featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
March 22, 2026
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
This Episode brings no obvious choice for our listening recommendation, though we're Big Fans of Hurray For the Riff Raff and Danny George Wilson. Not for the first time this year, we'll also direct your ears towards Bandcamp, where you'll find a new EP from Campfire Swimmers.
IF YOU ONLY LiSTEN to ONE RECORD THiS WEEK
We mentioned last week that we were awaiting our tardy copy of the new Johnny Blue Skies record, Mutiny After Midnight (Atlantic Outpost), currently just available in cassette, CD or LP format. The majority of press on Sturgill Simpson's second JBS album has focused on those trappings - the fact that it's unavailable for streaming, that it's reportedly his dance project, that participating record stores were encouraged to stage a dance party in celebration of its release.
Simpson himself has called Mutiny his moment of pure, unfiltered, unapologetic, relentless disco-hedonism - an album centered firmly on groove. Of course, the marriage of funk/soul and country is nothing new, and this new JBS set decidedly recalls sounds of the 70s. Once again fronting his longtime band of brothers, here called the Dark Clouds, the project is organic, sweaty and terrifically groovy (Laur Joamets on guitar, Kevin Black on bass, Miles Miller on drums, and Robbie Crowell on keys and sax). Mutiny is also exceptionally horny.
Matter of fact, the album opens with Simpson's invocation to "Make America Fuk Again", introducing the LP's deep bass groove and incendiary electric guitar. The pop-inflected number establishes a tension between the current state of our nation, our collective and individual mental wellbeing, and enjoying sex with abandon: Been coming to terms with my obsolescence / Taking ketamine to kill my depression. The indelible "Stay On That" finds creepy Uncle Sturgill offering, Let me be the wood baby / You can be the glue ... Stay on that D / Until you hit that G. In the heyday of the PMRC, Mutiny would wear its black-and-white advisory sticker boldly.
But the new Johnny Blue Skies project is more than Dirty Mind for the roots music crowd. Lyrically, the songs are much less cerebral than 2024's Passage du Desir, though they can be deceptively personal and even pointedly political here and there. With its runaway pace and skronky sax, "Excited Delirium" evokes recent protests: How the hell you gonna protect the peace / Running around looking like you're going to war. The hooky guitar blues of "Ain't That a Bitch" cloaks a lyric that bemoans how the poor stay poor and the rich get rich. The album's most country moment, "Don't Let Go" seems a heartfelt declaration of (heaven forbid) genuine devotion: Do you wanna see me crawl across the floor / Down on my knees.
Sturgill Simpson has never been content to fulfill expectations from the safety of one artist lane. Mutiny After Midnight is not as blatant a departure as 2019's manga soundtrack Sound and Fury, it's simply the man and his buddies indulging their penchant for having a good time, digging deep into the boogie. The momentarily restrained bridge of "Viridescent" trips unexpectedly into an infectiously funky instrumental outro. "Everyone Is Welcome" collects the record's threads into a single cord, both topical and unapologetically sexual, making the declaration that Life is better fluid like sexuality.
On the LP's back cover, the ship from Sailor's Guide To Earth sails the stormy seas towards a disco ball moon. Johnny Blue Skies, this band of musical pirates, is among the most capable and adventurous outfits in our kind of music, a tempestuous sea of roots and rock, funk and fusion. Sturgill Simpson sets the soundtrack as we dance into the revolution, rocking the mutiny. In his own words, he just wants to make America not suck again. For the moment, you'll just have to purchase a cassette to join him.
ROUTES-cast March 22, 2026
- Son Little, "Rabbit" Cityfolk (Anti, 26)
- Mama's Gun, "Joy" DIG! (Blue Elan, Apr 10) D
- Danny George Wilson, "Grain Of Sand" Arcade (Loose, 26)
- Black Keys, "Where There's Smoke There's Fire" Peaches! (Easy Eye, May 1)
- Leah Blevins, "Leave It Up To Me" All Dressed Up (Easy Eye, 26)
- Daughn Gibson, "Sacred Life" Lake Mary Not Mysterious (El Ed Eb, May 8) D
- Matthew Logan Vasquez, "Haunted" single (MLV, 26) D
- Red PK, "Horse Like Me (ft Free Range)" Horse Like Me (Red PK, 26) D
- Builders & Butchers, "Mother Mary" No Tomorrow (Badman, Apr 3)
- Montvales, "Runaway Horse" Path Of Totality (Free Dirt, 26)
- Ashley McBryde, "Bottle Tells Me So" Wild (Warner, May 8) D
- Cactus Lee, "Bad Luck" Lee's Dream (Western Vinyl, Apr 10)
- Tenille Townes, "We Could Use a Little More" The Acrobat (Township Road, Apr 10)
- Breakfield, "Darker Out Tonight" Breakfield (Rounder, Jun 12)
- Wilson Springs Hotel, "Broken Doors" Day the Bloodroot Bloomed (Ritter, 26) D
- William Harries Graham, "Flicker Film" Belrose Motel EP (Strolling Bones, Apr 10) D
- Hudson Freeman & Bedroomer, "Stolen Valor" single (Mom + Pop, 26) D
- Aubrie Sellers, "Trigger Happy" Attachment Theory (Carnival, 26)
- SUSTO, "Hard Drugs (ft Morgan Wade)" SUSTO Stringband Vol 2 (SUSTO, May 29) D
- Hurray For the Riff Raff, "Pyramid Scheme (Live) "Live Forever (Nonesuch, 26)
- John Andrews & the Yawns, "What's Good" Streetsweeper (Earth Libraries, Apr 3)
- Hrishikesh Hirway, "Rollercoaster (ft Uwade, Fenne Lily)" In the Last Hour Of Light (Keeled Scales, Apr 24)
- Noah Gundersen, "Die Young" Rites Of Spring (RIP Dunes, May 22) D
- Lily Seabird, "Demon In Me" single (Seabird, 26) D
- Natalie Wildgoose, "River Days" Rural Hours EP (state51, Apr 15) D
- White Fence, "Unread Books" Orange (Drag City, Apr 24)
- Brown Horse, "Wreck" Total Dive (Loose, Apr 10)
- Gladie, "I Will If You Will" No Need To Be Lonely (Get Better, 26) D
- M Ward, "Sympathy For the Stones (Live)" single (MWard, 26) D
- Terry Allen, "Down To the River" Blood Sucking Maniacs (Paradise Of Bachelors, Apr 24)
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To enjoy any Spotify ROUTES-cast, just open Spotify and search for "routesandbranches" to access this most recent playlist, as well as many others from past months. Or click here for a preview:
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