Johnny Blue Skies - Passage du Desir

Johnny Blue Skies' Passage du Desir is Sturgill Simpson under a new name, and the alter ego has freed him to make some of the most open-hearted music of his career.

Released in 2024, the album arrived with no advance singles and little warning. Simpson had long said he would only release five albums under his own name, so he borrowed a nickname a Lexington bartender once used to introduce him at open mic nights. He recorded these eight songs at Abbey Road in London and in Nashville, co-producing with David R. Ferguson, and named the record after a Paris passage whose weathered door appears on the cover.

The sound blends outlaw country with soul, Southern rock and a touch of cosmic drift. Opener "Swamp of Sadness" sets the tone for songs heavy with heartache, "Mint Tea" and "Scooter Blues" are among the standouts in the middle stretch, and "One for the Road" closes the record as its title promises.

Sierra Hull's mandolin and Dan Dugmore's pedal steel colour the arrangements, while Simpson's voice sounds warmer and more vulnerable than ever before.

For anyone who loved A Sailor's Guide to Earth, this feels like a homecoming. It is an album of heartache and hard-won gratitude, made by someone clearly enjoying the music again.