Outlaw Country Icon Sturgill Simpson Foments Psychedelic Insurrection at Ace Hotel

Jonny Whiteside

Psychedelic Outlaw provocateur Sturgill Simpson has rampaged through country music with a stunning combination of old school hillbilly soul and an idiosyncratic hallucinatory perspective that’s earned a well-deserved reputation as country music’s rebel savior.

His brilliant 2014 “Metamodern Sounds In Country Music” album didn’t just re-define Outlaw country, it created an entire new genre, one where lyrically expanded philosophy and deep respect for the idioms traditional basics manage to not only coexist but enhance and inform each seemingly irreconcilable element.

For Simpson, probably one of the only Nashville cats who actually listens to Skrillex, what another would find hopelessly incongruent becomes the stuff from which dreams are made, and his unlikely blend of techno, country and vintage psychedelia makes for a fascinating earful.

This genre-jumping audacity has also won him a broad and diverse audience, and Simpson’s wide appeal is reflected in the extraordinary fact that he played, back to back, both the mega-hipster Coachella festival and its redneck country music cousin Stagecoach.

Where established outlaw tradition relies on self-destructive disruptive FTW attitude, irony, defiance and the Southerner’s inescapable “Devil made me do it” good versus evil struggle, Simpson’s songs go another route. He trades in an unusual brand of existentialist honky-tonk, crafting intense, inward looking monologues, which are characterized by human concerns presented on the expanded consciousness’ universal scale.

This intergalactic artistic reach didn’t come easily; Simpson, the son of a Kentucky undercover narc, grew up alternately performing bluegrass and rock & roll as a teen. But he had a troubled, on and off relationship with music, going through periods of wild honky tonking followed by straight time working as a railroad man. Ultimately, his true calling became inescapable, and he finally surrendered, resulting in a move to Nashville and life as a professional musician.

His impressive 2013 debut “High Top Mountain” was a mostly traditional set that mixed bluegrass and classic honky tonk with at times shockingly aggressive messages of anti-Nashville sedition. It didn’t make any friends at Big Radio or Music City’s major labels, but it resonated with the vast underground outlaw country audience. That hard partying, blue collar crowd embraced Simpson as one of their own but nothing could prepare anyone for the sheer, brilliant audacity of “Metamodern Sounds in Country Music.”

In performance, Simpson roars through an intense barrage of old school broken hearted balladry, stomping honky tonk and his signature psych country, all put over with biting intensity by a four piece band anchored by Estonian-born Laur Joamets’ wild guitar playing. All at once familiar and fantastically unconventional, Simpson effortlessly, and convincingly proves himself to be one of the most exciting and important figures in contemporary country.

 Sturgill Simpson will play the Theater at Ace Hotel Nov. 21 and 22. A limited amount of tickets are available here.