By Scott McLennan

In this overstuffed show, Sturgill Simpson presented himself as someone who, after too long away from the stage, was back because he was in love with playing for the sake of playing. 

Sturgill Simpson at MGM Music Hall, Boston

Cover art of Johnny Blue Skies’ (Sturgill Simpson) album Passage Du Desir.

Creatively, Sturgill Simpson doesn’t so much confound as he pivots, constantly moving away from whatever expectations listeners have of him at a given moment. Think of it as a commitment to perpetual stylistic overhaul.

When Simpson’s first album came out in 2013, audiences and critics christened him as a rising traditionalist of country music. The follow-up, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, found Simpson redirecting his music to serve up a sharper brand of contemporary alt-country. Then came a countrypolitan-soul album, full of songs inspired by the birth of his son (plus a Nirvana cover). Next came a hard rock record, followed by three albums infused with bluegrass and traditional country music. All of that unpredictable variety paved the way for this year’s Passage du Desir, which Simpson released under the name Johnny Blue Skies.

Yet through a 30-song show that spanned nearly three and a half hours Saturday at MGM Music Hall in Boston, Simpson pulled all his musical strands together into one big sprawling performance. He swerves aplenty, but he remains unmistakably Sturgill throughout.

The so-called “Why Not?” tour is Simpson’s first concert trek in four years. In this overstuffed show Simpson delivered, making up for  lost time as he dug deeply into his catalog and beyond.

The identity-shifting concept of Sturgill-as-Johnny Blue Skies never really panned out into something akin to David Bowie becoming Ziggy Stardust. That said, Simpson seemed to have a dramatic modus operandi for the evening —  and a fairly uncomplicated one at that.

Simpson, along with Laur Joamets on guitar, Robbie Crowell on keys and occasional saxophone, Kevin Black on bass, and Miles Miller on drums, elevated the bar band ethos to theater-worthy art. Simpson played guitar and sang with unflagging intensity and energy while his bandmates perfectly followed his lead through a push and pull of ballads and rockers, long jams and pithy twang, and classic rock and vintage country.

Woven among Simpson’s ample stash of original songs, the band tapped saloon populism with covers of the Allman Brothers Band’s “Midnight Rider” and Procol Harum’s “Whiter Shade of Pale,” playing these tunes alongside other repertoire staples penned by others, such as William Bell’s “You Don’t Miss Your Water,” a favorite among artists ranging from Otis Redding to the Byrds, and Steve Fromholz’s hit for Willie Nelson, “I’d Have to Be Crazy.”

And, when Simpson wasn’t playing others’ songs, affectionately bowing to his influences, he was summoning musical spirits in the many long jams he and the band locked into.

The show-opening “Brace for Impact (Live a Little),” for instance, exploded into a 20-minute jam evocative of prime Grateful Dead. Later, Simpson wrapped his song “A Good Look” around Led Zeppelin’s “Living Loving Maid.” Simpson’s approach yielded a concert whose pleasures were reminiscent of legendary shows of yore in venues such as the Fillmore East. Music aficionados speak with deep reverence about these experiences. Forget the showy theatrics, forget the easy lineup of hits, ignore conventional wisdom that today’s audiences have the attention span of a Tik Tok video. Simpson put himself out there as someone who, after too long away from the stage, was back because he was in love with playing for the sake of playing. And he was extending an enthusiastic invitation to the entire sold-out house to listen in.

Sturgill Simpson at MGM Music Hall, Boston. Photo: Sam McLennan

In that context, the new  “Johnny Blue Skies” songs — “Mint Tea,” “Scooter Blues,” “One for the Road,” “Right Kind of Dream,” “If the Sun Never Rises Again,” and “Jupiter’s Faerie” —  turned out to be the night’s highlights because they tapped into the concert’s emblematic embrace of a variety of moods and motifs.

This is  Simpson’s first performance tour since releasing the albums Sound and Fury and The Ballad of Dood & Juanita, and in Boston the band leaned into the former, diving into an epic rendition of “Fastest Horse in Town.” Earlier work was also present: Simpson’s songwriting has long been grounded in a gritty brand of existentialism, and gems such as “Turtles All the Way Down” and “Living the Dream” (both from 2014) remain resonant these days.

Simpson doesn’t chat much on stage, but did allude to the current spread of “toxic patriarchy.” His final song of the night, “Call to Arms,” was released in 2015, but this  stirring antiwar anthem could have been written yesterday. In this show, Simpson’s vision of healthy manhood was summed up in this lyric from “Call to Arms”: “Well son, I hope you don’t grow up/ Believing that you’ve got to be a puppet to be a man.” It came off as a powerful message of hope — as well as a warning.

Scott McLennan covered music for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette from 1993 to 2008. He then contributed music reviews and features to the Boston Globe, Providence Journal, Portland Press Herald, and WGBH, as well as to the Arts Fuse. He also operated the NE Metal blog to provide in-depth coverage of the region’s heavy metal scene.