Critics' Poll topper Sturgill Simpson on his breakthrough year...

A few years ago, Kentucky native Sturgill Simpson was working as a conductor in Utah, switching out intermodal trains in a small switching yard. He soon took a management position, and after about a year-and-a-half of long hours and high stress in a job that was ultimately making him unhappy, Simpson, urged on by his wife, moved back to Nashville - where he'd lived for a time in the mid-Aughts - and resumed his music career.