True Badassery: Sturgill Simpson on Merle Haggard, the state of Country Music and Watchmen

Cafe Society
1

I don’t know how many Dopers know of Sturgill Simpson. He, along with folks like Chris Stapleton and Jason Isbell, is producing some of the best country music going. It is described as Alt-Country but that just means it wasn’t getting mainstream country radio play. Go listen to Turtles All the Way Down and tell me that ain’t good country music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWx6csgGkg4 or this wonderful couple of songs recorded in some sort of Brewery concert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNV16tz1NK0

Well, he apparently had enough with what he had to face trying to make it in Nashville, and the last straw was the treatment of Merle Haggard who was famously ostracized from Music City, but is now being lauded in death as a true Country Music icon.

So Sturgill went off on the hypocrisy - and did a great job:

[QUOTE=Sturgill Simpson]
“Many years back, much like Willie and Waylon had years before, Merle Haggard said,
“F— this town. I’m moving.” and he left Nashville.
According to my sources, it was right after a record executive told him that “Kern River” was a bad song. In the last chapter of his career and his life, Nashville wouldn’t call, play, or touch him. He felt forgotten and tossed aside. I always got a sense that he wanted one last hit…one last proper victory lap of his own, and we all know deserved it. Yet it never came. And now he’s gone.
Im writing this because I want to go on record and say I find it utterly disgusting the way everybody on Music Row is coming up with any reason they can to hitch their wagon to his name while knowing full and **** well what he thought about them. If the ACM wants to actually celebrate the legacy and music of Merle Haggard, they should drop all the formulaic cannon fodder bull**** they’ve been pumping down rural America’s throat for the last 30 years along with all the high school pageantry, meat parade award show bull**** and start dedicating their programs to more actual Country Music.
While Im venting about the unjust treatment of a bonafide American music legend, I should also add, if for no other reasons than sheer principal and to get the taste I’ve been choking back for months now out of my mouth, that Merle was supposed to be on the cover of Garden & Gun magazine’s big Country Music issue (along with myself) a few months back.
They reached out to both of us in October of last year while I was on a west coast tour. Merle was home off the road so I took a day off and traveled up to Redding.
He was so excited about it and it goes without saying that I was completely beside myself along with my Grandfather who has always been a HUGE Merle fan. We spent the whole day of the interview visiting in his living room with our families and had a wonderful conversation with the journalist. Then we spent about two hours outside being photographed by a brilliant and highly respected photographer named David McClister until Merle had enough…he was still recovering from a recent bout of double pneumonia at the time and it was a bit cold that day on the ranch.
But then at the last minute, the magazine’s editor put Chris Stapleton on the cover without telling anyone until they had already gone to print. Don’t get me wrong, Chris had a great year and deserves a million magazine covers…but thats not the point.
Its about keeping your word and ethics.
Chris also knows this as he called me personally to express his disgust at the situation. Dude’s a class act.
The editor later claimed in a completely bull**** email apology to both Merle’s publicist and ours (Chris and I share the same publicist) that they didn’t get any good shots that day.
David McClister…
2 hour shoot…
no good photos…
OK buddy,…whatever you say.
Anyway, Merle passed away right after it came out.
Some days, this town and this industry have a way of making we wish I could just go sit on Mars and build glass clocks.
Sturgill
UPDATED:
Shortly after I initially posted this it was announced that Miranda Lambert would be the award recipient.
Before people start chasing clickbait by putting words in my mouth I feel the need to clarify that I was not aware of this at the time of my original post and my words were in no way directed at her. I know that Merle liked and respected her so it’s good to see there is at least some blue sky in all of this.
I don’t know Miranda nor have I ever met her but something tells me that in her heart, she knows I’m dead on. I am also aware that the ACM is a West Coast organization originally created to recognize West Coast artists like Merle and they have handed Merle many trophies over the years,…even in the last 15 or so mind you. It’s also worth noting that the last one was handed to him by none other than Miranda Lambert herself.
But all of this is irrelevant as none of it has anything to do with the original point I was trying to make. My point was that all of these organizations don’t walk it like they talk it. I called The ACM out directly because they are simply the latest in a long line of organizations that have done the same since Merle’s death…and even before. Showing homage and handing lifetime achievement awards to the greats of yesterday while claiming to uphold and hold dear the original values and integrity of Country music’s legacy. Yet these are just hollow words…merely empty semantics. One needs only to look glancingly at the majority of the music that they, along with the CMA’s, predominantly choose to recognize and promote at their award shows.
I fully realize that as I type this, meetings and conversations are taking place on music Row to ensure I am blackballed from the industry and that’s perfectly fine with me. Im not sure how you can blackball somebody you don’t acknowledge in the first place anyway. Yet, even though they mostly go out of their way to ignore artists like myself and Jason Isbell, I assure you they are more than aware of our existence. They are also well aware that we don’t need them. Our last albums went to #1 without any help from the Mainstream Country Music establishment…and our next albums will too. With that said, I have no more need to make enemies with these people than I have a need to be their friends. If anything I’m trying to help them. Because more and more everyday, people are waking up to the situation and they are pissed. Perhaps Country Music, especially Nashville, should wake up too before it’s too late.
I should also go ahead and add here that whether or not I am nominated for a CMA award this year, I will not be attending the ceremony for no other reason than the fact I already have a sold out show scheduled in Des Moines, Iowa on the night of the awards ceremony and I have no plans to change that.
Mostly though, I just wish Merle was still alive.
I’d love for them to all hear his thoughts on the matter.
P.S. F— this town. I’m moving.”

[/QUOTE]

[Bolding mine] - because damn if he doesn’t close his initial blast with a reference to Watchmen.

You go, Sturgill.

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Mr. Simpson doesn’t pull many punches. He’s been known to stop his concerts and throw out fans who were fighting or disruptive. I don’t know how much of a reception he’ll have in Nashville from now on, but there are other places who welcome the “new” outlaw country.

He got blasted on Facebook for singing the line “I don’t have to do a goddamn thing except sit around and wait to die.” From “Living the Dream” on Conan. He responded “Since I’m self-funding/self-releasing my art instead of shooting for ACM awards and taking it up the ass from the music row man, I have the right to write and sing and say whatever I choose just as you have the right to not buy or listen to my music and stay away from my page if you don’t like it,”

I think I’d really, really enjoy seeing Kanye jump up on stage and interrupt him. For one thing, I think Simpson could out-talk him and out-smart him. For another, three years in the Navy doesn’t teach you to put up with that kind of nonsense.
Pop country gives me the cold spine willies, but I find myself listening to Americana stations which play alt-country, blues, folk, etc. A very welcome change from top 40 ANYTHING. There’s a Prime Radio Americana station that plays a lot of Simpson, Isbell, Hayes Caryll, and Hank III. Sometimes it’s a little too pretty for me, but sometimes I have to lunge across the room before Hank Jr Jr embarrasses my co-workers with his language. Also, there’s a local station Sun Radio with an app that has a pretty good playlist (no commercials; it’s a not for profit solar powered station).

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I really like Sturgill Simpson and say “Amen” to his post.

4

I’m a big fan of Sturgill Simpson, and a big fan of Merle. That made me cry, mostly because it reminded me that Merle had died, and I hadn’t thought of it in awhile. I was unaware of the establishment shunning him in his last years.

But, while I do understand his anger, there’s always a weird blind spot in any establishment. I’ll have my yearly complaints about Dick Dale and Link Wray not being in the RRHoF, but I don’t think it’s going to change much.

Thank you for speaking plainly, Sturgill. As usual, I don’t find a hint of falsehood in it.

5

Relevant Robbie Fulks song Fuck this Town.

“They just can’t stop the flood of assholes, there ain’t a big enough ASCAP.”

6

Thanks for posting that. He’s a truly great songwriter.

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Yes, thank you. I wouldn’t have seen it otherwise, most likely.
I’m damn glad I got dragged to Sturgill’s show in Milwaukee. It was one of the best I have seen in years.
It’s a shame he has to self-promote and self-publish while pretty boys like Keith Urban get rich.

8

Thanks for making me aware of Sturgill Simpson. What I’ve heard so far sounds very good. And a COUNTRY singer with a song called Turtles All The Way Down seems to be right kind country singer for this board anyway ;).

I’m not the biggest country fan or expert of all, I came to country via country rock and no-depression/alt country bands and followed their roots and idols. Not much of that came from Nashville, instead it was the rootsier and folksy stuff, guys like Haggard, Cash, Jennings etc., outlaw country, Bakersfield and southern stuff. Everything Nashville produced from the late seventies on I heard sounds like pure pop fluff to me (not to diss pop per se, but I mean bad pop fluff). I’m sure there are many exceptions, but the typical Nashville stuff for me sounds as profound as German Schlager. So I can relate to Simpson’s rant, but can’t access how much this will damage his career, or if a guy like him operates independently from the big mainstream music business.

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He opened for Drive-By Truckers at the Fillmore, I do seem to recall. A good set.

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It shouldn’t affect his career at all - he, Isbell and the others have come at it from outside the main labels, so as he says in the rant, he’ll be fine and really doesn’t care about their reactions.

ETA: and yeah, a song entitled “Turtles All the Way Down,” over and above his reference to Watchmen, means he is clearly Doper material and interested in a few more things than most country songs would suggest.

11

Waylon Jennings got the same shitty treatment. It left him very bitter towards Nashville. Buck Owens and Haggard were smart to record on the West coast and focus on the Bakersfield sound. They didn’t need Nashville to make hit records.

Did you know Conway Twitty had a huge string of country hits and never became a member of the Opry? WTH is wrong with the Nashville scene?

It’s crazy how they disrespect so many great country musicians and embrace others.

12

I love Haggard and Sturgill. Sturgill’s last two albums have been in steady rotation for me lately. There is one thing I don’t like about his recordings: His “s’s” and super s’y (not sure how you say that). I’m guessing it is due to the recording style. Listen to The Promise at higher volumes and you’ll hear what I’m talking about.

He has a lot of great live videos (Tiny Concert, KEXP, etc) that demonstrate how great he and his band are (well, Tiny Concert is him solo). I love the way his guitarist can get a slide feel from that Tele.

Reading what he wrote and listening to his lyrics makes me think he would be an interesting guy to have a beer with. Wait, he doesn’t drink anymore. Nevermind. :smiley:

13

As Waylon once said, “There are two words you need to know to get along in Nashville. The second one is you.”

14

Isbell and Simpson are two of the best songwriters around. I really like Drive-By Truckers and several of their best songs are Isbell songs. Luckily we have a local station, Birmingham Mountain Radio, that plays a wide variety of music including Isbell and Simpson. Mainstream “pop/bro country” makes me physically uncomfortable when I hear it.

Neither does Isbell. Some of his best recent material is inspired by his decision to quit alcohol and drugs and the struggles that go along with that.

15

Sturgill Simpson makes me proud to be a Kentuckian. He embodies the spirit of Appalachia, and I hope never stops making music, and never starts giving a single fuck.

16

Yesterday, I found this great show that interviews Simpson and Prine. It’s long and I’ve only made it through 20’ish minutes, but enjoying it thoroughly. There are guitars behind them so I’m hopeful they will play at some point.

17

I got to see Sturgill at the Paramount in Seattle last Friday. He puts on an amazing, high-energy show with his larger band (3 piece New Orleans brass section and a great keyboardist). Unfortunately, it was at the Paramount. I’m guessing it is due to it being an old theater with a high ceiling and balcony but the sound wasn’t great. Not awful, but not great. We were on the floor center section which I’m guessing was as good as the sound could get. When the sound volume was low, it sounded pretty good. But they are very dynamic and on full-tilt, things got a bit muddy. I’m also impressed with how well Joamets picked up pedal steel.