Latest Release
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- MAY 1, 2024
- 1 Song
- F-1 Trillion · 2024
- Traveller · 2015
- Higher · 2023
- Starting Over · 2020
- Starting Over · 2020
- Higher · 2023
- Traveller · 2015
- From A Room: Vol. 1 · 2017
- Traveller · 2015
- Traveller · 2015
Essential Albums
- Chris Stapleton’s debut album didn’t sound like the singer-songwriter’s first go-around—and it wasn’t. A smooth, mature, and confident opening salvo, 2015’s Traveller conveyed the full weight of Stapleton’s vast experience in Nashville, resulting in a genre-shifting album that would become one of the biggest country releases of the 21st century. Produced by Dave Cobb, Traveller bridged the often wide gap between the genre’s radio hits and crossover audiences, going platinum six times over, and spawning a number of new standards—none more memorable, of course, than the completely reimagined country classic “Tennessee Whiskey.” After spending years writing songs, singing backup, and playing guitar for everyone from Brad Paisley to Lee Ann Womack to Kenny Chesney, Stapleton had gotten a taste of the limelight as lead singer for critically acclaimed bluegrass ensemble The SteelDrivers. Still, no one quite saw his solo takeover coming—perhaps because his warm, blue-eyed country-soul is so understated and familiar. Together with Cobb, Stapleton found a compelling signature sound, one that’s undeniably retro without feeling rehashed or overworked. In doing so, they pushed country radio’s doors open a little wider. Throughout Traveller, the singer’s smoky, warm rasp—there’s a reason whisky is the album’s recurring theme—threads together rollicking barn-burners like “Parachute” and “Nobody to Blame” with the acoustic melancholy of tracks like “Whiskey and You” and the clear-eyed “Traveller.” The album also finds plenty of room for the potent high harmonies of Morgane Stapleton—the singer’s wife, and Traveller’s not-so-secret and very crucial ingredient. Cobb’s production is all burnished, classic acoustic sounds—lush, but not overcomplicated. The team’s intoxicating, transformative power is exemplified on “Tennessee Whiskey,” a Dean Dillon and Linda Hargrove tune originally recorded by David Allen Coe and George Jones. The Stapletons and Cobb render the tune unrecognizable, turning a standard into an iconic, intimate, and timeless love song.
Albums
Artist Playlists
- The man who brought roots back to country.
- Lean back and relax with some of their mellowest cuts.
- Explore the tracks from the Kentucky singer-songwriter’s must-see road show.
- The young songwriter with an old soul brings Nashville songwriting back to basics.
- Grab the mic and sing along with some of their biggest hits.
Singles & EPs
Appears On
More To Hear
- Celebrating the release of Higher.
- The country superstar on “Weight of Your World.”
- The artist celebrates the release of Higher.
- Acclaimed producer Dave Cobb discusses 'From A Room: Vol 1.'
- A full episode of the best country collabs.
- Shania stops by to talk about 'Hole In The Bottle'.
- Some songs have a way of putting you right there.
More To See
About Chris Stapleton
Chris Stapleton’s debut album arrived at the right moment. Country music was awash in charged-up tunes about bikinis and tailgating, and Stapleton’s rawhide Kentucky voice immediately evoked earlier eras. He became one of Nashville’s most unlikely success stories. Stapleton (born in Lexington in 1978) was already an established songwriter for Kenny Chesney, George Strait, and others when he released his 2015 debut, Traveller. He was in his mid-thirties, with unfashionably long hair and an expansive beard (the best in Nashville since William Lee Golden threw away his razor). His mixture of Southern rock, classic country, and blues didn’t sound like anything else on the radio, and the songs were dark explorations of hard times and boozy unhappiness: “I drink because I’m lonesome, and I’m lonesome ’cause I drink,” he sang in “Whiskey and You.” Traveller grew through word-of-mouth enthusiasm, one person saying, “You’ve got to hear this guy” to friends who told their friends. Stapleton thought selling 75,000 albums would count as a triumph. Then, in November 2015, he won three Country Music Association awards, including the biggest prize, Album of the Year. Traveller went to No. 1 on the Country charts and sold nearly 3 million copies. Grammy awards, Saturday Night Live, and an appearance in Game of Thrones followed. The stark clarity of Stapleton’s songwriting, his carefully modulated baritone, and Dave Cobb’s guitars-forward production brought together mainstream country fans and alt-country hipsters, two groups that rarely meet. Stapleton, who records and performs with his wife, singer Morgane Stapleton, is refreshingly undogmatic for a traditionalist; he’s recorded with Justin Timberlake and with P!nk, and Adele and Kelly Clarkson have cut songs that he wrote. There’s little risk that he’ll run dry of material; by Stapleton’s estimate, he’s written more than 1,000 songs.
- HOMETOWN
- Lexington, KY, United States
- BORN
- April 15, 1978
- GENRE
- Country