I Hate Everyone Able to Attend These Intimate Sturgill Simpson / John Prine Shows
There’s nothing more rewarding than watching your favorite independent artist go from playing lowly bars in backwater towns for barely anybody, to headlining big venues with thousands of people cheering them on. That’s what the early fans of Sturgill Simpson have experienced over the last few years as he’s blown up to mammoth proportions. Of course the one caveat to that success is that you lose the intimacy with the artist and performance when they move out of the clubs and onto bigger stages.
However for the lucky bastards in Ireland, they’ll have the opportunity to not just see Sturgill Simpson in a smaller, intimate setting, but with a songwriting legend and one of his primary mentors, John Prine, when they join forces for a select tour of clubs and small theaters in August.
You really have to marvel at the priorities of Sturgill Simpson. Coming off of his Grammy win for Best Country Album, and his industry-shaking nomination for the all-genre Album of the Year, demand for his presence on stage across North America and around the world is off the charts. Yet he seems perfectly content to book 25 or so major dates for 2017, leaving literally millions of dollars on the table so he can spend more time with his growing family, and then hauls off and books this Ireland stint where money seems like a secondary concern.
Sturgill Simpson was selling out 2,500-capacity venues on consecutive nights before the Grammy noise, and he’s choosing to use the aftermath to play the GrianĂ¡n Theater in Letterkenney, Ireland, capacity 383. These shows seem to be more for Sturgill than the audience or his pocketbook. The reason we don’t see such bookings in North America is because they wouldn’t be physically possible. People would be ripping each other apart to get tickets.
Sturgill Simpson shares an office with John Prine in Nashville, and these shows seem more like a good excuse to go to breezy Ireland in the heat of the summer and hang out with friends. Oh, and they’ll play some music while they’re over there.
Here are the dates, if the Luck of the Irish has you in the area in August:
Strule Arts Centre, Omagh
Saturday August 12th
An Grianan Theatre, Letterkenny
August 16th
Town Hall Theatre, Galway
Saturday August 19th
Theatre Royal, Waterford
August 22nd
Vicar Street
Friday August 25th
Fuzzy TwoShirts
June 28, 2017 @ 2:15 pm
awesome. simply awesome.
Bertox
June 28, 2017 @ 5:49 pm
Luck of the damn Irish, it appears
Rob
June 28, 2017 @ 6:08 pm
I feel like Sturgill is one of those people who are smart with their money, so good for him to keep this year calmer and enjoy family time and smaller concerts
Kevin
June 28, 2017 @ 6:28 pm
Wish they would record this and sell the dvds. pleeeeeease!
Sam Cody
June 28, 2017 @ 8:35 pm
That’s nothing. I once got to see Sam Hunt playing in the mop bucket closet of a 2 story outhouse. Good times.
RG
June 29, 2017 @ 9:04 am
I like this type of humor.
Big Cat
June 28, 2017 @ 8:40 pm
He’s 100% badass
Honky
June 28, 2017 @ 8:52 pm
I hate everyone who’s attending these intimate Sturgill Simpson / John Prine shows, and everyone who wants to.
Trainwreck92
June 29, 2017 @ 4:46 am
Don’t You Think This [Sturgill Hatin’] Bits’s Done Got Out of Hand?
Honky
June 30, 2017 @ 9:03 am
I don’t hate Sturgill. I hate his voice, his songs, and his music in general. He’s just a dude doing what he enjoys.
Who I hate, are all the idiots who have made him famous by buying concert tickets and albums.
Ulysses McCaskill
July 2, 2017 @ 2:20 pm
Honky needs his ass kicked.
Honky
July 3, 2017 @ 4:12 am
I can give you a place to meet, if you want.
Trigger
July 3, 2017 @ 4:53 pm
Folks, we’re not going here. People first, then music. If someone gets assaulted because of some dumb shit they said here, I can be held legally and financially accountable.
Honky, you’re continually attempting to draw people offsides with your comments, and it’s getting to be too much. You know just what to say to keep me from deleting your comments, but I’m going to start if it continually results in stuff like this. I HATE having to play referee in the comments section.
Ulysses McCaskill
July 3, 2017 @ 6:35 pm
Trigger, I was just entertaining him. No ill will intended.
Honky
July 4, 2017 @ 8:25 am
Trigger,
So I give my opinion.
Then someone talks about kicking my ass, so I generously offer them the chance.
And you’re blaming me?
What a joke!
If you really cared about having a civil comments section, you would’ve deleted his original comment, before I ever responded to it.
Ulysses McCaskill
July 4, 2017 @ 10:48 am
Give it a rest Hoss. You’re a troll.
Honky
July 5, 2017 @ 7:34 am
Yeah. Everybody who disagrees with you, or doesn’t like what you like, is a troll.
jtrpdx
June 29, 2017 @ 8:30 am
At least Honky is predictable and consistent, if nothing else.
HawkbitAlpha
June 28, 2017 @ 11:55 pm
Surely, you mean envy. Hate is a strong word…
Gina
July 5, 2017 @ 11:48 pm
It’s total envy. If you really don’t like someone, you don’t spend this much time on them. I’m still sticking with the Sturgill stole his girlfriend theory.
Gina
July 5, 2017 @ 11:50 pm
And sorry, Hawk, I was referring to Honky for the envy comment.
James Hooker
June 29, 2017 @ 12:14 am
John’s an old family friend. He does things like this. A couple months or so ago, the Missus was in Dublin (while I was home watching the farm- sheesh) and Fiona hauled her off to John’s concert.
During the show, she slips out of the box to phone me – just to rub it in – that John’s guitar player that night was the un-announced “Jason Fucking Isbell !!” Stab me in the liver.
Liz Hackett
June 29, 2017 @ 1:36 am
Please don’t hate me. I have been a John Prine fan for many years. This is his second visit to our town this year. I am so looking forward to this concert which is taking place in the Town Hall Theatre where I used to be an usherette when I was a teenager. The last gig there was 800 at it. This one 250 at the most. Lucky us.
Jack Williams
June 30, 2017 @ 7:46 am
No hate. Longing, maybe. To see them in Galway City would be magical. Was last there in 2004 with my Irish mother (not a “Galway Girl” but your fellow Connaught girl from Leitrim, so she is. đŸ˜‰ ) and it’s a lovely place. Enjoy.
Trigger
June 30, 2017 @ 9:15 am
Obviously (or maybe not), the “hate” part was hyperbole.
Jack Williams
June 30, 2017 @ 9:25 am
I assumed it was hyperbole.
Paul
June 29, 2017 @ 7:47 am
I have my tickets to the show in Omagh. Sorry to rub it in but I’m very excited
RG
June 29, 2017 @ 9:07 am
There will be more Americans in attendance than Irish. Guaranteed. His fans are so devoted, they will gobble up these tickets and pay whatever to get across the pond to attend.
Stork
June 29, 2017 @ 1:32 pm
Tickets are only 90 USD, but the airfare is what will get you.
scott
June 29, 2017 @ 1:42 pm
Yeah, if that bridge would ever get built, I’d drive to the show.
Robert St
June 30, 2017 @ 8:06 am
Yikes ! I paid $50+ for the show in Orange Beach this spring. The venue put tickets on a one-day sale for just $20 the day before the concert, but I had already bought the more expensive ticket. Of course, this was a much larger venue – 10,000-ish, mostly full.
Lone Wolf
June 30, 2017 @ 3:11 pm
Trig, it’s always a treat to see an artist snub the old money making machine and play these kinds of shows. I thoroughly enjoy when a band/artist who is playing for thousands of people decides to do something at a club or some venue that holds a few hundred people. The most common reason I’ve read is, “We miss the intimate feeling and connection we had in the clubs. It’s hard to get that in a stadium.” I’m more and more interested in Sturgill Simpson. Thanks for the article!!!
PK
July 1, 2017 @ 6:14 pm
I was lucky enough to see Sturgill in a few small shows in Glasgow and Perth a few years ago and he’s kept in touch with his Scottish friends since then.
Johnny Robinson
August 1, 2018 @ 8:41 am
I was fortunate enough to be at the Omagh gig. The first words Sturgill spoke was ‘you’ve no idea how much i need this.’
Sounded like he needed a break from everything stateside