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After the Grammys surprisingly nominated Sturgill Simpson’s A Sailor’s Guide To Earth to their album of the year category, the rest of the world is trying to catch up, as is often the case when the mainstream acknowledges all the good stuff going on in country music.
This weekend, Saturday Night Live announced that they’ll have the outlawish country singer on as a musical guest in January — and it’s extremely rare that a country singer get asked to perform on the show, so this is kind of a big deal. Especially considering that record came out back in April. At this point, though, it’s Simpson who is kind of a big deal.
Although country is a much-maligned genre in the realm of cool, Sturgill has remained an outlier in that regard, earning widespread critical acclaim and indie rock recognition since his breakout Metamodern Sounds In Country Music back in 2013. One of the best things about his newest record, though, is that it doesn’t follow the path laid out on his breakout at all, but continues to push past that sound, favoring big, brassy emotional tunes and a concept album framework that’s dedicated, in part, to his newborn son. Still with us?
SNL is coming off a pretty great run as far as talent goes, they recently booked Solange for a show-stopping performance of “Cranes In The Sky” and capped off the year with a heart-warming episode featuring everybody’s favorite, Chance The Rapper. But when the show returns from hiatus following the holidays on 1/14, that stage belongs to Sturgill. He’s earned it.
