Sturgill Simpson aka Johnny Blue Skies ‘”Why Not?” Tour is one of the hottest tickets of 2024, selling out venues across the country with rave reviews from press and fans in every city. Every marathon 3-hour performance so far is streaming now exclusively on nugs, where you can track the electric performances from Santa Barbara to Nashville – and we’ll have every show on the upcoming November leg too.
Listening at home is fun…but we want to give you the opportunity to experience the show firsthand!
Right now and till November 8th, we’re running an exclusive giveaway for our subscribers for a chance to win your choice of two GA Pit tickets for either the Hampton, VA show on November 15th, or the Huntington, WV performance on November 16th.
Enter now at nugs.net/contests, and for anyone who can’t make it to these shows, catch the “Why Not?” Tour near you at sturgillsimpsonlive.com, or look for next-day tour audio to be available for streaming or order.
Three exclusive archives from The White Stripes are now available for streaming in the nugs.net app, featuring performances from Stockholm, Oslo, and Copenhagen during a three-night run in May of 2003. From The White Stripes’ archivist Ben Blackwell on this month’s ‘Third Man Thursday’ releases:
Having survived the all-eyes-on-them April tour in support of the release of Elephant, the band kicked off the European leg in May with a three day journey through Scandinavia.
It didn’t get much attention at the time, but the Elephant touring cycle was actually supposed to start in March, with a secret performance at SXSW. With that show canceled after Meg broke her arm, and the album’s release pulled-in by two weeks due to online leaks, April became a tightly packed end-to-end event. Pretty much every one of the performances that month had an additional occasion to go along with it, like an insanely-curated showcase. From the release of the album on April 1st and the 5-star review in Rolling Stone, to the tour kickoff in Wolverhampton on the day Elephant went to number 1 in the UK, to the debut of the video for “Seven Nation Army” – where you can catch a glimpse of the cast on Meg’s left arm, to the radio broadcast from London – the first time that many fans would get to hear the new songs live, and then back stateside for the hometown shows in Detroit, to performing with Loretta Lynn in New York, the afternoon club show and evening radio broadcast from Boston, an unprecedented 4 night residency on Late Night with Conan O’Brien performing to an audience of millions each night, to the iconic photoshoot with famed photographer Annie Leibovitz, to the one-shot-on-goal at Coachella back when the festival was a single weekend – as openers for the reunion of Iggy and the Stooges no less, and then finishing off with back-to-back nights in San Francisco “the first city to like us” where a fan would make good on that history by throwing an elephant squeeze toy onstage that Jack would keep on his keyboards throughout the rest of the Elephant tour (which you can still see in Under Blackpool Lights), and then a final stop coming back down to earth with a low-key club show in San Diego on April 30th. Just as soon as the month would come to a close, the band would head right back to England for a one-off festival slot on May 4th, Elephant would be certified Gold on May 9th, and they would be off to Scandinavia to start the trek across Europe.
To get a sense of just how unique these shows are, look no further than the way the run starts, with Jack taking to the stage at the appropriately-named Cirkus in Stockholm with lines from Arthur Brown’s “Fire”: “I am the god of hellfire, and I bring you fire!”. Hell yes.
These shows feel a lot like a residency, except instead of being 3 nights at the same venue, it’s 3 days across 3 countries. They are breaking in new ideas, debuting songs, and stretching the sets longer – culminating with the show in Copenhagen, the longest they had ever done by that point. This is the sound of the band in the Elephant workshop.
While these performances each have their own character, there is also a common thread across the three nights via the introduction of the song “Mr Cellophane” from the musical Chicago. A small addition to an already varied set, serving as a vaudeville counterpoint to the sinister blues of “Take a Whiff on Me” introduced in April. While a natural fit, there is also a bit of symbolism in the choice. A song about a man who feels invisible, performed by a band that was quite literally everywhere at the time. The performance of “Mr Cellophane” at these shows would get a different rendition each night, fitting with the feel of each show. The opening night in Stockholm gets the live debut, performed as a single verse and chorus sung with the keyboards. The second night in Oslo gets an additional verse, with the vocals getting a looser and more energetic delivery, and the third night in Copenhagen gets an unique acapella version – like the setlist that night, stretched out for maximum effect. There is an embarrassment of riches here. In addition to the debut of “Mr Cellophane” and the first known performance of Little Richard’s “Ooh! My Soul” since the Jack White and The Bricks show in 1999, Stockholm is a powerhouse run-through of the live set, complete with a shout out to local heroes The Hives – via a quote of their song “Main Offender” during “Astro” and “Jack the Ripper.” Oslo gets the live debut of “Girl, You Have No Faith In Medicine” alongside brutal versions of “Death Letter” and “One More Cup of Coffee” both nearly collapsing in a fury of out of tune glory. Copenhagen brings the full “Razzle Dazzle” via a stunning 36 song set, consolidating the ideas from the previous two nights and serving as a benchmark for the shows to come.
There’s perhaps no better advertisement for these shows than the poster that originally accompanied them, featuring a circus monkey bashing away at the band’s instruments. Equal parts playful innocence and unpredictable mayhem, nicely foreshadowing the performances themselves. For as much as one could gush over the setlists and the one-of-a-kind moments here, the shows are made all that much better when you realize how loose they are. A skipped lyric here, a false start there, a guitar out of tune. And just like the monkey on that poster, look at how much fun they’re having.
Later in the year, the band would sit down for an interview with David Dye on NPR’s World Café. Seek out the full interview, and you’ll be treated to an in-studio performance of “Mr Cellophane.” You’ll also hear this quote from Jack, a guiding principle for the ages: “It’s like when you don’t wanna do something perfect, it’s like trying to be an anti-perfectionist. It’s really perfect by not trying to be perfect.”
Stockholm – May 13, 2003 From the unique opener of lines from Arthur Brown’s “Fire” to the “Stockyard, Stockhouse, Stockholm!” introduction to the audience, and the debut of “Mr Cellophane” from the musical Chicago, the enthusiasm here is off the charts. Listen to the off-mic yells from Jack when the guitar cuts out during the intro to “Seven Nation Army” before coming back in with a snarl, or the shout of “Alright Meg!” to kick off “Let’s Shake Hands,” which features “Clarabella” and a brief quote from Little Richard’s “Lucille” before segueing into “Ooh My Soul”, the only known performance by the Stripes, and the first since the Jack White and the Bricks shows in 1999. After a mic-drop in “John The Revelator” something falls onto the keyboards, holding down a note that carries over into “Ball and Biscuit”, where Jack uses the error to his advantage by tuning his Airline to pitch. Even with that technical issue, the version of “Biscuit” here is still unique, as it’s the first to feature the riff from Howling Wolf’s “Smokestack Lightning”, which would also get thrown in the next night and would feature periodically throughout the rest of the band’s live career. There is also the playful “Did anybody make any mistakes today?” exchange, a nod back to shows in the early days when Jack would engage in similar dialogue with the audience. Look out for the insertion of lyrics from the Hives “Main Offender” during “Astro” and “Jack the Ripper” and the post-show shoutout to both the Hives and Sahara Hotnights. An excellent start to the tour.
Oslo – May 14, 2003 With a warm “Hello Norway! My name is Jack, and this is my big sister Meg on the drums, from Southwest Detroit, and we think you’re pretty good looking!” the surprises continue. This show gets the first live performance of “Girl, You Have No Faith In Medicine”, played as if it had been in the set for years. “Mr Cellophane” again gets an airing, with a second verse added. “Ball and Biscuit” again gets the quote from “Smokestack Lightning”, with a third person switch-up in the lyrics with “Jack White’s strength is ten fold!” “Hotel Yorba” also gets a unique reference to a “dirty old road in Grand Rapids Michigan!”. Meg had a cold during this run of shows, and just makes it to the last lines of “In the Cold Cold Night” before giving a polite apology “you’ll have to forgive my cold!” Adding to just how intimate this gig is, this may be the only show to end the main set with “We’re Going to Be Friends”, complete with Jack asking the crowd “Are we friends yet Norway?” before joking “How about that Meg? You thought you didn’t have any friends!”. Matching this warmth is a good bit of chaos. Listen to “Death Letter” going full self-destruct into a storm of out of tune feedback, Jack going full scream battling the Airline at the end of “One More Cup of Coffee” – making it one of the best live renditions of the song, and “Cannon” getting an insertion of “St. James Infirmary” with a fantastic extended guitar solo section before going straight into “Boll Weevil” to close out yet another excellent show.
Copenhagen – May 15, 2003 A special show to close out the run. Even the intro music is unique here, as the band take the stage to the sound of “The Wells Fargo Wagon” from The Music Man being played over the house speakers: “Oh, the Wells Fargo Wagon is a ‘comin, now I don’t know how I could wait to see. It could be something for someone who is no relation, but it could be something special just for me…” This is the longest show that the band had ever done up until this point. We get yet another variation on “Mr Cellophane”, this time as a unique acapella rendition between “You’re Pretty Good Looking” and “Hello Operator.” Instead of “Death Letter”, there is the combination of “Stop Breaking Down” into “Little Bird.” “Look Me Over Closely” gets a one-time quote of “Razzle Dazzle” from Chicago as an opener, and this show features both “Girl, You Have No Faith In Medicine” and “Hypnotize” – one of the few to feature both songs in the same show, alongside covers of “Clarabella”, “Small Faces”, and an absolutely stunning rendition of “Five String Serenade” by Arthur Lee as a bookend to an excellent “Offend In Every Way.” There are songs spanning all 4 albums here, played one after another after another. By the time they get to “Boll Weevil”, Jack gives a laugh, acknowledging “This is the last verse of the last song of the night!” Unlike the previous two nights, there isn’t much between song banter here. Not much else to say here that the music doesn’t already make crystal clear. A truly inspired performance that sets the bar for the rest of the Elephant tour. An absolute must hear.
Stream these three new shows, and all other exclusive archive releases from Third Man Records with a 7-day free trial. Explore The White Stripes catalog and start your free trial here.
It’s not just about delivering you the best in class concert audio and video, day in and out we’re striving to bring more value to our subscribers and enhance our product. Over the course of 2022 we made significant advancements to our app, a lot of it you’ve seen, and a lot of work goes on in the backend to enhance your streaming experience. There’s so much to celebrate from 2022’s advancements, but here’s a few that we’re really proud to share in our 2022 Year In Review recap.
P.S. Please make sure your app is updated to the latest version to take full advantage of the features and upgrades below.
Subscriber Exclusive Livestreams Our subscribers gained a big new benefit this year with the launch of Subscriber Exclusive Livestreams! These shows are available to all paid subscribers for no additional cost, and have featured live and archival concerts from Metallica to Billy Strings, Wilco, The Revivalists, Goose, and many more. This feature has fast become a fan favorite, and we’re working hard on adding these shows to our streaming on-demand catalog. Stay tuned, there’s some big announcements in store here for 2023.
CarPlay Enhancements We redesigned the CarPlay interface to be more intuitive, and introduced Recommendations and Continue Listening into your driving experience. We also fixed some key bugs including; resuming songs after an incoming call, fixing broken images, and implementing a more intuitive navigation to find the music you love.
Android Auto For the first time, Android users were able to utilize Android Auto to enhance their listening experience while driving! Android Auto support unlocked a number of key features for users including an intuitive interface for playing as well as browsing the nugs.net catalog directly through your car’s display. Our latest features like Recommendations and Continue Listening were also added for a seamless experience between your app and your vehicle.
Android SD Card Support Even more great news for Android users, 2022 saw the added support of SD cards for offline downloads, allowing users to use the extra space on their SD card to download more shows. This means you are no longer limited by the on-phone storage limit and can download many more shows to listen to when you can’t (or don’t want to) stream them over data.
Recommended Shows (Personalized Recommendations) Finding new music to listen to has never been easier! New in 2022, we’re taking cues from your favorite music and are now introducing artists to explore and shows you’ve never heard before. Check it out in the ‘For You’ section of the app, and find a new or archival concert we think you’ll love!
Continue Listening Pick up where you left off. Now, jumping back into the show you were listening to earlier today (or last week) has never been easier. We’ve saved the show you’ve been listening to, so you can jump back in and listen to that encore.
Player UI Facelift One of the most visible changes to nugs.net in 2022 was the new design of our player screen. We did away with the circular scrub bar and instituted a more user friendly interface for controlling your audio playback.
For You Screen We added a new tab to the nugs.net mobile app in 2022 – the ‘For You’ screen. This new feature allows you to keep up-to-date with your favorite artists and their new content, making sure you never miss a show from artists you follow. Recommended Shows and the Continue Listening feature has been added here too, providing an easy place to discover new music and jump back into shows you’ve started.
Genres One of the biggest additions to the nugs.net website this year has been the Genres tab on the Browse Artists page. You can easily bounce between genres and check out our catalog’s offering, whether it’s Classic Rock, Metal, or Jamgrass, we’ve got you covered.
Recently Added Want to know what the absolutely freshest shows on nugs.net are? Now you can know. Our Recently Added landing page provides an easy to view list of the latest releases on the platform. Whether it’s a show from last night, or a recently unearthed archive from 1988, you can always listen to the latest show ASAP by checking out the Recently Added page.
Self-Service Portal While our customer service team loves helping our subscribers, we know sometimes it’s easier to just do it yourself. That’s why we launched a totally new Self-Service Portal in 2022 for managing your subscription. Easily upgrade to HiFi, manage your payment method, or update your billing address with just a few clicks.
This week’s 2022 retrospective takes us down the rabbit hole of our favorite cover songs from the last year. ‘Subjective’ is a key word here, and to keep it at 25 covers with no more then one per artist, presented some tough decisions. This list is solid though and each song deserving of a listen, so dig and find a new version of your old favorites.
nugs.net subscribers, in the mobile app you can stream all the tracks below in the playlist here. New to nugs.net? The professionally-mixed audio from all these songs/concerts are available to stream with a 7-day free trial.
The (Subjective) Best Covers Of 2022 (in artist alphabetical order):
BILLY STRINGS “War Pigs” by Black Sabbath (w/Widespread Panic’s Duane Trucks) 10/31/2022 – Asheville, NC
BOBBY WEIR & WOLF BROS “Jailhouse Rock” by Elvis (First time played) 3/10/2022 – Memphis, TN
DOGS IN A PILE “Great Balls Of Fire” by Jerry Lee Lewis 10/28/2022 – New Orleans, LA
DOPAPOD “Brain Stew” by Green Day 11/04/2022 – Boston, MA
EGGY “Madman Across The Water,” by Elton John (Also featured the Dead’s “Slipknot” and Floyd’s “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” teases) 10/31/2022 – Charleston, SC
GOOSE “So Fresh, So Clean” by Outkast (With very special guest Big Boi from Outkast) 10/8/2022 – Austin, TX
GOV’T MULE “Big Bottom” by Spinal Tap 10/29/2022 – New Orleans, LA
Having a special guest sit-in at a show can make for a unique and one-of-a-kind experience, and some of the most memorable concert moments. In this week’s 2022 Year In Review we take a look back at some of our favorite guest appearances of the year, and shows that are destined to be legendary concerts. The list of honorable mentions is exhaustive, and it’s challenging to pick just one from each band to highlight, but hopefully you find a show here to stream again or discover for the first time. Dig in and chime in, we’d love to hear your favorite guest sit-ins of the year.
Our Favorite Guest Appearances Of 2022 (in order of show date):
MY MORNING JACKET: 3/2/2022 – Riviera Cancun, MX
Featuring Phish’s Trey Anastasio for the three-song encore at their annual One Big Holiday festival. The following nights featured Brittany Howard and more.
Listen back to one of the sweetest moments of the year as Jack’s then girlfriend Olivia Jean joins him on stage for a proper marriage proposal, then wedding!
This show was nothing but guests, a night of funky Grateful Dead tunes featuring Steve Kimock, John Medeski, Al Schnier, John Kimock, George Porter Jr., Reed Mathis, plus very special guest Duane Betts.
The Ryman run featured guests each night, and the closing night saw legends Les Claypool, Bobby Weir, Ronnie McCoury, and Marty Stuart join the stage for one of the year’s best concerts.
PIGEONS PLAYING PING PONG: 5/21/2022 – Thornville, OH
Billed as ‘The Domefest All-Stars’, the show featured PPPP with guests Peter Anspach of Goose, Jake Brownstein of Eggy, plus members of Funk You and more. Peter also joined the Pigeon’s earlier set at the fest.
THE INFAMOUS STRINGDUSTERS: 5/6/2022 – Morrison, CO
Red Rocks always brings out the best in a band, and the best guests. In this show we see Paul Hoffman from Greensky Bluegrass, members of California Honeydrops, and Karina Rykman.
In the band’s debut at Radio City Music Hall, the show started with an all acoustic set followed by a second set and encore with surprise guest appearances by Father John Misty and Phish’s Trey Anastasio. Later in the year, we’d get ‘TABoose’ tour and tons of top-notch Trey sit-ins, but this is where it started.
THE STRING CHEESE INCIDENT: 7/17/2022 – Morrison, CO
Few shows were bigger this year then SCI’s Red Rocks performance, featuring an all Grateful Dead second set and guests Billy Strings and The Infamous Stringdusters Andy Hall.
At the Northwest String Summit we heard a number of acoustic tunes and also saw guests Paul Hoffman of Greensky, Yonder Mountain’s Allie Kral, and Jennifer Hartswick.
This throwdown at Fiddler’s Green featured guests Jerry Douglas, SCI’s Kyle Hollingsworth, Ronnie McCoury, as well as Jay Collins, Steven Bernstein, and Erik Lawrence .
Their Levon Helm Studios debut saw Ben Atkind of Goose and Rusted Root’s Michael Glabicki join in, amongst a slew of debut covers by The Band & Rusted Root.
Part of John Mayer’s Rise For The River benefit concerts, this full show featured his Dead & Company bandmate Bobby Weir for a very special acoustic duo performance.
Hard to pass shows with Mike Campbell and John Popper as our favorite, but this concert with guests Oteil Burbridge and Tom Guarna on ABB’s “Dreams” and Oteil with Eric Krasno on the Grateful Dead’s “Sugaree” really shines.
A must listen, featuring an all acoustic set, before a horns-driven second set with Morphine’s Dana Colley and Trey Anastasio Band’s Jennifer Hartswick and Natalie Cressman.
In this special 9/11 performance in NYC, fans were treated to a guest appearance by the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s Chad Smith on Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World.”
It was just a one set performance for Mempho Music Festival, but it was a big one with The Allman Brothers Band’s Chuck Leavell joining in for 4 songs including “Jessica.”
With surprise guests ranging from Billy Strings to members of Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, & P-Funk, this show’s diversity in guests puts it as a standout moment.
This Thanksgiving day show saw their introduction into the Colorado Music Hall Of Fame, LoS then welcomed Sam Bush for the entire show, Billy Failing from Billy Strings, Lindsay Lou, and more!
At The Helping Hands Benefit Concert, the show featured an acoustic set with Avi Vinocur, three live debuts, and St. Vincent on “Nothing Else Matters.”.
In the week’s ahead we’ll be taking retrospective trip through the year of live music, including best cover songs, favorite guest sit-ins, and more. This week, we take a look back at our new-to-streaming artist in 2022, from icons of classic rock to new bands exploding upon the scene, we’ve added nearly 30 artists this year and we’re not done yet! Explore the catalogs below, then delve in to their official concert audio with a nugs.net free trial.
NEW STREAMING ARTISTS ADDED IN 2022…
Apollo Suns (19 shows): Jazz, funk, and psychedelic grooves.
Bruce Springsteen (200+ shows): Iconic singer-songwriter, streaming exclusively on nugs.net and for the first time ever.
CBDB (4 shows): Prog rock, jamband, and “joy funk”.
Daniel Donato (55 shows): Cosmic Country from Nashville, TN.
Darkside (5 shows): Electronic, psychedelic and progressive rock.
Dogs In A Pile (14 shows): Improvisation jam with deep roots in psychedelia, jazz, fusion, funk, traditional, and rock & roll.
Doom Flamingo (7 shows): A “six-headed synthwave beast” fronted by Kanika Moore, and Ryan Stasik of Umphrey’s McGee
Eminence Ensemble (21 shows) Rock to funk, metal, electronic, soul, and hip-hop.
Grateful Dead (161 shows) One of the most influential bands in music history, and the complete streaming catalog is on nugs.net.
Holly Bowling (35 shows) Solo pianist with a specialty in Grateful Dead & Phish covers.
Horseshoes & Hand Grenades (7 shows): Progressive High-Energy String Band with roots in old-time, folk and bluegrass.
Iron Maiden (20 shows): British heavy metal leaders, active from the 1970’s to today.
Jimi Hendrix (5 shows): One of the most influential electric guitarists of all time.
Karina Rykman (2 shows): Bassist that “straddles the worlds of jam rock and indie pop drenched in psychedelia“.
Led Zeppelin (27 shows): One of the most successful and influential bands in the history of rock and roll.
Little Feat(5 shows): One of our newest additions with an everlasting legacy, with a sound that’s a fusion of rock, funk, country, and ‘New Orleans swamp boogie‘.
Neighbor (16 shows): Ambitious composition, soulful balladry, and a fearless approach to their lengthy improvisations.
Neil Young (39 shows): One of the most celebrated artists in music history, “touching on everything from noise-rock and synth pop to blues and rockabilly”.
Pixies (33 shows): Pioneers of the alt-rock movement that helped blaze the trail for artists from Nirvana to Radiohead and Pearl Jam.
Sammy Hagar (2 shows): Front man of Van Halen, he’s considered to be one of rock music’s most dynamic and prolific artists.
TAND(21 shows): South Florida improv-rock, the band is known for their expressive songwriting and vast catalog of originals and covers.
The Revivalists (23 shows): Great instrumental and vocal talents, they bring a new element of New Orleans flare to rock.
Yak Attack(10 shows): Electronic power-trio blends live-looping, house, breakbeat, electro-funk, drum & bass with a touch of trip-hop.
Yam Yam (5 shows): A vibrant blend of jazz, jam, funk, and soul.
YES (19 shows): Pioneers of progressive rock, with a “daunting virtuosity, cosmic lyrics, complex musical textures, and powerful yet delicate lead vocals”.
