Category: Chris Stapleton

Chris Stapleton – Starting Over (2020)

posted by record facts

Starting Over is the fourth studio album by American musician Chris Stapleton. The album was released on November 13, 2020, by Mercury Nashville. At the 64th Grammy Awards it won the award for Best Country Album.

The singer-songwriter’s fourth recording project consists of fourteen tracks produced with Dave Cobb, and features writing by John Fogerty, Mike Henderson, Mike Campbell, Susanna Clarke and Guy Clark. Interviewed by Vulture Magazine, Stapleton said: “There’s a lot on this record that I’m finding out, as I’m starting to talk about it a bit, was very reactionary and in the moment. On previous records, there was songwriting that probably took place in a working songwriter vacuum, that sat around for a number of years and found a purpose when it was time to make a record. […] This project is much more about my current day-to-day life.”

As an album title, Starting Over can’t help but carry connotations of an artistic rebirth, but three or four albums into his solo stardom, Chris Stapleton is in no position to rip it up and start again. Stapleton found his footing with 2015’s Traveller and he’s spent the years since digging deeper into his burnished groove, tying the binds between classic country, classic rock, and classic soul even tighter.
A new beginning isn’t in the cards for a singer/songwriter who has styled himself as an old-fashioned troubadour, an outlaw with a heart of gold singing sweet love songs as often as he kicks up dust. He’s a traveler on a long road, not quite forging into undiscovered country as much as finding fresh routes through familiar terrain.
Working once again with producer Dave Cobb, Stapleton underscores rootsy continuity not just with his own catalog, but with his idols. He takes the time to salute the pioneers who came before him by covering two Guy Clark songs here (“Worry B Gone,” “Old Friends”), along with a deep John Fogerty solo cut that pairs quite nicely with the swampy choogle of the original “Devil Always Made Me Think Twice.”
The biggest nod to the past arrives through a couple of key members of Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers joining the fold: Benmont Tench is on eight of the album’s 14 songs, while Mike Campbell co-wrote two of the record’s highlights, the funky vamp “Watch You Burn” and the rampaging “Arkansas.”
The former Heartbreakers are excellent foils for Stapleton and they also emphasize that he’s a bit like Petty in how he revives sounds of the past for the present and in how he turns out reliably sturdy albums.
Stapleton could use a bit of Petty’s flair — there’s not a lot of humor here, nor are there any flirtations with modern sounds — but his straight-ahead style nevertheless satisfies on Starting Over. [Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine]

Track listing

Starting Over – 4:00
Devil Always Made Me Think Twice – 3:51
Cold – 5:09
When I’m with You – 3:43
Arkansas – 2:58
Joy of My Life (John Fogerty) – 4:34
Hillbilly Blood – 4:05
Maggie’s Song – 3:31
Whiskey Sunrise – 3:22
Worry B Gone – 3:15
Old Friends – 4:01
Watch You Burn – 4:03
You Should Probably Leave – 3:33
Nashville, TN – 3:35

All tracks are produced by Dave Cobb and Chris Stapleton.

Personnel

Chris Stapleton − lead vocals (all tracks), background vocals (tracks 5, 7, 10), acoustic guitar (tracks 1–3, 6–8, 10, 11, 14), electric guitar (tracks 2–7, 9–13), mandolin (track 2), octophone (track 7), string arrangements (track 3)
Dave Cobb − acoustic guitar (all tracks except 10 and 14), percussion (track 5), string arrangements (track 3)
J.T. Cure − bass guitar (all tracks except 14), upright bass (track 14)
Derek Mixon − drums (all tracks), percussion (track 5), tambourine (track 3)
Morgane Stapleton − background vocals (tracks 1, 3, 4, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14), tambourine (tracks 2, 5, 10, 13)

Additional Personnel

Benmont Tench − Hammond B-3 organ (tracks 1, 3, 6, 8, 11, 13, 14), piano (tracks 3, 8, 11), upright piano (track 5), Wurlitzer (tracks 1, 8)
Mike Campbell − electric guitar (tracks 5, 12)
Paul Franklin − pedal steel guitar (tracks 10, 14)
Stephen Lamb − copyist (track 3)
String section (track 3)
- David Angell − violin
- Jenny Bifano − violin
- David Davidson − violin
- Conni Ellisor − violin
- Alicia Engstrom − violin
- Mary Kathryn Vanosdale − violin
- Karyn Winkleman − violin
- Kevin Bates − cello
- Austin Hoke − cello
- Carole Rabinowitz − cello
- Sari Reist − cello
- Kris Wilkinson − viola, string arrangements
Choir (track 12)
- Traneshia Chiles
- Tamika Harris
- Jordan Holland
- Lauren McClinton
- Marqo Patton
- Lenesha Randolph
- Shannon Sanders
- Melody Sheppard

Notes
Released: November 13, 2020
Genre: Country
Length: 54:00
Producer(s): Dave Cobb, Chris Stapleton

Label – Mercury Nashville

Chris Stapleton – From A Room: Volume 2 (2017)

posted by albums-update

From A Room: Volume 2 is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Chris Stapleton, released on December 1, 2017, through Mercury Nashville. Produced by Dave Cobb and Stapleton, the album comprises a range of music styles, including country, Southern rock and Southern soul. Commercially, it debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200.

Stapleton released From A Room: Volume 1 in May 2017, and confirmed the release of Volume 2 for later that year. Like its predecessor, the album takes its name from Nashville’s RCA Studio A, where the recording sessions took place. The album tracks “Tryin’ to Untangle My Mind”, “Hard Livin'” and “Midnight Train to Memphis” have been featured in his All-American Road Show Tour prior to the release. The latter song was previously recorded by his former band The SteelDrivers. The album opens with a cover of Kevin Welch‘s “Millionaire”, and closes with a cover of Homer Banks and Lester Snell’s “Friendship,” previously recorded by Pops Staples. The tracks “Millionaire“, “Scarecrow in the Garden” and “Tryin’ to Untangle My Mind” were released as a promotional singles.

When Chris Stapleton released the first installment of From A Room in May of 2017, it seemed possible that the two records would add up to a grand statement, but From A Room: Volume 2 is essentially the mirror image of its predecessor. Both records clock in at a swift 32 minutes, lasting no more than nine songs — brief even by the standards of ’60s or ’70s country, when it was common to release two or three records a year. Intentionally or not, Stapleton winds up evoking this era with the two volumes of From A Room, neither of which is dependent on the other but neither of which can be seen without its sibling.
If Stapleton released just one simple album as the sequel to his career-making, award-winning Traveller, it would’ve seemed like he was hedging his bets, but by spinning out two sturdy collections of songs, he catapults himself into the status of a lifer.
Truth be told, he was already angling at this narrative at the dawn of Traveller — he had a career as a professional songwriter in Nashville, just waiting for the right time to make a splash as a recording artist — but the fact that he churned out two strong, modest records within the space of a year speaks to his command of art. Stapleton doesn’t bother to expand his purview; he decides to deepen his sound on From A Room: Volume 2, heightening familiar sounds.
He cranks up up the guitars on “Midnight Train to Memphis,” evokes the ghost of Waylon on “Hard Livin’,” eases into the sunset on “Scarecrow in the Garden,” and simmers soulfully on “Nobody’s Lonely Tonight.” It’s a collection of moments, just like From A Room: Volume 1, but that’s the charm of From A Room: Volume 2. Stapleton isn’t crafting a major statement; he’s knocking out a bunch of songs that work on their own terms — and when the two records are combined, it’s clear he’s the lifer he intends to be.

A Kentucky.com music journalist stated traditional country and Southern soul “play into the record equally.” For a Rolling Stone reviewer the Americana album comprises country, folk, blues, Southern rock and soul. The opening track “Millionaire” is a mid-tempo soul-influenced heartland rock ballad driven by acoustic guitar, lyrically about “spare love” and appreciating relationship closeness over material wealth, with his wife and music collaborator Morgane on background vocals. The Southern rock track “Hard Livin'” comprises phase-shifted guitar riff, with a Rolling Stone writer comparing it to Traveller‘s “Nobody to Blame“.

Featuring Celtic-sounding verses, the ballad “Scarecrow in the Garden” tells the story of an heir of a West Virginia farm, who laments bad times not allowing him to enjoy the same prosperity of his ancestors, an immigrant family from Northern Ireland. The narrator in the bluesy rock and traditional country song “Tryin’ to Untangle My Mind” confesses his past habits of drinking whiskey, dating women and spending all his little money. “Nobody’s Lonely Tonight” is a slow soul ballad about looking for some comfort after giving up on love. “A Simple Song” was written with Darrell Hayes, Stapleton’s father-in-law, where the narrator is heartened by his family’s presence while dealing with quotidian struggle.
Lyrically, “Midnight Train to Memphis” is about a person that gets to listen to the train’s rumbling sound every day of his time in prison. Delivered alone, “Drunkard’s Prayer” finds the singer playing the part of a broken, lonely man who wants to change and seeks for forgiveness. The cover of the song “Friendship” is a country soul track, that differs from the original for its R&B influences, “deeper” groves and guitar tremolo.

Tracklist

1. “Millionaire” (Kevin Welch) – 3:30
2. “Hard Livin'” (Chris Stapleton, Kendell Marvel) – 2:59
3. “Scarecrow in the Garden” (Stapleton, Brice Long, Matt Fleener, Salvatore Polimeni) – 3:20
4. “Nobody’s Lonely Tonight” (Stapleton, Mike Henderson) – 3:26
5. “Tryin’ to Untangle My Mind” (Stapleton, Jaron Boyer, Marvel) – 3:14
6. “A Simple Song” (Stapleton, Darrell Hayes) – 3:36
7. “Midnight Train to Memphis” (Stapleton, Henderson) – 3:42
8. “Drunkard’s Prayer” (Stapleton, Jameson Clark) – 4:07
9. “Friendship” (Homer Banks, Lester Snell) – 4:25