Johnny Blue Skies & the Dark Clouds ‘Mutiny After Midnight’

Modern country great Sturgill Simpson was not kidding around when he redubbed himself Johnny Blue Skies for his last album, 2024’s “Passage du Desir.” He’s coming back next month with a second album under that moniker, or, actually, the expanded band name Johnny Blue Skies & the Dark Clouds. And his name as an artist isn’t the only thing that’s different about “Mutiny After Midnight,” due March 13.

Simpson will be returning (or Blue Skies will be appearing for the first time, depending on how you look at it) to his former home at the Atlantic Music Group with the forthcoming album. But, more intriguingly, the often shape-shifting iconoclast will be trying on what promises to be a new or at least evolved musical style.

“There’s a simple goal we as a band set out to achieve: to make a dance record,” Simpson/Blue Skies said in an announcement about the “Mutiny After Midnight” album. That’s reflected in the cover art, which uses 1970s-style typography and features the image of a dagger slicing through a mirror ball, drawing blood from the disco totem.

And the album will only be available in physical formats, apparently. The announcement declares that “Mutiny After Midnight” will be available “on vinyl, CD and cassette only,” pointedly leaving out any streaming or digital download options. Indeed, the page to pre-order the album only includes options to purchase a physical copy. That’s virtually unheard of in contemporary music, outside of the realm of Record Store Day limited editions.

The leadoff track on the album, not yet released, is “Make America Fuk Again” (sic). The announcement of the album includes sample lyrics:

Been learning lessons and getting bubbles busted
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
It beats being fogged out on anti-depressants
Wait, that reminds me, time to book another session…
Maybe things have been worse but I can’t remember when
Wanna start a revolution and watch it begin

The other tracks on the album are “Excited Delirium,” “Don’t Let Go,” “Stay on That,” “Viridescent,” “Situation,” “Venus,” “Everyone Is Welcome” and “Ain’t That a Bitch.”

Blue Skies appears to be treating “Sturgill Simpson” as a dead-name; his former identity never appears in the announcement for the album, and the previous album is described as a “debut,” although Simpson’s past is acknowledged, specifically the 2016 “A Sailor’s Guide to Earth” album.

That record is relevant because it’s the last album Simpson made for Atlantic. Although it was nominated for the album of the year Grammy, and was the first release of his to radically move past the boundaries of country, he made it clear he was not happy with the label and moved on to release projects independently (for his own High Top Mountain Records, which is still the imprint of record for the new album) or Elektra.

Now, Blue Skies is saying Atlantic has “new leadership and a new vision.” In a statement, he said, “This is a new and very different Atlantic Records than my last go-around. Mostly, I’m very excited and honored to be working with my dear friend Ian Cripps, and to finally bring to fruition a vision we initially shared together over 10 years ago. I wrote words to what is happening in the world and my life in real time, and played with a group of musicians I deeply love and respect. Together, we made an album that is very fun and will hopefully offer some relief from darkness in the world.”

The announcement notes that the project was recorded at Easy Eye Sound Studios and features songs “centered firmly on groove… each song was written in the moment, on-the-spot.”