Sturgill Simpson made Saturday marked his highly anticipated return to the road, kicking off his first tour under the name Johnny Blue Skies at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles.

According to the setlist, Simpson and his band worked a number of surprise covers into the evening, including parts of the Doors’ “LA Woman,” the Allman Brothers Band’s “Midnight Rider,” and Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” in addition to his regular versions of When in Rome’s “The Promise” and Steve Fromholz’s “I’d Have to Be Crazy.” He closed the show with a cover of Prince’s “Purple Rain,” leading into the song from his own “One for the Road.”

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Simpson played the bridge of “One for the Road” by Johnny Blue Skies Passage of Desirewith “Purple Rain” over a crystal clear guitar solo and immediately began singing the verses. When it was time for the track’s spiraling outro solo, he left the spotlight to guitarist Laur Joamets, who rejoined Simpson’s band to recreate the group’s classic Metamodern sounds in country music Line-up. (Keyboardist Robbie Crowell, formerly of Midland, is also there.)

The rest of the set included songs from Simpson albums such as Metamodernthe Grammy award winner A Seaman’s Handbook to Earthhis debut in 2013, High peakand the rock album of 2019 Smoke and mirrors.

Passage of Desire (French for “Passage of Desire”) is Simpson’s first album in three years. In his four-star review RS said the LP was “heavy with grief, burdened by past mistakes, aimless in impossible dreams and desperate for relief – or at least some kind of escape.”

Simpson’s tour continues west this week with performances in West Calley City, Utah; Bend, Oregon; George, Washington and Missoula, Montana.

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