Johnny Blue Skies (from the album Passage Du Desir

Johnny Blue Skies (from the album Passage Du Desir

Johnny Blue Skies (from the album Passage Du Desir available on Hightop Mountain Records/Thirty Tigers)
(by Bryant Liggett)
 
Johnny Blue Skies is connecting the dots between American Country music and Southern Soul. It doesn’t take much, and he’s not the first Country artist to make the attempt to change persona, as the similarities lay in view and can be heard at first, deep listen. Heart-filling and heart-breaking, Passage Du Desir is a record that’s big with emotion and loaded with feelings, a record worthy of a slow dance.
 
Things open with the weepy “Swamp of Sadness”, a slowed down heartbreaker before heading into baby making for “If the Sun Never Rises”. It’s a cut with a great guitar opener with the six-string rearing its steady tone throughout the cut, while “Scooter Blues” has a Waylon croon, and is Waymore cool. “Mint Tea” is subtly Psychedelic, a cut where hippie guitars float between quips like ‘band aids over bullet wounds’ and “One for the Road” is nothing short of dramatic; symphonic strings, big breaks; it is like its pulled from, or ready for, a Hollywood or theatrical score.
The secret’s likely out that Johnny Blue Skies is Sturgill Simpson, who as new troubadour is following in the steps of Conway Twitty and more recently, Charley Crockett with the sound that moves from Music City to Motown. Passage Du Desir will file under Country due to Johnny Blue Skies true identity, but this is Soul with a hint of twang. Yet, it’s so much more, perhaps Simpsons, or Skies’, strongest work to date.
Listen and buy the music of Johnny Blue Skies from AMAZON
 
For more information head on over to the Johnny Blue Skies website