Akins, party of seven! Continue reading…

What’s a pirate era of your music career without a little treasure hunt? In case you didn’t get the memo, Sturgill Simpson is no more. If you are looking for him, you are actually looking for a pirate named Johnny Blue Skies. He and his band, the Dark Clouds, have an album coming out Friday, March 13 that’s titled Mutiny After Midnight. The artist formerly known as Sturgill has stated that the only way to get your hands on the new music will be through physical media such as vinyl, CD and cassette. And some fans don’t even have to wait until March 13. The official Johnny Blue Skies social media accounts fired out a cannonball of an update earlier today. The “Swamp of Sadness” singer let everyone know that the new album is already out in limited capacity… you just have to know where to find it. Using a picture from Sturgill Simpson’s time in the Navy, the social page sent out this exciting message: “TREASURE HUNT ALERT! 10 copies on shelves at your local record shop in select markets… run b****es. I’M THE CAPTAIN NOW.” View this post on Instagram Oh, how sweet it would be to be able to get your hands on one of those limited copies. The most interesting part about this latest update in the Mutiny After Midnight saga is that… well, there’s not much specificity there. A whole lot of Sturgill/Johnny Blue Skies fans are going to be running from record store to record store hoping to find the vinyl that’s out two weeks prior to its actual release date. Talk about a pirate-like adventure. For the lucky souls that do find the treasure, they’ll be able to experience what has been described by JBS as a protest disguised as a disco record. In the Mutiny After Midnight letter, Johnny Blue Skies described the upcoming project as this: “We decided to make an album centered firmly on groove. We started every day from scratch with a basic groove. I wrote the songs and lyrics in the moment on the spot, and everyone established their individual parts servicing the songs and not the individual ego… There’s a simple goal we as a band set out to achieve: to make a dance record. So this protest, this mutiny is really more about the primary dance. The dance of all creation. To be clear, it is a protest against oppression and suppression, and the only tried and tested true antidote to that is pure, unfiltered, unapologetic, relentless disco-hedonism.” And lucky for us, it sounds like we’ve got ourselves a sneak peek. The Johnny Blue Skies account has been active today. Shortly after the “TREASURE HUNT” post was sent out, audio paired with a He-Man meme (the memes from the JBS account have been nonstop hilarity) was shared. A quick Shazam of the music was met with no matches… meaning that the funky groove you hear when you press play on this video below is likely from one of the nine songs included on Mutiny After Midnight: View this post on Instagram That’s certainly the disco sound that Sturgill Simpson/Johnny Blue Skies has been promising. Now that I’ve heard a snippet, I really wouldn’t mind hearing the whole thing. I can either a) wait until March 13 like I originally intended to or b) drop everything and go on a treasure hunt at my local record stores… and hope that no one else had the same idea. I’m torn on what to do. If you happen to go out searching for it, here’s what you are looking for: View this post on Instagram   Hope some lucky Sturgill/JBS fans out there are able to sniff out the “X that marks the spot” at their local record store. Some might call it unconventional to only release a new project on vinyl, CD and cassette… but it’s certainly building up some hype for the new project. Mutiny After Midnight Tracklist Make America Fuk Again Excited Delirium Don’t Let Go Stay On That Viridescent Situation Venus Everyone Is Welcome Ain’t That A B**** The post “TREASURE HUNT ALERT”: Sturgill Simpson Surprise Drops ‘Mutiny After Midnight’ At Select Record Stores & Shares Snippet Of New Song first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

It changed the entire country genre. Continue reading…

Though it’s not the first place when you think of country music, the state of California has plenty of country fans… and believe it or not, quite a few who call the Golden State home. Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, Gary Allan, Jon Pardi, Jesse Daniel just to name a few. On the latest episode of the Whiskey Riff Raff podcast (which was actually a double episode), California native Sam Stoane spoke on the pressure she sometimes feels to defend the state she was born and raised in. The rising country singer also talked to us about how 2025 was quite possibly the biggest year of her life with a debut album, a wedding and a baby coming all at once, then covered how it feels being one of the only Greek artists in the genre, and the legendary influences that shape her sound. But back to the California part of Sam Stoane’s story. One of the first things we asked the “Pretty Poppies” singer about were her California roots. The talented singer and songwriter is from the Orange County area, and she recognizes that California and its country music scene often gets a bad wrap. Stoane explained the flack the state gets as “always” and “everywhere,” so we inquired to see if she feels like she’s constantly having to defend the state she grew up in. She alluded to the California Gold Rush with her answer: “Yes and no. I feel like it’s gotten better over the years. Which is funny, because back in the pioneer days, people were literally dying to be in California.” Fair point… now a whole lot of people hate on the far western state. And for quite some time, the relationship between California and country music has been rocky… or at the very least, it’s appeared to be that way. Stoane lived in the Golden State for nearly two decades (she’s since relocated to live in the Nashville area), and she says that the genre was more accepted than most people would think: “Now I wouldn’t know as much, but it was pretty prevalent growing up. I grew up listening to country music. Most people in high school did, and they wore camo and cowboy boots. It’s just hit or miss. California is so diverse. There’s all kinds of music, (but country’s presence) is pretty strong. We have Stagecoach and all that too.” And Stoane actively tries to capture that California feeling and Western sound with her music. Her debut album was even called Tales of the Dark West, and when you throw in the fact that she’s often talked about feeling homesick for California, there’s no doubt that she appreciates her roots. That being said, her roots are now planted in Nashville, so Sam Stoane will likely be defending the state of California from a distance as she continues her music career thousands of miles away from where she first dreamt up her country music dreams. You can hear Sam speak more on her love for the Golden State by downloading the podcast on Apple Podcasts by searching “Whiskey Riff Raff” or by clicking here. We’re also available on Spotify and wherever else you can listen to podcasts. Cheers, y’all. Audio Video The post “California Is So Diverse”: Sam Stoane Says The Golden State Gets A Bad Rap For Its Country Music Scene first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

As strange as this might sound… a space coyote was the perfect cameo for Johnny Cash. For 37 years (and 37 seasons), the adventures of Homer, Marge, Lisa, Bart, and Maggie Simpson have graced TV screens and made people laugh all over the world. The Simpsons is the longest running animated series and sitcom in America, with over 800 episodes and counting. When you make that much content, you’re going to hit the nail right on the head more than a couple of times, and likely even predict the future, which The Simpsons is famously known for. And obviously, the show has had a multitude of celebrities, artists and other high-profile people featured in cameo roles over the years. Sometimes celebrities lend their voice to portray cartoon versions of themselves, while other times they have characters created for them to play. No matter how The Simpsons usually carry out the cameos, they almost always land in an entertaining fashion. None more than when country music legend Johnny Cash played a space coyote brought on by Homer’s hallucination (caused by the patriarch of the Simpsons family eating several spicy peppers). The cameo came in the ninth episode of Season 8 (originally airing on January 5, 1997) which was titled “El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (The Mysterious Voyage of Homer).” Because Johnny Cash had such a recognizable voice, you knew right away that he was behind the unique character. Homer’s mysterious, hallucinogenic voyage is capped off by a visit from the space coyote, which first reveals itself as the moon before shrinking down to Homer’s coyote-shaped spirit guide. Cash (as the coyote) then helps the famous cartoon dad through the crisis that he’s experiencing, and it’s all through the prism of a psychedelic trip. And you’ve got to hand it to the writers and the animators of the show… they did a great job portraying inner hallucinations. Heck, they may have been hallucinating themselves when they thought about asking a country music legend to cameo as a cosmic canine. There’s actually some great advice provided by Johnny Cash’s space coyote cameo: “The problem, Homer, is that the mind is always chattering away with a thousand thoughts at once. Clarity is the path to inner peace.” Guess it’s not all that surprising that Johnny Cash was one heck of a voice actor too (those noises he made as the space coyote gnawed on Homer’s leg were quite impressive). Johnny Cash is just one of many country music cameos that The Simpsons has featured over the years. Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, and Hank Williams Jr. have also been featured in the long-running cartoon across the decades. And country music has even taken center stage during some episodes, like the iconic “Colonel Homer” episode that introduced a character in the Simpsons world named Lurleen Lumpkin. Funny enough, Lumpkin was voiced by Beverly D’Angelo, who actually played Patsy Cline in the 1980 film Coal Miner’s Daughter. That’s a cool tidbit that only a show like The Simpsons can create. But I mean… Johnny Cash as a talking, existential-advice-giving space coyote? That’s hard to beat when it comes to country music cameos.The post Throwback To The Time Johnny Cash Made A Cameo In ‘The Simpsons’ As A Psychedelic Space Coyote first appeared on Whiskey Riff.