Traveller - Chris Stapleton (2015)

Nashville can be a weird place sometimes. Like when Chris Stapleton wins the CMA award for “new artist of the year” in 2015 despite having knocked around the business for over a decade, including winning a Grammy with the Steeldrivers five years before.

But this album deserves all the praise it gets. Stapleton is a through-and-through country music guy, but has an edge of southern rock, psychedelic outlaw music, and the high and lonesome traditional bluegrass sound in his work.

If there’s a currency to be exchanged in the “dudes who sing country songs” industry, it’s whiskey. A cursory glance here shows me 6 of 14 tracks that are about or prominently feature Whiskey; there might be more. Whiskey is the country metaphor for heartbreak, whereas beer (preferably ice cold) is the stand-in for happiness. I’d love to hear from a country singer who has other affectations, like he eats avacados with peanut butter when he’s feeling good and paints his toenails while sitting naked in a kiddie pool full of Icy Hot when he loses his girl.

Tracks I Liked

Parachute - ode to codependency

Might As Well Get Stoned - a Hank Jr-sounding rocker

Was It 26 - lost time