Chris Stapleton

“I can live a lot of places, in a lot of different kinds of music and have fun with that, but I still feel like I’m me in those things. I’m not trying to impersonate somebody else,” Chris Stapleton told Apple Music in 2023 about finding his voice, in a trajectory that led him to become 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. 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. Traveller grew through word-of-mouth enthusiasm, leading to multiple Country Music Association awards and Grammys, a Saturday Night Live appearance, and a spot on Game of Thrones. He followed his breakthrough with 2017’s From a Room: Vol. 1, and few months later, its second volume. His fourth solo album Starting Over (2020) and 2023’s Higher continued to cement his presence in the industry. 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, P!nk, Melissa Etheridge, and Taylor Swift, while artists like Adele and Kelly Clarkson have cut songs that he wrote.