Photo by Stuart Levine

Sturgill Simpson
Wiltern Theatre
Los Angeles, CA
November 16

In 2014, after Sturgill Simpson released his second album, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, he was met with critics and fans alike declaring him the savior of country music. It was a distinction he flatly rejected. Nominated for an Americana Grammy, the album’s success coincided with an exponential rise in concert attendance, moving Simpson out of the clubs and into small theatres across the nation. The title was, in spirit, a nod to Ray Charles and his Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, and perhaps that was the Easter egg that pre-told of this year’s transformation.

Charles was, at heart, and for the majority of his musical career, a rhythm and blues man. His dalliance in country music showed a depth of range that brought him new audiences and cross-genre respect. For Simpson, pulling into Los Angeles for two sold-out nights at the famed Wiltern, it’s been the opposite path, but with a similar effect; this year’s brilliant A Sailor’s Guide to Earth revealing the cosmic country singer to be a just as thrilling in his grasp of rock and soul.

In a blue-denim workshirt and jeans, Simpson led his 7-piece band, including a trio of horns, through a performance equally split between his inclinations. Opening with “Living the Dream,” it became obvious from the beginning that the material from his first two decidedly country records was being recast as rhythm and blues rockers injected with beaming brass lines and the swirling Hammond organ of Bobby Emmett. Simpson tramped through wildfires like “Life of Sin” and the cold steel of “Ain’t No Flowers,” before the striking cover of “The Promise,” and a soaring sax break from Brad Walker where previously a guitar solo would have been. The audience responded resoundingly.

An extended, breakneck “Railroad of Sin,” calming “Voices,” and another standout performance by Simpson’s ace guitar man known as Little Joe (Laur Joamets) on a rowdy “Long White Line,” reminded all that the blood of outlaw country still runs hot through this group. But, Simpson, is not one to rest on his resume’, taking JJ Cale’s “Call Me the Breeze” and pairing it with “When the Levee Breaks,” as Little Joe morphed momentarily into Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page.

The first half came to a figurative conclusion as the horn section romped over the second-line shuffle of “A Little Light.” Then, Emmett’s synth strings signaled Sailor’s first track, “Welcome to Earth (Pollywog),” a song in and of itself that summarized Simpson’s evolution, shifting from humble ballad to Memphis steam train in a blink. From there, Simpson and his ensemble played the album in sequence and in its entirety, allowing “Keep It Between the Lines” and “Brace for Impact (Live a Little)” to stretch into wildly entertaining electrified domains.

The mid-point of the record, Nirvana’s “In Bloom,” began gently with Simpson strumming his acoustic, the band easing in behind him. It was here that an unidentified woman climbed onstage and nervously approached the singer. She made it to him before security could react, whispered something in Simpson’s ear, and received a lingering embrace, and audience applause, before being escorted off. Yet, by the time the group was walloping its way through the stampede of finale “Call to Arms,” laced with T Rex’s “The Motivator,” the heartening moment seemed a little harder to recall.

In a way that was true of the first part of the evening, as well; Simpson’s time as a country crooner still visible, but in the rear view mirror. He has hinted in recent interviews of a future featuring four-hour rock shows, and a rock star he may already be. Two things are certain after this two-and-half hour cyclone: Sturgill Simpson will do whatever he wants, and his audience, because of performances like this, loves him for it.