Sturgill Simpson: A Sailor's Guide to Earth (Rhino Reserve series, Start Your Ear Off Right 2026) [RHINO]

Why you'll love it

This Rhino Reserve edition is pressed on 180g vinyl in a gatefold jacket with an insert. A Sailor's Guide to Earth won the Grammy for Best Country Album and was nominated for Album of the Year.

This edition

• Rhino Reserve series
• 180g vinyl
• Gatefold jacket
• Insert included
• Stereo mix

About the album

Some fathers leave a note on the fridge. Sturgill Simpson made an entire album. A Sailor's Guide to Earth is written as a letter to his young son, a song cycle of advice, apology and hard-won wisdom from a Kentucky singer who spent three years in the US Navy before he ever got near a recording studio.

It was his first album for a major label, Atlantic, and he produced and arranged it himself, swapping straight outlaw country for a big, brassy blend of country, soul and swampy rock. "Welcome to Earth (Pollywog)" opens with strings and a sailor's greeting, "Keep It Between the Lines" is a horn-driven road lesson, "Breakers Roar" and "Oh Sarah" are tender as anything, and "Brace for Impact (Live a Little)" carries the album's message in its title. His slow, heartfelt cover of Nirvana's "In Bloom" turns a grunge anthem into a lullaby, and "Call to Arms" goes out with all horns blazing.

Simpson had already turned Nashville's head with his first two independent records; this one turned everybody else's. Any child who receives a Grammy-winning album in place of the usual birthday card has, we feel, set the bar impossibly high for their own kids.

Also at Kops: more Sturgill Simpson on vinyl · browse Country

Tracklist

Listen

On Atlantic / Rhino (cat# RES1 728491), a reissue of the 2016 album.