Sturgill Simpson: (1) You Can Have the Crown

by Country Music Saved My Life

When it comes to country music, Nashville stands out as its most important nerve center and has long been a hub of the genre for decades.

It's there that the offices of country music's most influential (in a commercial sense) labels and publishers, modern studios, and extremely talented and skillful sessions musicians are concentrated.

Nashville also has a bunch of clubs, venues, and all kinds of places for showcasing talents, and hosts a series of songwriring and on-stage performance contests and original music festivals. This city's ability to discover new talent is trully impressive and one of its charms. So it is no accident that Nashville is called the Music City.

Although East Tennessee is considered the birthplace of country music, from the '50s Nashville began to prevail in the genre, when some visionary producers aiming to compete with traditional pop music and rock (that had then gained national traction and become predominant) incorporated recording elements of the more easily digestible pop music's structure of the time, while heavily removing country music's more rough-edged traditional elements, such as hard-driven fiddles and steel guitar, banjo, twangy accent, and the nasal pitched vocals. Those were replaced with "velvety" crooner singing, smooth string sections compounded by few sweet violins, subdued sophisticated  choruses, prominent backing vocal, and a soft and lush jazzy piano touch.

That slick approach to country music production would end up being called Nashville Sound and, later on, in the mid-to-late '60s, it would metamorphose into Countrypolitan, when this polished production got even lusher and more evident. It was a responde to the rise to prominence of rock 'n' roll in the '50s, which had led country music sales to falter.

Chet Atkins, Country Music Hall of Fame (Photo by John Irving) CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

The names behind the Nashville Sound were the staff at RCA Victor, Columbia Records and Decca Records, all located in Nashville, Tennessee: Chet Atkins (RCA Victor manager, producer, and musician),  Steve Sholes (recording executive who signed Elvis Presley for RCA Victor in 1955 and convinced the label to build his own recording studio in Nashville in 1957), Owen Bradley (record producer whose team of hand picked musicians played a major role in the development of the subgenre, playing in a Quonset hut - acquired from Army surplus - attached to a house he owned with his brother Harold and which would come to be informally known as "Quonset Hut Studio"; the brothers eventually sold the studio to Columbia, when it came to be called Columbia Studio B), Don Law (head of Columbia Records' country division through most of the '50s and '60s, whose work was instrumental in re-establishing country's commercial viability during that time), Bob Ferguson (songwriter who became a senior producer with RCA Victor, serving as executive assistant to Chet Atkins), and Bill Porter (RCA and later Columbia Records audio engineer, who mixed concert sound for Elvis Presley, at his own request, from 1970 until the songer's death in 1977).

Porter's console at RCA Studio B in Nashville (Photo by Cliff, 2007) CC BY 4.0

All those extremely skilled Music Row-based studio producers had decided to tink their sound, experimenting with ways to reach a broader audience and drive country music into a more mainstream and profitable direction.

That smooth country music that often crossed over into pop of the Nashville Sound (and his Countrypolitan offshoot) would profoundly influence country music as we know it today and would predominate throughout the '50s and '60s, reaching rampant commercialization and bringing country music front and center again.

Whilst it has helped country music retrieve from the mid-'50s rock 'n' roll dam and produced several real top tracks and fine artists (Porter Wagoner, Patsy Cline, Ferlin Husky, Charley Pride, Lynn Anderson, Glen Campbell, Charlie Rich, Tammy Wynett, and many others), the Nashville's Music Row recording model was creatively stifling and forsake the raw, homespun roots that had always distinguished country music (albeit it is out of the question how much it sold - Atkins used to say that he didn't want to reinvent country music, but just sell records). 

As the Nashville Sound took country music on a slick production and notable pop music structures, over time that approach would become very criticized, especially by the purists because the songs ended up becoming extremely formulaic, tied to a single music pattern, and increasingly distant from the roots of country music.

Indeed, apart from the issue of the complete loss of creative freedom by artists, the main criticism directed at the Nashville Sound is that, although it may have saved country music, its pop and urban approach pushed the genre away from its roots, almost completely mischaracterizing it, which eventually created a heavy counterculture to country music.

It is in this context that an artistic movement emerged that would take the place of Nashville Sound throughout the '70s, especially from the mid-'70s: the Outlaw country.

Artists initially hired by major Nashville record labels, such as Bobby Bare, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson, would now demand that they have control over the songs they would write and record, the musicians they would pick up for the recording sessions, the studios they would use, and even how they would dress, since even the way the singers dressed was usually predetermined by the Music Row's office executives (as has been said around: the musical industrial complex can be as mercenary as its military counterpart). 

That is, those artists started to fight for creative control, breaking away from the mainstream, and facing the demands and predeterminations of the major labels' executives. In short, they wanted to take back the reins on complete artistic control. It was a heavy battle against the mainstream music industry. But they successfully waged it. Bobby Bare was the first to get it, setting a precedent that would soon be followed by Waylon Jennings, who bucked the RCA studio system. For that reason, both can be considered the spearheads of the movement.

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As a result of this shift in the relationship between artists and record company executives, the outlaws started to associate and perform with artists and songwriters who were not linked to the major record companies, much of them totally off the radar of the general audiences (at least until then).

Besides the two aforementioned Texans, singers Tompal Glasser, Johnny Cash, and Jessi Colter, and singer-songwriters Lee Clayton, Billy Joe Shaver, Tom T. Hall, Kris Kristofferson, Jerry Jeff Walker, Hank Williams, Jr., and Michael Martin Murphey are some of the artists who incorporate, to a greater or lesser extent, the spirit of the outlaw movement and are some of the most prominent names of this somewhat back-to-roots movement.

That way, although Nashville remained the focal point of the country music business, the balance of power shifted a little to the South and the West. Texans Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson, both them with roots in the music industry (the former already with a relatively established career as a singer, while the latter, although he obtained some recognition as a songwriter, had not been successful as a solo artist), left Nashville heading west and southward to delve deep into an amalgam of traditional country, honky-tonk, Southern rock, contemporary folk, and singer-songwriter-oriented introspective lyrics, leaning on a rougher style that became known as Outlaw country.

Cities like Lubbock and Austin became the creative centers of outlaw country, with their members letting their hair grow, talking openly about using marijuana, and replacing cowboy jackets with leather ones typical of rock and roll. But the most important: stripped the music to its country core, while adding a touch of rock, roadhouse blues, and, with its development over time, even Muscle Shoals' groove and soul.

The sound forged by the outlaws would yield considerable success, prevailing throughout the '70s, especially from the middle, and even surpassing Nashville Sound's commercial success. They rode high on the country charts and radio airplay until the early '80s when the emergence and ascendance of the diluted L.A. soft pop-leaning urban cowboy movement eclipsed the outlaw ethos and drained most of its audiences. But the renegades already had cemented their place in country music history and beyond.

Evoking classic Outlaw country, Sturgill Simpson's appeal lies not in the formulaic chesnuts of moneyed Music Row mass consumer products, but in his reliable, trustworthy, and straightforward feel and will to rail against the music industry, arguing about the role that major labels play on artists' careers, undermining their creativity and artistic freedom.

Allied to this critical perspective, his lyrics deal with themes common to ordinary people, as he embraces the minor-key frustration and sadness that is more likely the reality of much of his audience, with themes of hell-raisin', castaways, the down-and-out, and melancholy.

With this principles background, it is easy to put Sturgill Simpson as one of the finest acts to emerge from this renewed outlaw approach to country music, that manages to keep alive the original outlaw lineage, standing out of the official country music industry circles.

Yes, there are still plenty of great country artists carrying with them the outlaw spirit, doing music their way, and achieving success recording by their own rules. Just as examples of great artists that fall into this category we can mention Whitey Morgan, Andrew Combs, Cody Jinks, Aubrie Sellers, Parker Millsap, Margo Price, Lindi Ortega, Cale Tyson, Jason Isbell, Angaleena Presley, Ward Davis, Tyler Childers, Colter Wall, JP Harris... the list borders on infinity.

Without belittling the importance - and to a certain way beauty, I would add - of many crossover-country acts, productions, and cuts, it is ironically sad that today, after all the efforts of the original outlaw artists, it is still necessary to have artists rebelling against the major musical corporations, as the mainstream country still leans toward slick, homogenized pop.

What I (and maybe Sturgill Simpson) question is why the major labels have not yet understood that it is possible to obtain good sales results with artists who "would not fit" in the taste of the great masses.

As you may have noticed, I used quotes and the modal verb on purpose, to indicate that only apparently the audiences do not like music that deviates from the standard, mainstream, and pop-oriented sounds.

My point is that the relationship between what is produced and played on the radio with popular taste is, in fact, exactly the opposite: what the record companies produce and the radio stations play is what will influence the musical taste of listeners, as people and their "musical unconscious" tend to be guided by the sounds and musical styles to which they are repeatedly exposed.

I don't think there is a pre-determined, "natural" and intrinsic musical taste that leads the major labels to produce a certain type of music.  In other words, the music industry (and radio broadcasters) can shape popular tastes, striving to expose them to a particular musical form. Now, if that same industry doesn't allow people to listen to other forms of music, how can they like it?

What it seems is that a thesis has been created, based on dogma, that people just like conventional, polished, and pop-like sounds, which is not true. What's more, the fact that someone likes music with more pop production does not mean that the same individual cannot enjoy alternative sounds.  And vice versa.

If the entertainment industry's executives understood this point, it would not be necessary that even today a group of artists had to refuse to conform to Music Row standards.

Enough of that, back to the artist. 

Contemporary musician influenced by the '70s outlaws, the coal region of Kentucky raised and Nashville based Sturgill Simpson would continue to focus on creative freedom on his subsequent albums, adding sizzling and fluttering analog synths, fuzz guitars, sleazing synth-rock deep/Southern soul, tinges of psychedelia, boogie lines, hard rock, and even progressive rock. 

But this more straight-ahead country debut album well exemplifies the free-wheeling spirit that was tied to the set of original Outlaw artists (Bobby Bare, Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, Tom T. Hall, Hank Williams Jr., Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, Billy Joe Shaver). 

Sturgill Simpson 13/02/14 (Photo by Diamond Geiser) CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

The track You Can Have the Crown, from his debut album High Top Mountain (June 11, 2013) is my absolute favorite moment on the record. While the whole album offers up a collection of country music in its most raw and old-fashioned shape, this specific tune encapsulates what this entire project is about: the idea of outlaw country, in the sense of music that turns away from the Nashville style of production, either in the '70s (for the original artists) or of today.

Sturgill has never sounded better. Pervaded by a classic country style, this cut offers entertainment of great substance. Slathered with a rowdy steel guitar and a deep twangy electric guitar, the lyrics steal the show here, including these memorable lines:

"Well, I've been spending all my money on weed n' pills

Tryin' to write a song that'll pay the bills

But it ain't came yet

So I guess I'll have to rob a bank"

Despite the cynical gloom, You Can Have the Crown ultimately states that artists should do it in their way, playing by their own rules, and reveals the struggles of a man who has scraped the bottom in his quest to remain true to his musical roots. 

Blooming a new spring of independent and thrilling country music, most of all this is just great country music.

Song Information

• Writer: Sturgill Simpson

• Sturgill Simpson - vocals, acoustic guitar, Telecaster
• Chris Powell - drums
• Brian "Freedom Eagle Bear" Allen - bass
• Bobby "Diamond Bob" Emmett - organ, Mellotron
• Leroy Powell - steel guitar and backing vocals

• Producer: Dave Cobb

• Recorded at Hillbilly Central, Nashville, TN

• Release date: June 11, 2013

With a slightly different vibe, and paired with another good tune, the following live version also is worth checking out:

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