Sturgill Simpson Announces New Album A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, Shares “Brace for Impact (Live a Little)”

Photo by Reto Sterchi

Sturgill Simpson has announced the follow-up to his 2014 album Metamodern Sounds in Country Music. It’s called A Sailor’s Guide to Earth and it’s out April 15 on Atlantic. He’s also shared the first single from the album. Below, check out “Brace for Impact (Live a Little),” along with the full tracklist (which includes Simpson’s take on Nirvana’s “In Bloom”), album artwork, and Simpson’s upcoming tour dates. Simpson self-produced A Sailor’s Guide to Earth. It was recorded primarily at the Butcher Shoppe in Nashville with engineer David Ferguson (Johnny Cash, John Prine) and assistant engineer Sean Sullivan. The album features Simpson’s touring band, as well as Dave Roe on bass, Dan Dugmore on steel guitar, Dougie Wilkinson on bagpipes, Garo Yellin and Arthur Cook on cello, Jonathan Dinklage and Whitney LaGrange on violin, and special guests the Dap-Kings.

In a press release, Simpson discussed his inspiration for the record:

I really questioned whether I wanted to spend however many more years on this bus, not being there and seeing all that was happening. That’s where this record came from, just processing all that guilt and homesickness. I had to figure out a way to put that into music, so I decided to write the whole record from the perspective of a sailor going to sea and not knowing if he’s ever coming home.

I remembered an old letter that I read, written by my Grandfather Ora to my grandmother when he was in the Army. He was in the South Pacific during World War II, and he thought he was going to die. So he wrote a goodbye letter to her and their newborn son. He finally made it home five years later.

He added:

I knew I wanted to make a concept record in song-cycle form, like my favorite Marvin Gaye records where everything just continuously flows. I also wanted it to be something that when my son is older and maybe I’m gone, he can listen to it and get a sense of who I was. I just wanted to talk as directly to him as possible.

Simpson also elaborated on his Nirvana cover:

I remember in seventh or eighth grade, when that album dropped, it was like a bomb went off in my bedroom. For me, that song has always summed up what it means to be a teenager, and I think it tells a young boy that he can be sensitive and compassionate—he doesn’t have to be tough or cold to be a man. So I wanted to make a very beautiful and pure homage to Kurt.

 

A Sailor’s Guide to Earth:

01 Welcome to Earth (Pollywog)
02 Breakers Roar
03 Keep It Between the Lines
04 Sea Stories
05 In Bloom
06 Brace for Impact (Live a Little)
07 All Around You
08 Oh Sarah
09 Call to Arms

Sturgill Simpson:

05-05 Austin, TX - Austin City Limits Live at the Moody Theater
05-06 Austin, TX - Austin City Limits Live at the Moody Theater
05-07 Dallas, TX – The Bomb Factory
05-10 Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall
05-11 Oklahoma City, OK – Criterion Theater
05-16 Lexington, KY – Lexington Opera House
05-17 Lexington, KY – Lexington Opera House
05-18 Chattanooga, TN – Tivoli Theater
05-20 Knoxville, TN – Tennessee Theater
05-21 Indianapolis, IN – Egyptian Room at Old National Centre
05-22 Louisville, KY – Louisville Palace
06-02 Royal Oak, MI – Royal Oak Theatre
06-03 Chicago, IL – Riviera Theatre
06-04 Milwaukee, WI – Riverside Theater
06-05 Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue

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