Johnny Blue Skies (AKA Sturgill Simpson): Passage du Desir

It is great to have a new Sturgill album under the Johnny Blues Skies (JBS) pseudonym; it is a return to his psychedelic outlaw country form of A Sailor’s Guide to Earth (2016). Sturgill Simpson famously said he would only make five studio albums early in his career. He must consider The Ballad of Dood and Juanita, released in 2021, his fifth studio album—even though it was his seventh (he must not count the two Cuttin’ Grass bluegrass remake albums). This claim is significant because his latest album is being released under the stage name Johnny Blues Skies (JBS) – the loophole Simpson has developed to continue to release new music. The bluegrass version of Sturgill on The Ballad of Dood and Juanita never resonated with me. I like the Cuttin’ Grass albums, but they sound like a vanity project. I loved Sound & Fury, but that didn’t sound like a Sturgill Simpson album (it was a rock album – that would have the album use a pseudonym). Passage du Desir (French for “Passage of Desire”) sounds like a Yacht Rock/Countrypolitan version of psychedelic outlaw country Sturgill, and it serves him well. Simpson has been critically acclaimed and has a solid following; he has not broken through to the contemporary country or pop audience. Passage du Desir could be his Chris Stapleton moment.

In a profile in GQ promoting this album, Simpson states: “Sturgill served his purpose, but he’s dead, he’s gone, and I’m definitely not that guy anymore.” The album was written in Paris and recorded in Nashville and London’s Abbey Road. Sturgill had been taking a timeout from the music business after damaging his vocal cords. He traveled the world, spending most of his time in Paris. Eventually, the muse came with a vengeance, and he wrote three to four albums worth of material. “I just wanted to make love songs,” Simpson told GQ, citing the Bee Gees, Fleetwood Mac, Procol Harum, and “grown-ass man records” by Van Morrison and JJ Cale as influences. Despite a new stage name, Johnny Blue Skies, Simpson says: “Honestly, I feel like it’s the most ‘me’ record I’ve ever done because it’s sort of a little bit of everything else, finally realized together.” One of my favorite music critics, Steven Hyden, came to a similar conclusion on Passage du Desir in his review:

“Sturgill Simpson’s first music under a different name is the closest he’s come to making a ‘classic’ sounding Sturgill Simpson LP in quite some time. In true paradoxical Sturgill Simpson fashion, being someone else has given him permission to be more like himself.“

Simpson is backed on the album by many of the musicians he has been playing with for a decade. His long-time engineer/producer/collaborator, David R. “Fergie” Ferguson (Johnny Cash, John Prine, Tyler Childers, etc.), helped Simpson produce the album.

“Swamp of Sadness” opens the album with an intro that combines violin, accordion, and mandolin. After that intro, JBS and the band join, and we have classic Sturgill sonically and lyrically. The song’s narrator is a drunken sailor wandering around Paris, struggling to find his purpose: “Trying to break the cycle of solitude and sin.”

“If the Sun Never Rises Again” has a classic soft-rock vibe – it would not be out of place on a soft-rock radio station in rotation with James Taylor. This is my favorite song on the album. It is sonically beautiful. Lyrically, it is the tale of two broken lovers who have miraculously found each other with the ultimate dream:

“Why can’t the dream go on forever?
Why can’t the night never end?
All we need is starlight in our eyes however
What if the sun never rises again?“

“Scooter Blues” takes a T-Rex riff and country fries it. The narrator is saying “screw it” to the rat race and heads to paradise and goof off:

“When people say, “Are you him?” I’ll say, “Not anymore”
With the wind in my hair, I’m gonna scooter my blues away”

“Spend my mornings making chocolate milk and Eggos
My days at the beach, my nights stepping on Legos
Wave to the world, screaming, ‘Hasta luego’
Everybody back home will say, ‘Where the hell did he go?’“

“Jupiter’s Faerie” is a melancholy ode to an estranged friend lost to suicide. The song manages to make sadness transcendent:

“I hear there’s faeries out on Jupiter
And there was a time that I knew one
But today I’m feeling way down here on Earth
Crying tears of love in the light of mourning dawn”

“Who I Am” is a crucial track on the album, given Sturgill’s decision to assume the new name Johnny Blue Skies: “I lost everything I am, even my name.” JBS is channeling Waylon on this classic outlaw country tune. The song explores the loss of self and the meaning of life—heavy stuff.

“Right Kind of Dream” musically reminds me of the stuff on 2019’s Sound & Fury, except that the arrangement has been dropped into low gear to match the vibe of the Passage du Desir. Lyrically, the narrator dreams of a better relationship than the one that currently exists: “How I wish that happiness left scars too / Just like you do.”

“Mint Tea” reminds me of the country version of the Allman Brothers (the Dickey Betts songs). The narrator sounds like a dangerous dude trying to convince his lover that he is not so scary: have some tea, sit down next to me, etc.: “Tell me why you’re so afraid of little ol’ me.”

“One for the Road” is a gorgeous ending to a great album. Sonically, it is like a country Pink Floyd song. It is jam band glory. JBS repurposes the one-for-the-road cliche from a last drink to a final confession of a failed lover: “Knowing I’m the one that let us down and I broke your heart.” The song is overflowing with remorse and regret.

Unless you have seen Sturgill live, you don’t realize what a great guitarist he is, but on this album, his beautiful honey-dripping riffs are on full display. As always, The voice is classic country, but he has modified it to a soft-rock Waylon. The lyrics are his typical psychedelic longing. It is great to hear Johnny Blue Skies’ Sturgill Simpson impression: high and lonesome country music with a dash of the blues. This is one for the ages.

The vinyl is nicely packaged, and the LP looks like gold leaf. My copy sounds excellent, but on the internet, several have complained of it being noisy (a common problem with today’s pressings) – so it is a crap shoot. The high-resolution steam is 24-bit 96 kHz FLAC (Tidal) and sounds excellent. The album’s mix is pristine and perfectly represents the arrangements.