock.”

Tyler: Oh man.  That comparison is one I never made, not in months and months of savoring every song here.

Peter: Whatever you want to call it, I’m a fan.

Tyler: Now, our next tune is such a personal favorite that I had it figured for that Spotify #1 spot.  That was not to be, but I still adore the song down to my bones.   “Scooter Blues.”

I’ve sung it at work.  It’s enthralling.  I don’t fish and wouldn’t know where to start, but I still want to “fish all day just to fill up the grill.”

“Spend my mornings making chocolate milk and Eggos; my days at the beach, my nights stepping on Legos.”  I mean, that’s an irresistible ode to parenthood and living a good life.

Not that I much want to be a parent.  I’m an old man, Peter.  I’d be 84 when the kid reached kindergarten.

Peter: Pish posh. Mick Jagger has young children. Aren’t you always saying how you want to be like Mick?

Tyler: Bobby De Niro is having a kid, ain’t he?  Just had one?

Peter: Exactly! You’re almost too young to have children. I think.

But, yes, “Scooter Blues” paints a picture. A very sweet, happy, picture.

And it breezes by. It’s got like a slight Jimmy Buffett vibe?

Tyler: By the way, I wanna throw in for our new readers that no, Tyler of Writers’ Loom does not and would not care to have the moves like Jagger.  I’m a Keith man, ride or die.

Peter: And I’m a Wy-man.

Tyler: You’re the old man having children!  Children having children!

Peter: Marrying 13-year-olds!

Tyler: One should never miss an opportunity to remind an audience about Bill Wyman’s grotesque ways.

Peter: So true.

Tyler: All this jokery aside, “Scooter Blues” is a wonder.  No notes.

Peter: Side one ends with “Jupiter’s Faerie,” right? Do you have the album on vinyl?

Tyler: I do.  It’s a fitting closer.  It breaks my fucking heart.

Peter: Yeah, it’s another good one.

Tyler: He’s tackling a delicate subject, with both grace and power.

Peter: Right. He looks up an old girlfriend only to learn she’s passed away. It’s a tender meditation on mortality and loss.

Tyler: And, sadly, suicide.

“You left a year ago, chose to check out and move on.  I guess the pain became the only thing each and every day would bring.  I’m sorry I wasn’t there, I wish I’d known.  I would’ve tried to give you love.  Been so long since I’d shown.  And had I maybe you’d be here today.”

Peter: Yeah. It’s a real gut punch. Great song, though.

Tyler: I saw Sturgill play Lexington, in his home state of Kentucky, a couple of months after this album was released.  He played “Faerie,” prefacing with it by sharply noting, approximately, that “This song’s about my friend who killed herself.”

Peter: Damn. I wondered if it was based on a true story.

Tyler: He added that he’d heard the news while in Paris.  I’ve wondered what form and what inspiration come from that city, from a romantic and subtly blue view of Parisian romance and heartbreak, old architecture, evocative everything.

It’s in that album title, it’s on that cover, ambient quasi-cafe noise concludes the final track (spoiler alert!).

“One more glass of wine for a love so true—then another and another for today one just won’t do.”  I gaze in awe at a line like that.

Peter: He’s a gifted lyricist, for sure. The Paris connection is interesting. If there’s a city that doesn’t scream “country music,” it’s Paris. What with its high falootin’ food and fashion! Ain’t no cowboys wearing berets!

Tyler: “What’s all this I hear about you fellas eatin’ them snails from down the basin?”

Peter: “Get a rope.”

Remember that Pace picante ad where they hung the cook because he served them salsa from New York City?

Tyler: Have you seen the new refrigerated dog food one where Bobby Bacala and his crew murder a crony who has the nerve to criticize the pet mush?

Peter: Yes! Absolutely bonkers.

A man loses his life! Over dog food!

Tyler: Wokka wokka!  Take my wife, please!  Take her to the gallows!

Absolute nonsense.

Peter: Side two kicks off with “Who I Am.” It is, perhaps, the most straightforward “country” song on the album?

Tyler: Yeah, it’s got a real laid-back country & western air.

“It’s too late now for therapy to save me.”  But it’s not, though, Johnny!  Take heart!

Peter: Never too late! Look at Mick! And Bobby D! Or the Golden Girls!

Tyler: Mick in therapy must be revelatory.

Peter: All kidding aside, Mick is really good at modeling healthy aging in a lot of ways. The guy never stops learning/changing with the times. Good on him.

Tyler: Meanwhile, Keith’s in a villa in Jamaica or something, wine in a glass, smoldering reefer between his fingers, hanging on somehow after all that self-pummeling.  God, I love Keith.

I bet Sturgill’s a Keith guy.

Peter: Oh for sure.

I also love Keith, but he doesn’t even use e-mail. They have to fax him.

Tyler: I celebrate this.

Peter: You’re still using AOL, no?

And Friendster?

Tyler: A coworker recently pointed out to me how hurtful was the “ranking of friends” aspect of a MySpace homepage.

Peter: Yes! Preach!

Tyler: Up next, track two, side two, “Right Kind Of Dream.”

Peter: “Right Kind of Dream” sounds a little like 80s pop music. He’s really all over the place, but it all sounds unmistakably like him. He’s effortless.

Tyler: Those strings really class up the proceedings, though.  As much as I love “The Boys Of Summer,” “Right Kind of Dream” has it beat in the organic department.

Not to rank one song above or below the other.  They’re both equal-opportunity bangers.

Peter: That’s a good name for an album. “Equal-Opportunity Bangers.”

Tyler: It’d make a good tagline for a local radio station.  Are radio stations still local?  This city’s independent theater chain prefaces each movie with a PSA about avoiding bad behavior throughout the film, and the cast is a set of DJs from, I dunno, 174ROCK or some such.

Peter: There used to be a great, local radio station up in tiny Ely, Minnesota. We’d listen to it at night on our annual fishing trips. RIP WELY!

Tyler: Cincinnati had one of those stations that got ranked in Rolling Stone.   WOXY, I believe 97.7.  It left us long ago.  Cowboys wearing berets maintain you can still find it distant on the airwaves on clear nights.

I did a callback!  I’m hilarious!

Peter: People love it. It’s our thing.

Speaking of influences, there are touches of Skynyrd and southern rock throughout this album. Not surprising, of course, southern rock and country having significant Venn overlap.

Tyler: “Right Kind of Dream,” then, continues the album’s winning streak.  Does the next one keep up the pace?  Yes.  Yes it does.  “Mint Tea.”

Peter: This is another winner. The whole album is good!

Tyler: Yeah it is!  “Mint Tea” is a lovely serenade with a spring in its step.  “Need an early mornin’ matcha?  Girl I gotcha.”  He even makes matcha sound earthy and country!

Peter: I was just going to mention the matcha!

Tyler: I worked at a cafe with a full coffee and tea bar.  Making that matcha takes real time off the clock.

I didn’t have to do it, mind you.  That was for the official in-name baristas.

Peter: Your kid is going to love hearing stories like that.

Tyler: I guess I am like Jagger: “NOT FUNNY!”

Peter: The album wraps up with the aptly titled “One For The Road.”

Tyler: Another absolute heartbreaker.

Peter: Yeah, this one is kind of a downer, but it’s got a great vibe. Everything sounds really good on this album. It’s all very agreeable, musically.

Musically? Lol.

I stand by that, Tyler. It’s all very agreeable, musically. You can quote me on it.

Tyler: Put it on the posters!

Peter: You heard it here first!

He really stretches out on this one. It’s almost nine minutes long.

Tyler: A cathartic jam.  His farewell to the lady he’s left, perhaps.  One for the road indeed.

Peter: This reminds me of “Angie,” a bit in the melody.

Which would be apropos, “Angie” being Keith’s goodbye to Anita.

Tyler: Well, I think Passage Du Desir ranks among our most favorable subjects.  Rock-solid material top to bottom.

Peter: For sure. I didn’t know what to expect going in, but this was a delight.

Tyler: I’m glad you dug it!  I’m not BSing about those Spotify numbers.  2024 was my year of Sturgill featuring Johnny Blue Skies.

Peter: Glad our chats didn’t skew your Wrapped results a la my Ringo the 4th fiasco.

Tyler: Every single song on Passage is better than “Hot Stuff.”

Peter: Easily!

Tyler: “Is that another obscure callback to their own dialogues?  String them up!”

“Slice them with envelopes and dip them in Pace picante sauce!  Not that DEI shit from New York City!”

Peter: Topical too! We’re really firing on all cylinders today.

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