Sturgill Simpson performs during Outside Lands Music Festival in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on Aug. 11, 2024. Mariana Garcia/STAFF.

SAN FRANCISCO — The sun was down, the fog rolled in, the wind kicked up and a light smattering of rain fell as Sturgill Simpson took the stage to close out the 2024 edition of Outside Lands. Simpson—who’s going as Johnny Blue Skies these days—felt in his element on day that featured more blues, country, folk and Americana than usual.

The headlining gig, as well as a fest night show at Bimbo’s 365 Club, were his first in about three years.

Sporting a shaggy mop of hair that covered his ears (maybe he hasn’t gotten a haircut in those three years), he and his band walked onstage to little fanfare, picking up their instruments and getting down to business.

Simpson’s material is rooted in country music but he’s not only a country artist.

Sturgill Simpson performs during Outside Lands Music Festival in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on Aug. 11, 2024.

There are so many moving pieces, from rock to folk and Americana. His Outside Lands set even felt a bit like a jam band show as many of the songs where joined together by short interludes. But that didn’t mean the musicians just kept trading solos. The music was alive, maaan. The set was a living organism. Simpson avoided banter. It was like dropping the needle on the record and letting it play on.

Opening with the barnburner “Railroad of Sin,” the band adeptly moved into the epic “Brace For Impact (Live a Little),” a track that brought out the psychedelic guitar strains before gaining steam into an all-out jam.

Matching the tempo to jump in and out of songs, Simpson moved through “A Good Look” and Southern rocker “Right Kind of Dream,” a new tune under his Johnny Blue Skies moniker. Then he adeptly turned on a dime, toning things down for the slow and mediative “All Said and Done,’ which featured a mournful sax solo.

Sturgill Simpson performs during Outside Lands Music Festival in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on Aug. 11, 2024.

Moving through the pedal-steel-driven “Welcome to Earth (Pollywog),” he transitioned to “It Ain’t All Flowers” and “Keep It Between the Lines.” There were some surprises along the way, starting with a jammy version of ’80s synth-pop song “The Promise,” by When In Rome.

Simpson added in a cover of Procol Harum’s iconoclastic “A Whiter Shade of Pale” next, before addressing the crowd for the first time.

“This is all I’m gonna say tonight, because I don’t like to talk,” Simpson said. “I’d rather just keep on playing. This is our third time playing Golden Gate Park. We played Hardly Strictly in 2014. We did Hardly Strictly in 2018, and we’re doing Outside Lands in 2024. Some of those shows were some of the greatest gigs we’ve ever been a part of. Thank you very much, San Francisco. You have a bright light inside of you; let it shine.”

Sturgill Simpson performs during Outside Lands Music Festival in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on Aug. 11, 2024.

Following “Life of Sin,” which recalled ’50s-era rock and roll, and the slower, twangier “Living the Dream,” he offered up the live debut of Johnny Blue Skies’ “If the Sun Never Rises Again.”

In another rare moment of reflection, he gave props to Post Malone and his country set earlier in the evening.

“I really love that guy … mostly because he always pays for dinner,” Simpson said.

He kept it all business down the home stretch, with “Turtles All the Way Down,” a cover of Moore and Napier’s “Long White Line” and closer “Call to Arms.” Just like they entered the stage, Simpson and his band simply walked off when they were done.

Follow photographer Mariana García at instagram.com/marianagphoto.