The country music world was shocked when Sturgill Simpson/Johnny Blue Skies dropped his forthcoming album, Mutiny After Midnight, on YouTube two weeks before it was set to release. Now, just as quickly and mysteriously as it appeared on the online video platform, it has vanished. Well… it’s just been set to private and isn’t accessible anymore, but “vanished” sounds more dramatic, does it not? Originally, fans of Sturgill Simpson and Johnny Blue Skies were patiently waiting for Mutiny After Midnight to release on March 13. Not only that, they were preparing to listen via physical media, as the original announcement of the album said that fans would only be able to get their hands on vinyl, cassette and CDs – A.K.A. no digital or streaming option. Then Johnny Blue Skies went and “leaked” the entire album on Sturgill Simpson’s official YouTube channel, and left this message on social media to guide all of his fans to the early release “Ooops…. might’ve just posted the whole fuk’n album on YouTube…. for the real ones.” And that he did. For an entire week, Sturgill and JBS fans were able to stream the album they were previously told would be un-streamable, and it was glorious. I personally listened through it a handful of times, and the last time I visited the pages, hundreds of thousands of others had done the same. We even released a power ranking of the craziest lines from the album, and dove into the hilarious comment section of the YouTube video where fans were having a field day as they listened to Mutiny After Midnight. The new album was a wonderful experience all around, and it was made that much better by it’s early release. That being said, the move to share the album digitally (and for free) after previously saying Mutiny After Midnight would exclusively be available through physical media did come with some criticism. Why tell fans there would be only one way to listen, encouraging them to buy it, only for the entire album to be posted online? To be fair, some of the team here at Whiskey Riff got their hands on vinyl copies early so maybe Stu was just getting out in front any leak potential by doing it himself? Just for a limited time? Hard to say for sure. For the time that the album was up on YouTube, that was the viewpoint held by many. Now though… physical media owners are getting the last laugh, because the sophomore Johnny Blue Skies album is no longer available on YouTube. It seems like the plan was to make it available digitally for a week, and then make the video private. So now, once again, that March 13 release date holds some importance. That’s less than a week away, and I’d highly doubt the YouTube video of the album is going to pop up before then. There’s a chance it doesn’t ever appear again… and the early release was just to give people a taste, then take it away. Thus, the only way to consume Mutiny After Midnight from here on would be through physical media. Just another example of Sturgill Simpson – A.K.A. Johnny Blue Skies – doing things in his own, unique way. Don’t cry because it’s over… smile because it happened.The post Welp… Sturgill Simpson’s New Johnny Blue Skies Project, ‘Mutiny After Midnight,’ Is No Longer Available On YouTube first appeared on Whiskey Riff.