Sturgill Simpson is back with a new alias, Johnny Blue Skies, which he will use for a new album Passage du Desir out July 12th and the Why Not? Tour. The elusive country singer-songwriter has not toured (under any name) since hemorrhaging his vocal cords in 2021, forcing him to cancel his tour and stay offstage for nearly two whole years.
During his meteoric rise to the top of the alt-country food chain in the 2010s, Simpson long maintained that he would only release five albums under his name. Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2021, he said, “I always said there would be five, and I wondered if I’d go back on that. But it really has cemented every step of the way how much I don’t want to carry all that weight. Not having to stand up there behind my name would allow me to be even more vulnerable, in a way.”
The tour will see Simpson team up with his original bandmates Laur Joamets (guitar), Miles Miller (drums), and Kevin Black (bass), plus the addition of former Midland member Robbie Crowell (keys). For Passage du Desire, Blue Skies is offering up eight tracks with titles like “Swamp of Sadness”, “If the Sun Never Rises Again”, “Right Kind of Dream”, “Mint Tea”, and more. Though this will be the first album by Johnny Blue Skies, Simpson did try out the name with Diplo on the 2023 collaboration “Use Me (Brutal Hearts)”. The full-length release comes from Simpson’s High Top Mountain Records and he produced it (as Johnny Blue Skies) with David Ferguson, recording it at Nashville’s Clement House Recording Studio and London’s Abbey Road Studios.
This tour and album announcement marks the culmination of a three-year saga when fans didn’t know when they would hear from Simpson again. A month before his voice injury, Simpson released his last album The Ballad of Dood & Juanita and then after canceling his tour retreated underground. In the ensuing years, he released a couple collaborations with Diplo and Angel Olsen and produced albums by Brit Taylor and bandmate Miles Miller. That same year, he appeared in season three of The Righteous Gemstones and Martin Scorsese‘s epic Killers of the Flower Moon. He even recorded a song for The Righteous Gemstones, an a cappella cover of “All the Gold in California“, under the name Brother Marshall and the Choir of Fire, which in hindsight reads like a bit of a clue for Johnny Blue Skies.
A pre-sale for the Sturgill Simpson Why Not? Tour begins Wednesday, June 12th at 10 a.m. local time. Fans can register here for the pre-sale. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday, June 14th at 10 a.m. local time. See below for a full list of tour dates. The tour includes previously announced headlining sets at Outside Lands in San Francisco and Austin City Limits Festival.
The post Sturgill Simpson Takes The Name “Johnny Blue Skies” For New Album & ‘Why Not? Tour’, First Since 2021 Vocal Injury appeared first on L4LM.
