Sturgill Simpson Announces New Johnny Blue Skies Album ‘Mutiny After Midnight’

In 2024, Sturgill Simpson introduced his Johnny Blues Skies persona with the album, Passage Du Desir. A second full-length effort entitled Mutiny After Midnight –- credited to Johnny Blue Skies & The Dark Clouds -– will be released on March 13.

The forthcoming album will be issued by High Top Mountain Records and Atlantic Music Group’s Atlantic Outpost. The pending release marks a return to Atlantic, the label that issued Simpson’s acclaimed 2016 album, A Sailor’s Guide to Earth.

“This is a new and very different Atlantic Records than my last go-around,” Simpson commented. “Mostly, I’m very excited and honored to be working with my dear friend Ian Cripps, and to finally bring to fruition a vision we initially shared together over 10 years ago. I wrote words to what is happening in the world and my life in real time, and played with a group of musicians I deeply love and respect. Together, we made an album that is very fun and will hopefully offer some relief from darkness in the world.”

Simpson recorded Mutiny After Midnight at Dan Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound facility in Nashville. Simpson produced the sessions while accompanied by The Dark Clouds – drummer/vocalist Miles Miller, guitarist Laur Joamets, bassist Kevin Black and keyboardist/saxophonist Robbie Crowell.

A lengthy message detailing Mutiny After Midnight was posted to the Johnny Blue Skies social media account. A portion of the note, which indicated plans to tour behind the new record, follows:

“We started every day from scratch with a basic groove. I wrote the songs and lyrics in the moment on-the-spot, and everyone established their individual parts servicing the songs and not the individual ego.

“You can break down the songs on this album into two categories—the dark state of the world and the bright state of love. Light lives in darkness just as darkness lives in light. I have come to find over time that it’s far easier to just embrace contradictions rather than attempting to resolve them.

“Hence ‘Johnny Blue Skies & the Dark Clouds’…

“The enjoyment we experienced in making this album of songs will be quite evident for the listener. But it’s a lot more than joy. You can call it a mutiny…an open rebellion. In any case, despite the motivations behind it the mutiny in the studio turned into a party. To categorize Mutiny is tricky, but many will no doubt come with their glass ceilings to try. We believe the term American Music pretty much says it all. And for all the big ideas behind the ‘Mutiny,’ there’s a simple goal we as a band set out to achieve: to make a dense record.

“So this protest, this mutiny is really more about the primary dance. The dance of all creation. To be clear it is a protest against oppression and suppression, and the only tried & tested true antidote to that is pure, unfiltered, unapologetic, relentless disco-hedonism.”