A Sailor's Guide to Earth

Prior to the album's announcement, Simpson stated in an interview with GQ that "what's next is already finished... Quite honestly, I need about six months at home with my family."[3] On March 3, 2016, Simpson released "Brace for Impact (Live a Little)" on YouTube and his website; the next day he released the nine-song track list of A Sailor's Guide to Earth.[4] A week later, he published the music video for "Brace for Impact", which was directed by Matt Mahurin and contains the Grim Reaper, a hot rod coffin and sailboats.[5] On March 24, 2016, Simpson released his cover of Nirvana's "In Bloom" along with its music video, also directed by Matt Mahurin. Simpson said, "I wanted to make a very beautiful and pure homage to Kurt [Cobain]."[6] Streaming of the album became available on April 7, 2016, on NPR's official website.[7]

The song "Oh Sarah" was previously recorded by Simpson's former band Sunday Valley and appeared on their only full-length album, To the Wind and On To Heaven, in 2011.

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	8.3/10[8]
Metacritic	86/100[9]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[10]
The Daily Telegraph	[11]
Entertainment Weekly	A−[12]
The Guardian	[13]
The Independent	[14]
Mojo	[15]
Pitchfork	8.0/10[16]
Rolling Stone	[17]
Spin	7/10[18]
Uncut	9/10[19]

A Sailor's Guide to Earth received widespread critical acclaim upon its release. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from music critics, the album has received an average score of 86, indicating "universal acclaim", based on 19 reviews.[9]

The album debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, and No. 1 on the Top Country Albums chart, selling 52,000 copies (55,000 units when tracks and streams are included) in its first week.[20] The album sold a further 13,400 copies in the second week.[21] The album has sold 217,900 copies in the US as of October 2017.[22]

Following his Grammy win, Simpson saw a 346% increase in streaming on Spotify.[23]

All tracks are written by Sturgill Simpson except "In Bloom", which is written by Kurt Cobain.

• Arthur Cook – cello
• Jefferson Crow – piano, Wurlitzer
• Jonathan Dinklage – violin
• Dan Dugmore – pedal steel guitar
• Robert Emmett – keyboards, moog synthesizer, organ, synthesizer, background vocals, Wurlitzer
• David Ferguson – engineer, mixing
• Clark Gayton – trombone
• David Guy – flugelhorn, trumpet
• Ian Hendrickson-Smith – alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, tenor saxophone
• Laur Joamets – electric guitar, slide guitar
• Whitney LaGrange – violin
• Miles Miller – drums, background vocals
• Dave Roe – bass guitar
• Sturgill Simpson – 12-string guitar, acoustic guitar, moog synthesizer, synthesizer, lead vocals, background vocals
• Neal Sugarman – tenor saxophone
• Dougie Wilkinson – bagpipes
• Garo Yellin – cello
• Ebonie Smith – assistant engineer