The Ballad of Dood & Juanita Sturgill Simpson

• 1 Prologue 01:01
• 2 Ol' Dood (Part I) 02:57
• 3 One in the Saddle, One on the Ground 03:15
• 4 Shamrock 04:40
• 5 Played Out 03:25
• 6 Sam 01:12
• 7 Juanita (feat. Willie Nelson) 03:40
• 8 Go in Peace 02:37
• 9 Epilogue 00:37
• 10 Ol' Dood (Part II) 04:22
• Total Runtime 27:46

Info zu The Ballad of Dood & Juanita

With ‘The Ballad Of Dood & Juanita’, Grammy-winning country musician Sturgill Simpson delivers his fifth studio album of original material, following the two ‘Cuttin’ Grass’ LPs of bluegrass covers of his own songs in the last twelve months. Written in the space of a week, it’s an ambitious concept album concerning Civil War-era lovers separated and reunited amid the fighting.

"‘The Ballad Of Dood & Juanita’ is a short album, around 30 minutes, but Simpson delivers a powerful story in a very powerful fashion in that short time. It allows him to demonstrate that he is quite masterful in an acoustic setting with the album well set to be considered as equal to many of its predecessors. It also shows that he is unafraid to follow his muse, no matter where it takes him." (Paul Kerr, americana-uk.com)

"Musically, it’s a country album, but the specific flavor of country serves the story more than anything else. The album is musically cohesive but shifts as appropriate to create the proper tone. It’s a pleasure to listen to. If there’s any complaint to be had, it’s that the bluegrass influence in “Go in Peace” makes the lyrics a bit difficult to understand, which is unfortunate because it also serves as the story’s climax. Don’t listen to The Ballad of Dood & Juanita while you work. Probably don’t listen at the gym. Take half an hour to sit and listen to it exclusively because every line serves the narrative. It’s a very good story in a very good album, and represents yet another thing Sturgill Simpson does well." (Daniel J. Willis, riffmagazine.com)

"Following quickly on the heels of his two-part bluegrass excursion Cuttin' Grass, The Ballad of Dood & Juanita finds Sturgill Simpson continuing his retreat to the olden days. A cinematic country & western concept album, The Ballad of Dood & Juanita is set during the Civil War and follows a military veteran called Dood as he tracks down his kidnapped bride Juanita. It's an old-fashioned tale told in an old-fashioned way. Using many of the musicians he did on Cuttin' Grass, Simpson plays an augmented version of bluegrass, taking the time to wander into Latin music and making nods to cowboy tunes. Listen closely and it's possible to discern some progressive politics -- the central figure has left the war between the states to marry a woman who at the very least bears a Latina name -- but The Ballad of Dood & Juanita isn't designed for intense inspection. Written and recorded in a week, it's as swift and easy as a cool summer breeze, its 28 minutes zipping by as Simpson and his Hillbilly Avengers spend as much time picking as they do singing. Its brevity means that The Ballad of Dood & Juanita can initially seem a bit slight, yet it's ultimately quite sturdy, an album that gains its strength from Simpson's dogged dedication to the concept -- there's nothing extraneous in his songs here -- and the impeccable execution of the band." (Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AMG)

Sturgill Simpson, rhythm guitar, vocals
Sam Bacco, percussion
Mike Bub, bass, backing vocals
Stuart Duncan, fiddle, backing vocals
Mark Howard, guitar, mandolin, backing vocals
Sierra Hull, mandolin
Jelly Roll Johnson, harmonica
Miles Miller, percussion, backing vocals
Willie Nelson, lead guitar (on Juanita)
Tim O'Brien, lead guitar, banjo, backing vocals
Russ Phal, guitar, jaw harp
Scott Vestal, banjo, backing vocals

Sturgill Simpson
isn’t one to rest on his laurels, which is why, less than a year after the release of his critically acclaimed debut, High Top Mountain, the singer-songwriter is coming out with his captivating and wholly unique sophomore album, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, on May 13, 2014, through his own label, High Top Mountain Records.

The album title – an allusion to Ray Charles’ groundbreaking 1962 record, Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music -- hints at the psychedelic sounds found within, a departure from Simpson’s first album, which drew comparisons to the music of Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggard. “I think that there is a lot of room in country music for progression and sonic oscillation, which is what I wanted to explore.”

Where some artists find inspiration from other music, Simpson found his in books, devouring religious texts both ancient and modern, recent studies about discoveries in quantum physics and string theory, and publications by Carl Sagan and Terence McKenna. He also drew upon French filmmaker Gaspar Noe’s experimental drama Enter the Void as he created murky, multi-textured soundscapes that incorporate elements of classic country, bluegrass, rock, and even a bit of electronica, a genre that Simpson admits he has a “slight fetish” for.

Simpson reunited with High Top Mountain producer Dave Cobb (Jason Isbell, Lindi Ortega, Jamey Johnson) for Metamodern Sounds in Country Music; the pair has formed a strong friendship in addition to a solid in-studio partnership built on complete trust and the willingness to engage in creative musical experimentation. Working with a budget of only $4,000, Simpson and his road band – bassist Kevin Black, guitarist Laur Joamets, and drummer Miles Miller -- cut the entire record live to tape in four rare consecutive days off in the middle of a relentless tour schedule; nearly all of the songs were completed in two takes or fewer during these spur of the moment sessions. The result is an album that crackles with the raw energy of a concert.

Opening track “Turtles All the Way Down” was written after Simpson read Dr. Rick Strassman’s The Spirit Molecule, a book about the mystical encounters people have experienced under the influence of the hallucinogenic compound DMT. With this song, Simpson found the theme that would bind this unofficial concept record together: “Every time I take a look inside that old and fabled book/I’m blinded and reminded of the pain caused by some old man in the sky/Marijuana, LSD, psilocybin, DMT, they all changed the way I see/But love’s the only thing that’s ever saved my life.”

“Life of Sin,” bolstered by twangy Telecaster, is reminiscent of a lost ‘70s outlaw country classic, and “Living the Dream” is its rebellious twin as Simpson spits, “I don’t have to do a goddamn thing except sit around and wait to die.”

The spiritual “A Little Light Within,” originally written for a companion soundtrack to AMC’s hit show The Walking Dead, instead found a home among Metamodern Sounds as well. A rafter-rattling, handclapping gospel call and response singalong that channels classic recordings made by the Stanley and Louvin Brothers, it’s uplifting even without the imminent threat of a zombie apocalypse. The musical experimentation and genre blending continue as the band dabbles in a bit of “analog dub step” on the seven-minute epic “It Ain’t All Flowers” before closing with the sparse, acoustic ballad “Pan Bowl” (bonus track), a deeply personal reflection on his childhood in Kentucky as the son of a coal miner’s daughter.

Rounding out the ten-song track listing are two fascinating choices in cover songs from opposite ends of the musical spectrum: Charlie Moore and Bill Napier’s bluegrass trucker tune “Long White Line,” a song that makes the album’s figurative journey a literal one as it chugs along with the rhythm of the road, and When in Rome’s 1988 single “The Promise,” which Simpson transforms from a New Wave dance hit to a tender country ballad. “There there were a lot of great compositions from that era that got lost in production,” Simpson says about his somewhat unusual choice in cover material. “I’ve always thought that the lyrics to ‘The Promise’ were really beautiful; the way we play the song now, a lot of people don’t even recognize it.” Immediately recognizable, however, is Simpson’s portrait on the album cover, which was designed by friend and painter Jason Seiler, who is perhaps best known for illustrating Pope Francis for TIME Magazine’s 2013 Person of the Year issue in addition to contributing art to publications such as The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and The Wall Street Journal.

Even with its numerous musical and literary influences, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music is, in its soul, a love record. As Simpson states, “Myriad worldly offerings – religion, drugs, and more -- all claim to be the omnipotent universal truth, but in my experience, love is the only certainty. That’s what this record is about.” With a new album and a child on the way, the 35-year old singer-songwriter, who describes himself as anxious to embrace change, is about to experience a lot of it. Critics may have dubbed Sturgill Simpson the savior of traditional country music, but that’s not a title he’s willing to embrace. Shrugging, he says, “I’m just trying to save myself.”

Dieses Album enthält kein Booklet