At long last, Sturgill Simpson’s latest album as Johnny Blue Skies, Mutiny After Midnight, is finally on streaming services.
The country innovator quietly uploaded the LP to streaming services Monday, June 8, which also happens to be his birthday. The digital version comes with a bonus track as well: Johnny Blue Skies and the Dark Clouds’ cover of Procol Harum’s classic, “Whiter Shade of Pale” (which also appeared on a recent Record Store Day single alongside a rendition of the soul classic, “You Don’t Miss Your Water”).
The streaming release of Mutiny After Midnight comes nearly three months after the album was released on CD, vinyl, and cassette. When Simpson announced the LP back in February, there was no mention of any kind of digital release, though right before the album’s arrival, he dropped it early on YouTube. That, however, turned out to be a clever teaser, with the YouTube version promptly vanishing ahead of the album’s proper release.
In a statement at the time, Simpson said he wanted to do a physical-only release to “support and show solidarity with independent record shops and to promote an increasingly bygone physical and tangible connection between music and music fans.” The strategy also arguably turned Mutiny After Midnight into one of his best-selling albums, with the record debuting at Number Three on the Billboard 200 albums chart. (As for the brief YouTube release, Simpson quipped, “I’ve always really wanted to leak my own record.”)
He also promised that he would release Mutiny After Midnight online eventually, but encouraged fans, “Go buy a physical copy… or don’t. Stream it illegally… or don’t. But as your attorney, I advise you to put the phone down, get out of the house, and go grab a copy and find a place to crank it with some friends or even strangers…you might even get laid.”
Johnny Blue Skies and the Dark Clouds are set to hit the road later this year in support of Mutiny After Midnight. The trek will kick off Sept. 4 in Austin and wrap Oct. 30 in Lexington, Kentucky.