When Chris Stapleton moved to Nashville, he’d sit up all night in the garage basement apartment he rented, playing fiddle tunes and carrying on into the night. On one of those nights, the question came up in conversation: “What would a dude in a country song do if he ran out of whiskey?”
Stapleton’s good friend said: “I think he’d get probably get stoned.” Sitting in the studios of Sirius XM Outlaw Country hosting his “Traveller Hour” radio special, Stapleton shared, “That’s how the song started and finished. And there you go.”
That was long before he became an “overnight” sensation winning three Country Music Association awards for Best Male Vocalist, Best New Artist and Album of The Year.
Stapleton was recounting the inspiration behind his debut album Traveller. On a “Traveller Hour” rebroadcast over Thanksgiving weekend, the show offered a one on one encounter with Stapleton recorded before stardom struck on a Wednesday night in October.
In 2013, Stapleton’s father passed away. His wife Morgane gave him a ’79 Jeep Cherokee and he headed west for some “head clearing.” As the sun was coming up, he says he was thinking about life and wrote the title track that would become “Traveller.”
Stapleton grew up in Kentucky. His father was a coal miner. Ten years ago, Stapleton, then 27, came home for a holiday. He was used to seeing his father say grace over every meal but for some reason, he didn’t this time. The phrase “Daddy don’t pray anymore” stuck in his mind. Stapleton went home and wrote the song and tucked it away. Two years ago when he passed away, he felt it should be a song he should record and play.
In the song, Stapleton describes him bowing all the way to the floor. He remembers the two not always getting along but shares a fond memory of going to bed and hearing his father pray for his son.
Stapleton used to be in a bluegrass band called The Steeldrivers and got to play with some of his favorite people, including Mike Henderson. He shared how he has always been a fan of bluegrass.
One of them was “Tennessee Whiskey” which was written by David Allan Coe and made popular by the great George Jones. Stapleton decided he would “re-imagine” it. It is a quintessential country song in which Jones and now Stapleton lament hitting bottom but is saved by the redemptive power of love. Coe once stepped onstage at Farm Aid in Champaign, Illinois nearly thirty years ago to sing it with Jones.
Stapleton chose to play Coe’s spoken story song “The Ride.” In the song, written by Gary Gentry and J.B. Detterline Jr., surprise builds as a hitchhiker is picked up by the ghost of Hank Williams on a ride from Alabama to Tennessee. Hank Williams Jr. later covered the song which warns about the perils of stardom. If Stapleton became an overnight sensation a few weeks ago, it only took fifteen years of toiling in Nashville as an aspiring songwriter. He has co-written songs that have been covered by Trace Adkins, Alan Jackson, Luke Bryan, Josh Turner, Tim McGraw, Patty Loveless and Lee Ann Womack. Stapleton had a five year stretch in which he won a “Most Performed Song” from ASCAP. “Whiskey and You,” which was originally recorded by Tim McGraw, made its way back to Traveller this year.
After “The Ride,” it seemed fitting that Stapleton chose to play Waylon Jennings’ “Are You Sure Hank Done It This way” that was emblematic of the outlaw movement that swept country music, and still stands as a reference point and conscience of a genre gone astray. And perhaps that’s why Stapleton’s performance of “Tennessee Whiskey” and “Drink You Away” with Justin Timberlake, struck such a nerve at the CMA Awards.
Stapleton says Willie Nelson’s “Last Thing I Needed First Thing This Morning” is one of the most well written songs and one that always sticks out in his mind. He tapped Nelson’s longtime harmonica player Mickey Raphael who he says was kind enough to come down and play on a few tracks for Traveller. Stapleton recorded it in the storied RCA Studio A in Nashville where Dolly Parton, Waylon Jennings, Elvis Presley and other legends made some of their historic records.
Stapleton’s curiosity and ability to reach back and draw on country music tradition is likely one of the reasons why his music has resonated as much as it has. One of the songs he played on the Traveller Hour was the stomping “If You want To Get To Heaven” by the Ozark Mountain Daredevils made over forty years ago. “I kind of backtracked to that,” he shared. “I first heard it as a Hank Jr. cut. I realized whoever that was I really liked the sounds and I can see why Hank really wanted to cover it.”
Stapleton went on to talk about its greater significance.
“I think that’s the great thing about music. It can live on and somebody can make it new. Somebody someday will make that song again and somebody will have to backtrack and retrace it and they’ll find all the great versions. That’s the beautiful thing about songs.”
Originally posted here.
