Review: Johnny Blue Skies & the Dark Clouds — Mutiny After Midnight

Johnny Blue Skies & the Dark Clouds
Mutiny After Midnight
High Top Mountain, Atlantic Outpost
Street: 03.13.2026
Johnny Blue Skies & the Dark Clouds = Waylon Jennings + Earth, Wind & Fire + Steve Miller Band

While still in his early 20s, Sturgill Simpson returned to his home state of Kentucky after a stint in the Navy. In a YouTube interview, Simpson explains that there was a bartender named Dave at the local dive where he’d go to drink each night, always wearing a black trench coat and flipping a Zippo lighter. This Dave came up with a moniker for Simpson: every time he would pass Dave at the door, the eccentric bartender would say something like, “Well, if it isn’t Johnny Blue Skies!”

The name stuck in Simpson’s head, despite not knowing where it came from or why it was bestowed on him. In the YouTube interview, which was with the French streaming service Qobuz, Simpson explains why he was looking to ditch his name: to continue his music career, but provide a means of instigating forays into other genres and inspirations. Since he already owned the name Johnny Blue Skies, he kept it as his new moniker and alias, seeing it as a way to differentiate even himself from his past work. Simpson says he was also inspired by Eric Clapton’s use of the alias Derek & The Dominos when making his highly celebrated offshoot rock record, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, which is more “vulnerable” than what people had heard from Clapton before, whether on his own or with Cream.

The first Johnny Blue Skies album, 2024’s Passage du Desir, still has a country sound and is like a more mature and cohesive version of Simpson’s early offerings, such as 2013’s High Top Mountain and 2014’s Metamodern Sounds in Country Music. It’s one of my favorite albums of the last few years, but suffice to say it did not prepare me for what was to come in 2026.

The second Johnny Blue Skies album, Mutiny After Midnight, was released on YouTube on March 1 in an act of music business subterfuge against the executives who own the major streaming services and keep artists subjected to their maniacal pay-out models. It came after several days or weeks of obscure memes posted on the @johnnyblueskies Instagram account and nearly imploded the pocket of the internet that remains dedicated to following Simpson’s music career. This implosion was catalyzed by an Instagram story which appeared on that account, depicting a red skeleton smoking a cigarillo with a crude, MS Paint-drawn speech bubble that read: “Ooops,….mighta just posted the whole fuk’n album on YouTube…for the real ones,” accompanied by a link that led to the new album, unplagued by ads or subscription requirements. While the album only lasted on YouTube for eight days, being taken down on March 9 just as mysteriously as it was put up, it gave me the opportunity to listen to Mutiny After Midnight in its entirety over a dozen times. 

What proceeds is a raw, rock-heavy coalescence of edgy hedonism and revolution. But first, there is a brutal wake-up call. On track one, “Make America Fuk Again,” Simpson sings, “Feels like I’m wakin’ up from a coma / Lookin’ round a room and tryin’ to stand / Don’t see my momma, don’t see my daddy / Ain’t got no friends but I still got a band.”

Johnny Blue Skies is credited with the vocals and alternating between lead and rhythm guitar. The Dark Clouds consist of Little Joe, also on rhythm and lead guitar, as well as slide guitar and pedal steel; Black Daddy on bass; Easy Luvin on drums and providing backing vocals of his own at times; and Raw B on keys and saxophone, the latter truly shining in the final medley and my favorite, cumulative section of the entire album, the last two tracks, “Everyone is Welcome” and “Ain’t That A Bitch.” Once you’ve taken a minute to digest the names of these musicians, feel free to move on to the rest of this review!

In the chorus of “Make America Fuk Again,” Simpson sings, “Wanna make America fuck again / Wanna make America wanna love again / Things have been worse, but I can’t remember when / Wanna start a revolution, and watch it begin.” In the next song, “Excited Delirium,” which sounds exactly like its title, he goes after the corrupt regime of fascist ICE agents currently assailing our populace’s human rights: “Why you dressed up like a soldier / What the hell are you wearing a face mask for / How the hell you gon’ protect the peace / Runnin’ round lookin’ like you’re goin’ to war?”

With the help of the heroes of the YouTube comment section, I’ve distilled the album’s sound down to some new, brash kind of country rock disco. It’s composed mainly of up-tempo, funky romps interspersed with Pink Floyd-esque instrumental sections. While the protest themes of the album’s opening give way to songs about lust and love, Simpson brings it all back to the beginning again in the final two tracks, which act nearly together as one blood-pumping outro characterized in large part by the rowdy sax soloing from Raw B. 

But beware! This is not an album that’s meant to be separated from itself or have its individual songs parsed onto playlists. It operates as one long defiant jam, full of stellar instrumentation from Simpson himself and the Dark Clouds. It has a rich, full, cohesive sound, much like the consistent sonic quality of Passage du Desir but with a deeper, thumping rock element, courtesy of Simpson’s hand in producing it.

Rather than making you dance shirtless on tabletops, Mutiny After Midnight flips the tables, burns the barn and boogies on top of the ashes. It’s a loud and somehow delicious-sounding death knell for the Constitution of the United States. Simpson’s crass is informed, his taste for the pleasures of life endearing, but here his nihilism teeters on the edge, supported only by the Dark Clouds’ dance-rock mania. Thankfully that’s enough for now — to dance, to keep moving, in spite of it all.

Since it’s not available on YouTube to stream, and because Simpson isn’t likely to upload the album to mainstream streaming services anytime soon, the only way to listen is to order a vinyl, CD or cassette at mutinyaftermidnight.com. Comes with dance floor recommended. —Kyle Forbush

Read more album reviews by Kyle Forbush:
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