A couple months after the hard-driving, raw-country sounds, and spiritual message of 2014’s Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, Sturgill Simpson began a new journey, fatherhood. Sturgill’s inspiration for the album begin with a memory he had of reading a letter his grandfather wrote to his grandmother during WWII, while fighting in the South Pacific and fearing for his life. Sturgill decided he would write a letter to his newborn son, in the form of a concept album entitled A Sailor’s Guide To Earth.
The album begins with “Welcome to Earth (Pollywog)” which is preceded by the abstruse, yet proximate sounds of a ship at sea. Jefferson Crow starts the music off on piano, with Simpson drawing out the first lines of “Hello my son, welcome to Earth. You may not be my last but you’ll always be my first,” accompanied by a 4- piece string quartet. The song ends with an inspiring horn section provided by Brooklyn’s the Dap-Kings, with Sturgill and Robert Emmett on the Moog Synthesizer, and Emmett on Organ and Wurlizter.
On “Breakers Roar,” the tempo slows again with the focus on Simpson’s acoustic guitar and Dan Dugmore on steel guitar. “Keep it Between the Lines” goes back into the Motown Funk of the Dap Kings accompanied by Laur Joamet’s electric guitar and Sturgill belting the plea to his son to “Keep your head out of the clouds and remember to be kind. And just stay in school, stay off the drugs, and keep between the lines.”
Simpson and crew then segue straight into “Sea Stories,” Sturgill’s atypical brand of straight forward southeastern Kentucky country rock n’ roll. Dave Roe and Miles Miller provide the bass guitar and drums, respectively, on this track, as well as, most of the album. Track #5 is a caliginous cover of Nirvana’s “In Bloom,” reprising once again with the remarkable horn section provided by the Dap-Kings.
“Brace For Impact (Live a Little)” intros with reverie with the bass and electric guitar with Simpson reminding us to “Make sure you give a little, before you go to that great unknown in the sky”. “All Around You” welcomes more strings with Simpson asserting “There will be days when the sun won’t shine, when it seems like the whole world is against you. Don’t be afraid when life is unkind, you can let go of the pain if you want to.” “Oh Sarah” is an ode to Sturgill’s wife of 6 years revealing to her that “It’s the tender in your eyes that keeps me safe and warm at night, from this life.“
The album closes with “Call to Arms,” an anti-war mongering statement with lines such as “Nobody’s looking up to care about a drone, we’re all too busy looking at our phones“ and “they serve up distractions and we eat them with fries until the bombs fall out of our fucking skies.“ The song and album ends with the raucous funk of the Dap-Kings, Dougie Wilkinson, on bagpipes, Dugmore on steal guitar, and Simpson declaring “the bullshit’s got to go.“
Sturgill Simpson and crew kick-off their tour Tuesday, April 19th in Brooklyn, NY at Rough Trade NYC before heading down south in May followed by several dates in the Midwest in June. Be sure to pick up a copy of the new album and don’t miss Sturgill on tour this Spring.
A Sailor’s Guide To Earth: Track Listing
- Welcome to Earth (Pollywog)
- Breakers Roar
- Keep it Between the Lines
- Sea Stories
- In Bloom *
- Brace For Impact (Live a Little)
- All Around You
- Oh Sarah
- Call To Arms
Running time: 39 minutes