Philosophical country crooner Sturgill Simpson is among the talented, buzzworthy crop of new artists helping reinvent and revitalize the current country landscape, breathing enough life, substance, and classic sensibilities into the broader scene to have us, the site with “No Country” in the name, absolutely ecstatic. We (and most everyone else with ears, it seemed) loved his breakout 2014 sophomore effort, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, and, as we told you a few months back, he started off 2016 with a self-produced followup ready to go, taking only a short breather after an extensive tour cycle.
That upcoming LP has since been formally announced; dubbed A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, the highly-anticipated effort will drop April 15 via Atlantic Records. Along with the album announcement, Simpson debuted a stellar new single, “Brace for Impact (Live a Little),” but it’s the second track, which arrived last week, that really caught our attention. Opting to tackle Nirvana classic “In Bloom,” Sturgill really flexes his artistry by absolutely owning a song that might, under a lesser artist, come off as cliche, adding in twang and somber self-reflection. Along with the cover, Simpson unveiled a perfectly-matched, Matt Mahurin-directed animated video, which captures the song’s reworked tone. Watch it below, and pre-order A Sailor’s Guide to Earth right here!
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