UPDATE: The giveaway is now closed. Austin City Limits will tape a performance by Sturgill Simpson on Monday, October 28th at 8 pm at ACL Live at The Moody Theater (310 W. 2nd Street, Willie Nelson Blvd). Austin City Limits Taping Giveaways are presented by AXS Events.
Winners will be chosen at random and a photo ID will be required to pick up tickets. Winners will be notified via email. Duplicate entries for a single taping will be automatically voided. Tickets are not transferable and will be voided if sold. Standing may be required. No photography, recording or cell phone use in the studio. No cameras, computers or recording devices allowed in the venue. While we do our best to accommodate all winners, we cannot guarantee admission. These passes are based on space available therefore you will be filling in spots available on the floor or balcony depending on the tickets that are available when you arrive.
Passage Du Desir, the highly anticipated new studio album from Johnny Blue Skies, is out today on High Top Mountain Records (stream/purchase). The release marks the beginning of a new era for the artist—after promising to release only five studio albums under the name Sturgill Simpson—and was produced by Johnny Blue Skies and David Ferguson and recorded at Clement House Recording Studio in Nashville, TN and Abbey Road Studios in London, England.
Of the new chapter, Johnny Blue Skies shares, “You can turn the page or you can light the book on fire and dance around the flames. You can try to live above hell or you can just go raise some. Here’s to clean livin’ and dirty thinking.”
Simpson will return to the road this fall for his first full tour in over four years. The extensive “Why Not? Tour” headline run will feature Simpson and his band—Kevin Black (bass), Robbie Crowell (keys), Laur Joamets (guitar) and Miles Miller (drums)—and includes immediately sold-out shows in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Chicago (two nights), Oklahoma City, Asheville, Cary and Washington, DC among many others as well as headline festival slots at Outside Lands and Austin City Limits Music Festival. All tickets are now on-sale via sturgillsimpsonlive.com. See below for complete tour itinerary.
Of note, the “Why Not? Tour” has opted out of using dynamic ticket pricing with the intention of doing everything in their power to keep tickets in the hands of fans and out of the hands of scalpers. They are vetting pre-sale sign ups for bad actors, implementing Face Value Exchange (which is now live, FAQ here) and limited platinum ticketing to combat scalpers and out of control prices.
The new album follows the tenth anniversary reissue of Simpson’s Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, which came out earlier this spring. Originally released May 13, 2014, the album marked a career breakthrough for Simpson personally and proved to be a seismic shift-maker within the larger country music genre. The new special edition features a fully reimagined album cover and vinyl package, pressed on 180g Black Vinyl with an “Old-Style” Tip-On Jacket. Ushering in a new chapter within country music and setting the stage for countless other outsider artists to push the genre forward for years to come, the lasting impact of Metamodern continues to be felt today. In a recent piece reflecting on the album’s influence and importance, Marissa Moss writes in Rolling Stone, “Ten years since its release, Simpson’s 2014 masterpiece Metamodern Sounds in Country Music continues to redefine what’s possible in Nashville,” and continues, “Metamodern is an album that shows how the best music can come when you’re respectful of the past but fearless about the future.”
Since his debut, Simpson has released five full-length studio albums—2013’s High Top Mountain, 2014’s Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, 2016’s A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, 2019’s Sound & Fury and 2021’s The Ballad of Dood and Juanita—along with the 2020 projects, Cuttin’ Grass Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. Throughout his singular career, Simpson has relentless pushed against expectations, earning widespread acclaim and countless accolades including a Grammy Award in 2017 for Best Country Album and six Grammy nominations across four genres: country, rock, bluegrass and americana.In addition to his work as a musician, Simpson has acted in film and television, including roles in The Dead Don’t Die, Queen & Slim, Killers of the Flower Moon and The Righteous Gemstones.
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