As a lifelong country music fan the peaks and troughs that this genre has had in terms of popularity sometimes leaves me feeling a little deflated, but there is something that always draws me back to the vivid imagery that this music evokes.
My grandparents taught me about the early days of country music from their experiences and played me artists such as Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Kitty Wells, Tammy Wynette, Patsy Cline, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, or Kris Kristofferson on their vinyl player as I grew up, I couldn’t help but become fascinated by the voices and the tales these artists told of the American South, encompassing vivid imagery of freedom, cowboys, villains, parties, love and loss, to name but a few.
As country music has fractured over the decades creating more and more sub-genres, from honky tonk through rock n roll, outlaw, country folk, country pop, soft rock, and Americana, the stories have become more varied, but the ethos of the artists has remained the same, they are storytellers of the American south and west.
In 2014 a new voice emerged though who came from the bluegrass roots of Kentucky, a true Appalachian who embodied the struggles of the area, a man who had been a drifter, worked on the railroad, and also joined and dropped out of the U.S. Navy.
Sturgill Simpson has been called the outlaw of the 20th Century by many critics who compared him to the likes of Waylon Jennings and Hank Williams Jnr, his style was a hark back to the good old-fashioned country music of yesteryear.
The album which emerged from Simpson in 2014, High Top Mountain, was a tour de force, an album majority penned by Simpson himself with just a couple of tracks on the album being covers, which appear to have been chosen to show that he can take the music he loves and do it justice in his own timbre and style.
The album is named after a landmark which was a constant in his childhood home of Jackson, Kentucky in the heart of the coal mining communities under the Mason-Dixon line, full of imagery of classic country artists while maintaining a tone which stands fast in a modern world, Simpson and his producer crafting an album which has a timeless quality.
With the help of two veteran and well-respected side men in the form of Robby Turner on steel guitar, and keyboardist Hargus ‘Pig’ Robbins, (if you are a fan of country music you may not know but these two have probably played on some of your favourites), and with Simpson’s phenomenal songwriting, penning no less than 10 songs on the album, which a range including up-tempo country classics like ‘Railroad of Sin’, ‘You Can Have The Crown’, or ‘Life Ain't Fair and the World Is Mean’ to softer, introspective stories like ‘Water In The Well’ or ‘The Storm’.
Simpson’s storytelling is sumptuous and ridiculous at times and on ‘You Can Have The Crown’ he writes lines like, “Call me King Turd up here in Shit Mountain. If you want it, you can have the crown“, (and) it turns out, when you have the right good ol’ boy, shit kickin’ southern delivery, it sounds just right.” Further songwriting excursions into the more heartfelt and personal subject matter in ‘Water In The Well’ and ‘Hero’ shows that his penmanship skills are not just a flash in the pan, but a gift that he puts to work for the listener to enjoy.
From his southern drawl to his deft electric and acoustic guitar playing, and through to his astonishing lyrical content, Sturgill Simpson, is a modern-day country music troubadour, and High Top Mountain is full of “music (which) harks back to a bygone time when barroom country was cooler than an ice cold beer”.
We hope you enjoy it.
Stu - RRC
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