If The Ballad of Dood & Jaunita is Indeed Sturgill Simpson's Last Solo Record, the Everchanging Country Ace is Going Out On a High Note

After completing his self-imposed five-album cycle, Simpson is looking to perform under a group name in the future

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The Ballad of Dood & Jaunita is supposed to be Sturgill Simpson’s last solo album. If you’re familiar with Simpson’s notorious shapeshifting ways, this shouldn’t come as a surprise.

After spending time in the Navy and working the railroad, Simpson stumbled into indie country fame in his thirties. From the beginning of his music career, Simpson had planned only to release five albums. Starting with High Top Mountain in 2013, named after the cemetery where his family is buried in Kentucky, his singing career took off with its follow-up Metamodern Sounds in Country Music. For most fans, this was their introduction to Simpson - through a cosmic country lens that turned the genre on its head.

After releasing the Grammy-winning A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, Simpson tossed aside country music expectations to record Sound & Fury, a courageous mix of outlaw country, southern rock and dips into metal. Recorded with his band over a few sessions in a roach motel on the outskirts of Detroit, the sharp left turn alienated a lot of fans, but that’s just how Sturgill rolls.

Simpson took another sidestep last year with Cuttin’ Grass Vol. 1 & 2, which revisited his past work by updating the tunes for bluegrass with a first-class group of musicians that Simpson lovingly refers to as “the Hillbilly Avengers.” It was a true treat for fans during the pandemic lockdown with a fresh take on familiar numbers (consider me as part of this crowd, I ranked them at number nineteen in my top albums last year).

This brings us to his latest outing, The Ballad of Dood & Juanita. Refreshed by his bluegrass work and newly inspired while acting in Martin Scorsese’s upcoming Flowers of the Killer Moon, a film adaptation of the book about the Osage murders in the early 1920s, Simpson envisioned the concept album.

Dood and Juanita are his real-life grandparents, and after “Dood” passed away a few years ago, Simpson was looking for a way to pay tribute to a person that had meant so much to him throughout his life. Instead of playing it straight, Simpson has set the album during the Civil War, as bandits kidnap Juanita and Dood sets out to save her in the Kentucky Hills.

Once again joined by the Hillbilly Avengers, the record works wonderfully. While concept albums can get bogged down in their grand ideas, Simpson tells a straightforward story through its brisk 28 minutes running time. Written in two days and recorded by the end of the week, Simpson has only included lean cuts to keep the tale focused.

A tribute to family lore, The Ballad of Dood & Juanita has you attached to its characters in quick time by introducing “Ol’ Dood” and his natural outdoorsman ways before Juanita is kidnapped, and Dood hits the trail to find her. Joining him is his horse, “Shamrock,” whose galloping Old West theme is a true gem, and his trustworthy hound, “Sam.” Like any great western (or “Eastern” as Simpson refers to the album as with his Kentucky roots), Sam meets a fateful end, and his song is the finest tribute to a dead dog since Neil Young’s “Old King.”

Luckily, things turn around with the love song “Juanita.” It’s the album’s highlight in the vein of the great catalog of Willie Nelson, who Simpson was inspired by listening to Red Headed Stranger while writing the story. Nelson even shows up on the song, playing a lovely classical guitar solo over harp and fiddle.

Fortunes turn around on “Go in Peace” when some members of the Cherokee tribe happen upon Ol’ Dood and Shamrock and let him know that the bandit McClure has traded Juanita for some horses. After a triumphant reunion, Ol’ Dood finally takes down McClure in classic cowboy fashion.

Rare is the album as charming as The Ballad of Dood & Juanita and if this is indeed the last solo offering from Sturgill Simpson, it is a helluva finish. Free of a record label and trading the road life for more time on his ranch (this fall he will be performing residencies at Webster Hall and the Ryman Auditorium), Simpson has found his perfect spot in the music industry. Wanting to break from the pressure of performing under his own name, who knows when we’ll see him the next time.

With the poker burning this hot, I don’t think it will be very long.

The Ballad of Dood & Juanita is available now on High Top Mountain Records.