Johnny Blue Skies is one badass dude. He can rock, he can funk, he can country and he can turn your ears to toast and make you grin and dance like an idiot. Looking around at the crowd at the Barclays Center, you could tell most of the crowd knew what they were in for. Disco ball, make American fuck again rock and roll and some country tunes tossed in for good measure.
Rock and roll is not served up like this much in the 21st Century. There were some lights, some disco balls but the focus was this band of self-proclaimed neurodivergent motherfuckers. Let’s have the band take a bow:
Sturgill Simpson (Johnny Blue Skies) – Lead vocals and guitar
Laur Joamets – Lead guitar
Robbie Crowell – Keyboards and saxophone
Kevin Black – Bass
Miles Miller – Drums and backing vocals
Johnny took us on a rock and roll road trip that few will match in 2026. Do you know the song Ramble Tamble by Creedence Clearwater Revival? Go listen to it. That is an example of the type of music this band can produce and they did a remarkable cover of it and I do believe that is when I started dancing. The basketball-court pitch of this basketball arena made me feel like I was flying.
Welcome To Earth (Pollywog) came on early and made me weep because of the estrangement I have with my eldest. These words broke me for a moment.
Hello, my son
Welcome to earth
You may not be my last
But you'll always be my first
The funky way that song ends was truly amazing and mostly from that point on it was time to party. Everyone Is Welcome, sounding like a political disco country 45 anthem was followed by Make America Fuk Again.
Been learning lesson and gettin' bubbles bustin'
Learning how to turn ADHD into hyper-focus
Getting my heart broke by people I trusted
Weaponizing my autism to shit out an opus
Been coming to terms with my obsolescence
Taking ketamine to kill my depression
Beats being fogged out on antidepressants
Wait, that reminds me, time to book another session
Wanna make America fuck again (Fuck again)
Wanna make America wanna love again
Wanna see the ocean every now and then
Well, wanna start a revolution, watch it begin
After that masterpiece, we still had 20 more songs to go. Laur and Johnny trading guitar licks was a thrill a minute, the bass and drums were vibrating Atlantic Avenue and Robbie Crowell on keyboards and saxophone filled in the spaces where more noise was required.
Noise, some of the best live noise I have heard in all my years of concert-going. This was a time warp back to 1973 when the stage was just musicians and instruments and a play-all-night attitude.
There are only 5 more shows on this tour; I would hop on a boat or a jet and get your ass down there and see them. Time is running out. I find it very interesting he is completing the tour before the mid-terms. Does he want to go hide?
We all need a night like this in our lives. Exhausting, exhilarating, and you are left with ringing ears and a shit-eating grin that will live in your soul for some time.
But you may not even know who Sturgill Simpson is. He is not a household name. But he is a genius and a master at what he does.
Make up your own mind….listen to this playist of the songs he did on this night, Bob Weir’s Birthday. I was surprised he did not tip his hat with a Grateful Dead song but if you know the story, him playing for 3 hours was all Bobby needed to hear up in rock and roll heaven.
You might catch a little bit of that magic just by digging deep into his music.
All I know is I cannot stop listening to this playlist and reliving a bit of the magic.
The playlist of songs is 2 hrs and 15 minutes and the show was 3 hours….you get the idea.
“This is our third year in a row that we’ve done a big ol’ lap around the United States. We’re gonna go ahead and warn you now, we are gonna take a little break after this one and recharge the batteries and starve your asses. Y’all chose wisely.”-JBS
Sturgill has been a rebel forever. He stands his ground. In 2017, he won a Grammy for Best Country Album (A Sailor’s Guide To Earth) but the Country Music Awards shunned him with no nomination. Here is what he had to say as he busked outside the CMA Awards:
“Nobody needs a machine gun, and that’s comin’ from a guy who owns quite a few guns,” he said. “Gay people should have the right to be happy and live their life any way they want to and get married if they want to without fear of getting drug down the road behind a pickup truck. Black people are probably tired of getting shot in the streets and being enslaved by the industrial prison complex. Hegemony and fascism is alive and well in Nashville, Tennessee. Thank you very much.”
And below is the QOBUZ link….switch to QOBUZ it’s better!
https://open.qobuz.com/playlist/71927190
And since it was Bobby’s birthday on the day…this goes out to BW and BA….party on my friends.
