00-chris_stapleton-traveller-2015.nfo
Artist: Chris Stapleton
Album: Traveller
Bitrate: 226kbps avg
Quality: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.98.4 / -V0 / 44.100Khz
Label: Mercury Nashville
Genre: Country
Size: 107.51 megs
PlayTime: 1h 03min 04sec total
Rip Date: 2015-05-16
Store Date: 2015-05-04
Track List:
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01. Traveller 3:42
02. Fire Away 4:04
03. Tennessee Whiskey 4:53
04. Parachute 4:13
05. Whiskey And You 3:56
06. Nobody To Blame 4:04
07. More Of You 4:37
08. When The Stars Come Out 4:16
09. Daddy Doesn't Pray Anymore 4:09
10. Might As Well Get Stoned 4:37
11. Was It 26 4:49
12. The Devil Named Music 6:07
13. Outlaw State Of Mind 5:37
14. Sometimes I Cry 4:00
Release Notes:
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sometimes show evidence of a checklist. Eager to prove both currency and
adherence to tradition, these more daring country stars range over predetermined
territory, showing familiarity with Southern musical landmarks like the blue
hills, the swamp, the honky-tonk and the arena-rock amphitheater. There's almost
always a funny song on these album, and a family-focused tearjerker; there are
numerous references to hard liquor and soft-focused rural landscapes. There's
some fast picking and power-chord riffing, and a soulful moment that hits
purposeful transcendence. The best artists perform this predictable eclecticism
with skill and passion; they do care about, and have fun with, country's
touchstones. That said, a listener can anticipate each required turn, like the
compulsory elements in an Olympic skating routine.
On his debut solo album, Traveller, Chris Stapleton has the double axels and
triple jumps down, but he delivers each with a remarkable lack of showiness, so
this is because of his voice, which became one of Nashville's most beloved in
the years he spent leading the bluegrass-based SteelDrivers and singing on
albums by everyone from Dierks Bentley to Angaleena Presley to Vince Gill.
Stapleton, who was raised in Kentucky, sings with the power of a classic
Southern rocker, but modulates his rawness with a great sense of soul phrasing
and a seasoned balladeer's ability to scale down.
This decade's endless parade of blue-eyed pretenders could learn a lot from the
care Stapleton takes incorporating soul elements into a declamatory rocker like
"Nobody To Blame" or a smoky love song like "Tennessee Whiskey." Stapleton turns
the latter, previously recorded in laconic versions by both David Allan Coe and
George Jones, into an Otis Redding-style burner. His melismatic flights on the
verses never feel showy; they flow logically from the previous moments when he's
held back.
"Tennessee Whiskey" is one of two relatively recent country favorites included
on Traveller, allowing Stapleton to prove his bona fides with the genre's
songbook. (The other is the charming "Was It 26," previously recorded by the
Charlie Daniels Band, which now reads as gentle advice from the 37-year-old
Stapleton to hard-partying young fans of the likes of Luke Bryan.) The other
he is for his umami-providing background vocals. Stapleton takes back the
mournful "Whiskey and You" from Tim McGraw in a version that really feels like a
bitter hangover.
Elsewhere, Stapleton artfully employs his skills as a songwriting generalist:
There's the Texas dance hall sweetness of "More of You," a duet with the
pitch-perfect harmonizer (and his wife) Morgane Stapleton; the hard rock crash
of "Parachute"; the nod to Johnny Cash on "Daddy Doesn't Pray Anymore" and the
hat-tip to Hank Jr. on "Might As Well Get Stoned." The images of frisky devils,
fields full of stars and many empty bottles might not be shockingly original,
but they appear within stories that always register as immediate and personal.
Producer Dave Cobb allows Stapleton to lay back or push forward within
arrangements that don't have any gimmicks, only great playing and plenty of
space for that big voice to fill. Throughout Traveller, Stapleton presents
himself as a true Southern character, a family man who can't help but cling to
his vices and a searcher whose sometimes old-fashioned dreams of home don't
prevent him from wanting to roam the modern world. Has Stapleton lived all of
these stories of hard luck and wild times? I hope not, for the sake of his liver
become the gospel truth, he's utterly convincing.
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