A friend of mine who had never heard of him sent me a text right away after seeing SNL. I love Metamodern and Sailor's. Along with Jamey Johnson, Aubrie Sellers, Chris Stapleton and a couple of others I have my first interest in country since Waylon and Willie
He's definitely the weak link...the only one in the band who's cheezy as hell while the others come across as authentic. Just change that horrible name to Sturgill Simpsonless.
You mean the guy who wrote killer songs, worked his ass off to get "famous" and hired them. They could be a killer bar band and small club band not making a fraction of the $. Maybe you were being sarcastic also and I'm dumb.
Yes, I'm sure they'll be fantastically successful with no songs, no singer, no major-label recording contract, and no agent. They probably didn't even need a gig when Simpson hired them and just did him a favor.
...except everything he does with it. Every sound he makes, every choreographed stage move, and every nuance he practices is a cliched caricature. He should just SING with his regular voice without trying to DO a voice. He tries too hard. WAAAAAY too hard.
Speaking of trying too hard. . . . But seriously, you say you've never heard this guy before SNL -- how the heck do you know how his "regular" voice sounds?
He didn't show it on SNL, but he is a really good flat-picker. He used to be in a bluegrass band. When he sticks to his roots he is damn impressive. I am lukewarm on the new direction, but he assembled a kick butt band. Maybe he was trying too hard, but he is no phony. I enjoyed the SNL performance regardless.
His band is GREAT. His lameness was cemented when he just HAD to throw down his guitar since the keyboard player had just knocked over his Hammond. Just not an ounce of originality. But, GREAT band.
To anyone who doubts his authenticity, vocal ability or his guitar pickin', watch this: THAT is some dang good country music!!
I wish you hadn't shown me that. At least in the SNL clip he had an energetic band that carried him and made a somewhat unique performance that people are actually talking about. That YouTube clip is just generic modern run-of-the-mill throwaway country with a fake annoying twang New-York-school-of-country-music air of plastic and cheese baked all over it. Yuk.
No! It is NOT unlike the fake Nashville twang. It's the EXACT SAME THING! Annoying overdone nauseating purposely over-enunciated played out unnatural lame fake twang!
I guess having an awesome back band is s rare feat oh yeah, so kudos for him I was depressing watching a performance of Matthew E. WHite (his debut one of the best records of the decade) and they sounded like a crappy cover band, it almost made me never listening to the album again. In a less dramatic level, Andrew Bird's can be a hit or miss depending if he has the right guys playing with him.
Have you seen him live ? My point is about the processed Nashville songwriting for hire thing that's there (and in LA) where an "artist" is manufactured . Now I'm not against pro songwriting ( Brill building and so on) but Simpson is the real deal and has developed his own hybrid style over time. He's definitely country but always says his influences are Otis Redding and concept rock albums like Sgt Pepper and Dark Side. He's amazing live in concert too. But if it's not your thing then that's cool.
I could not diagree more. Did you watch the whole thing? I don't hear anything like "Railroad of Sin" in today's country scene.