Chris Stapleton – Higher

Chris Stapleton is an anomaly in country music, having more in common with Americana than Nashville, yet he is beloved by the country music establishment. Chris plays stadiums, despite his humble style and barely sounds country, he sounds like a ’70s rocker. He isn’t pretty, but he does have a cool outlaw country look.

I am not a big fan, but every time I hear his music I like it. I saw him live at Lollapalooza when he was promoting 2015’s Traveler – he was awesome and he rocked. I saw him perform “Tennessee Whiskey” live with Justin Timberlake on the Jimmy Fallon post-Super Bowl show in Minneapolis (2018) and he completely upstaged JT. Traveler resonated with me, but his subsequent albums fell flat.

He has a new album, Higher, and so I gave it a listen and I like it. It sounds like a well crafted singer-songwriter album from the late 70s. He has soulful vocals that reminds me of a country Al Green. The arrangements and mix are gorgeous (of course they are, Dave Cobb is producing). The guitar solos are short and tasteful (Stapleton plays most of the licks and rhythm). Lyrically, he is an adult – the usual Nashville bro tropes (pickup trucks, getting drunk, hookups, etc.) are absent. In summary, he creates tasty grooves on Higher. Maybe all his albums are this good and I was just not in the right place to appreciate them. If you have not listened to Chris Stapleton, this is a great place to start. If you are a long-time fan you can argue if this is his best yet. This would be a great reference album to test drive a stereo.

If you only have the patience to listen to one song, make it “South Dakota.”