Sturgill Simpson’s 2013 debut “High Top Mountain” earned comparisons to such one-named icons as Willie, Waylon and Merle. His second album, this year’s “Metamodern Sounds in Country Music,” magnified the Kentucky native’s reputation ten-fold, and a freshly nabbed Grammy nomination for Best Americana Album shows that this 36-year old relative newcomer is making fans fast.
But if there were still any doubt, Simpson’s sold-out performance at Thalia Hall Saturday night wiped it out. The show was less a glimpse of country’s future and more like the return of an old soul, with Simpson’s deep voice — part commanding rumble, part modest mumble — instantly recalling decades of country greats. Then there was his band, the same tight trio that helped him record his second album in just a few days, playing like crack session men who approached each ballad and breakneck bluegrass-infused breakdown with the same effortless cool. Estonian guitar wiz Laur Joamets coaxed an army of tones from his Telecaster, from simulating the cry of a pedal steel to flying across the frets like Nashville’s best shredders, while the rhythm section of Kevin Black and Miles Miller proved utterly unshakable a foundation.
Even their support would not have mattered had Simpson not played with such an eerie confidence. Some who are convinced that country music needs saving will see Simpson as its savior. Others who hear him as a radical reinvention will brand him an outlaw. Simpson, for his part, seems to understand that simply being the best he can be should be enough to satisfy everyone. If he somehow upsets a staid paradigm in the process, all the better.
He was utterly at ease leading propulsive stompers such as “Living the Dream,” “Some Days” and “Long White Line” and holding his own as songs stretched into jams, but just as assured slowing down for “Water in a Well” and “Voices” or staying true to some classic country covers. Yet it’s telling that as on-point as his nods to Willie Nelson and Lefty Frizzell were, it’s his take on When In Rome’s ’80s synth-pop gem “The Promise” that’s become one of his most reliable crowd-pleasers, showing Simpson willing to cast his net wide if that’s what it takes to bring in the goods.
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