The Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast
The Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast celebrates the magic of live music through sharing personal stories. Each week, our guests will share their stories of different shows that were memorable and meaningful to them. We’ll also have concert reviews and conversations with musicians and crew members who put on those live shows. By sharing their stories, we hope to engage you - our audience - to relive your live music memories also. So please join us every week as we explore the transformative power of live music that makes attending concerts not just entertaining, but essential. This is The Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast, where every concert tells a story.
The Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast
Episode 033 - Sturgill Simpson Concert Review
This week, we've got a review of the Sturgill Simpson concert at Forest Hills Stadium at the old Tennis Center on October 19th, 2024. Simpson came out fast and just kept going, rolling through a set of excellent songs, including some really excellent cover songs, and we'll tell you all about it.
And if you aren't as familiar with Sturgill Simpson, you will be, as this episode is packed with insights and clips from the show so that you’ll feel like you were there. Please join us for our review of the Sturgill Simpson concert, this week on The Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast!
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Welcome to the Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast. I'm your host, Alex Gadd, and this week I've got another concert review for you. I went to see Sturgill Simpson at the Forest Hills stadium in Queens, New York last week, where he and his band played a jam packed 32 song, three hours set on a cool early fall night. Can't wait to tell you all about it. So please join me for my Sturgill Simpson concert review this week on the Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast. Coming up right now. I'm fairly new to Sturgill Simpson. I had heard his name for a number of years before I saw him playing guitar with Chris Stapleton on Saturday Night Live in early 2018, sharing vocals with him on my favorite Chris Stapleton song,"Midnight Train to Memphis." I was so surprised that someone else was singing the second verse. And what a voice that dude had. I immediately dug into Sturgill's music, and his most recent album at the time was 2016's A Sailor's Guide to Earth. That record had some great songs on it, including the song that's been my favorite Sturgill song ever since,"Keep It Between the Lines." It also had the rocking"Call to Arms" on it, and an incredible genre defying cover of Nirvana's"In Bloom." If you haven't heard that yet, go seek it out. I thought this guy was a country artist or an alt country guy, but this album was all over the place, and I was there for all of it. I was definitely now a Sturgill Simpson fan. Sturgill started his music career late after a stint in the Navy and some time spent figuring out what he wanted to do with his life. He started a band called Sunday Valley that was a country rock outfit that recorded one album and then split up. At that point, Sturgill moved to Nashville and recorded his first solo album in 2013 called High Top Mountain, which was self financed and produced by acclaimed producer Dave Cobb. Wasn't acclaimed producer at the time. He was still a new producer. He went on to produce Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell, as well as rock acts like Rival Sons, Sammy Hagar on The Circle, and Slash's last album with Miles Kennedy and the Conspirators, which was number 4. Cobb produced Sturgill's second album also, the excellent Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, which was recorded and mixed in just a week for less than$5,000. Incredible. Metamodern Sounds has been hailed as Simpson's best overall work. It was nominated for a Grammy for Best Americana Album in 2014. A Sailor's Guide to Earth was his third album, the first to be released on a major label, and was nominated for a Grammy for Album of the Year, which it lost out to Adele's 25 album. However, it did win the Grammy for Country Album of the Year, and it's just an amazing record. His music was moving further and further away from straight country, and his next record, 2019's Sound and Fury, was a straight up rock-n-roll record as far as I was concerned. From there he released two bluegrass albums, Cutting Grass. Volumes 1 and 2, on his own High Top Mountain label, and then, he released a country bluegrass and gospel album entitled The Ballad of Dood and Juanita, in 2021. Now, his latest album is called Passage du Desir and was released earlier this year, 2024, and he credited it to his professional alter ego, Johnny Blue Skies, which was a moniker he was apparently given by a bartender back in his home state of Kentucky who called him Johnny Blue Skies every time he saw him, as Sturgill's first name is John. And that was the tour that I saw him on two weeks ago in Queens at the old tennis center. This was my first time back at this venue since 1984, literally 40 years ago when I saw Yes on their 90125 tour. There are floor seats, which are all standing room only. No seats at all. And then a horseshoe shaped bleachers with bleacher bench seating surrounding a covered stage. It's an outdoor venue. All the food is outside the venue in a fenced in beer garden kind of area, which has food trucks and craft beer vendors, merch booths and restrooms. It's a nice little venue holds about 13, 000 people. And as I said, it's outdoors, which on this October evening was a bit chilly sitting up in those bleachers. Also, the venue is smack dab in the middle of a residential neighborhood. So there is a hard 10 PM curfew, which meant that the opening act, Durand Jones, went on at 6 PM, and Sturgill and his band went straight on at 7 PM. I went into the show cold. I didn't listen to Sturgill's complete catalog again to better acquaint myself with his music, even though Apple Music had a Sturgill Simpson's Why Not Tour Set List playlist, which included 25 of the songs he had been playing at almost every show. I stayed away from that. I didn't look at the set lists on Setlist.FM I thought I was going in fresh and that would allow me to experience each song on its own merits as a live song. But after seeing the show, I think I did myself a disservice. We'll talk about that Sturgill and his band dove right into the first song at 7 PM. It was"I Don't Mind" from the Cutting Grass collection without any introduction. In fact, he only stopped to interact with the audience twice at all, including once to introduce the band. So I was left scrambling to recall some of the songs in my head after only hearing some of them once or twice or even not at all. Thankfully, Setlist.FM had the previous show's setlist to remind me of what I was seeing, which I called up to check and remind myself. Now, my buddy, Jeff invited me to the show. Thank you, Jeff. And Jeff had seen him a number of times previously. And he told me once we were seated, that Simpson was not one for small talk from the stage and he got right to it. man, was he right! Even though I didn't recognize every song right away and didn't know the lyrics to many of them well enough to sing along to the whole songs. We were off and running and I was so excited. The second song was"Brace for Impact," from"A Sailor's Guide," the one album I did know pretty well. That was followed by the first of seven cover songs in the set, which was William Bell's soul ballad"You Don't Miss Your Water." Then came a faithful version of"Railroad of Sin" from Sturgill's first album, which is a great up tempo, straight ahead country track. I caught a little bit of that one, take a listen.
Is it not? Doesn't need no more tears I'm just a dead man Rolling in the night Summer Rolls Yeah Mm When the When the Sun goes down
Alex Gadd:I think it's worth mentioning here that I couldn't show you more of that tune or any of the previous opening songs, because we were sitting directly behind a group of four guys who were talking to each other constantly, as though they hadn't seen each other in months or years. So my attempts to record my standard one minute snippets of a song that I want to share with you during my reviews was rendered unsuccessful because most of the audio was these guys chatting with each other. That was a problem for the whole first half of the show. But, we persevered. After"Railroad of Sin," we got two more cover songs."The Promise," which was interesting. It was originally a late 80's synth pop tune from a band called When in Rome. Sturgill slowed it down a lot, and I was surprised when he got to the chorus and I recognized the song all of a sudden, thanks to the lyrics. Then he played Procol Harum's"Whiter Shade of Pale." Check that one out.
That I'm ready to break.
Alex Gadd:Now, that was three covers out of the first six songs. All were good, but it's interesting that he seemed to be using the cover songs to slow down the tempo to the overall show, up to that point. He followed up"Whiter Shade of Pale" with one from his latest album, the song"Right Kind of Dream." This is a good mid tempo song that he played maybe even a little faster live than it is on the record. I really liked the way he played this one. Then he played"All Said and Done" from the Sound Fury record. And that was a ballad complete with a saxophone solo by the keyboard player, Robbie Crowell. It had a dramatic, almost epic feel to it. Really nice. After that was"Long White Line." originally recorded by Moore Napier and originally written by James Buford Abner. This is a popular one with a real country flavor and Sturgill and the band did a great job with it. It was his first up tempo cover song of the night. Then came a section of songs that I didn't really connect with so much, although I do like the song"Mint Tea" that he plays from the new album. He played the song"Some Days" after that, which is a good one live, and that was followed by"Turtles All the Way Down" from the Metamodern Sounds record. This is a thoughtful tune that references Indian philosophy's concept of anavastha, or nothingness. Take a listen.
Tell us how we can help you get your way out of this. Love is in the air. It's in my blood. Faith is mine. No nursery rhymes. Every tear is blood of mine. Love. Call me sir or we go home. But don't rip the surface off.
Alex Gadd:At this point, Jeff and I were tired of listening to the guys in front of us catching up with one another. So we went to get a drink and meet up with a friend of Jeff's who was down on the floor. He came out, met us, and encouraged us to come back in with him, which we did. We were able to get right up near the side of the stage just in time for Sturgill's take on Prince's"Purple Rain." Here's a bit of that, and again, lots of people talking all around us, but what could we do? It's Purple Rain! Come on, people.
Oh, Oh, Oh, I see you. Woo!
Alex Gadd:"Purple Rain" led into"Just Let Go," and then one of my other favorite songs of his,"A Good Look," which I was so into that I didn't get any video, but it's a great song and here's a great clip of it from a guy named Matt Frazier. Thank you, Matt, man. They were cooking on this one. Check it out.
I've never been a fan. So I thought today would be a good day for me.
Alex Gadd:"A Good Look" led right into a cover of The Doors'"LA Woman," which was tailor made for Sturgill to cover.
Hi. Hi.
Alex Gadd:After that, a few more songs, including the excellent"Living the Dream" from Metamodern Sounds, and then two new ones before he tackled his final cover of the night, another one that fit him perfectly, the Allmans'"Midnight Rider." Take a listen.
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Alex Gadd:We were now 24 songs and two hours in, and after a few mellow tunes he picked some of his strongest songs to wrap up the main set with"Best Clockmaker on Mars,""Fastest Horse in Town," and the great"Life of Sin," again, from Metamodern Sounds.
When sex is cheap and talk is overrated And for the speeches you put it on the side Well, a little happiness and a little love is all I can offer But, hey, I'm sure you're thoughtin about me, and I'm the wrong one So you left my heart a little torn And I can't believe I'm wrong But, oh, I can't believe I'm wrong There is love, not brain hate All I can do to keep from going crazy My self esteem The only way to fix it Is to realize
Alex Gadd:He wrapped up with"Call to Arms" from A Sailor's Guide to Earth. And that was it. 32 songs in just a minute or two less than three hours. He thanked us and walked off. Lights up. No encore. That was it. So here are my takeaways. Number one, Sturgill Simpson and his band are an excellent live act. I highly recommend you go see them if you can. My buddy Jeff said that he felt like Sturgill was on a mission to blow everyone away, and it sure felt like that. You have to like country music to enjoy his show, but it's way more than just a country music show. It's great music, and yes, sometimes he sounds just like Waylon Jennings. But not on purpose. He just has a powerful baritone voice and sings country songs. And that's after he ruptured his vocal cords in 2021 and took two years off to recuperate. He's just got an incredible voice. Number two, as I've mentioned before, it is weird to me when an artist or an act simply does not interact with the audience throughout a show. For total newcomers, it would have helped to introduce some of the songs or tell a story or two about where any of them came from. But maybe the 10 p. m. curfew created pressure on him to plow ahead. Not a big deal at all, but it would have helped in my opinion. Number three, the band didn't have any video screens, which in this day and age is kind of weird. When I was sitting up there in the bleachers, it was a reminder of why live shows and larger arenas, amphitheaters, and stadiums have video screens. Uh, it was hard to see, the stage was as spartan as I've seen anywhere larger than a club in years and years didn't take away from the show, but it was different. Number four, the audience was not as intuitive as Sturgill deserved, or as I expected, too much talking amongst themselves, which was distracting to me. So here's my PSA, people, please don't carry on a full conversation about something other than the show you're watching while you're at that show. Go out to the beer garden or the bar and catch up with your friends. And that's my TED talk. Number 5. At first, I was thrown off by his pacing, by the slow songs, which I felt kind of interrupted the flow of the show. But I just needed to get onto Sturgill's wavelength. And once I did, I really loved the second half of that show. Maybe it's because we were down on the floor, closer to the action. Maybe it was getting away from the coffee clatch sitting in front of us for the first 90 minutes, whatever I had a blast. It was a great show. And finally, number six, it may be a while before we get a new album from Johnny Blue Skies, but for all of you who have yet to discover him, there's a bunch of good music to enjoy. So get out there and start listening to Sturgill Simpson. He's just so talented And that's it for this week's episode. Thank you for joining us. We'll be back next Tuesday. And if you like what you heard today, we'd appreciate it if you would subscribe and follow to make sure you get notified about each new episode and please tell your friends. Also, a reminder that we release a playlist for every episode, so look for the Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast Playlist on Spotify every week. This week featuring all 32 songs from the set list of the show in Queens, plus my two other favorite songs of his that he didn't play, so check that out. Additionally, we want to know what you think. So please leave us a comment. We'll try to respond to them all. The Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast is a World Highway Media production. I'm your host, Alex Gadd and, until next time, remember that life is short, so get those concert tickets.