Chris Stapleton’s last visit to town was on the bill for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ final Chicago performance. The opening set at Wrigley Field occurred in the middle of a punishing summer rainstorm, but it didn’t dampen Stapleton’s spirits. Truth be told, the weather suited songs like the brooding “Outlaw State of Mind” and mournful blues of “Death Row” so well that it seemed like perfect staging. It was a memorable start to an evening of great music.
With multiple Grammy awards and other accolades for debut album “Traveller” and 2017’s “From A Room: Volume 1,” Stapleton is an accomplished artist whose star is still ascendant within country music. He is steeped in broader American popular music, however, whether it takes the form of country, soul, blues or rock ‘n’ roll. He has cannily escaped the limitations of an individual genre while maintaining authenticity in several.
Songs like “Nobody to Blame” are welcome at honky tonks among the good old boys, but others like “Broken Halos” have swagger aplenty to secure the approval of rockers like Petty. “Second One to Know” and “I Was Wrong” veer toward Memphis soul, reminiscent of Nathaniel Ratliff and the Night Sweats. Stapleton’s barrelhouse vocal delivery on the solo acoustic “Either Way” conveyed the kind of raw emotion that made a legend of Otis Redding during his too-brief career in R&B.
Other singles like “Up to No Good Livin’” reveal Stapleton’s sharp wit and deep love of classic country storytelling with heroes like Merle Haggard and George Jones. “I’ll probably die before I live all of my up-to-no-good living down,” he sings. The “Picasso of painting the town” can’t even bring flowers home to his lady without raising undue suspicion.
Stapleton bookended a productive 2017 with the release of “From A Room: Volume 2,” following Volume 1 by six months. The tender “Millionaire” describes riches and luxury that come from good love, even with a bare cupboard, lousy car and bare pockets. The song packs additional emotion with Stapleton’s songwriter wife Morgane on harmony vocal. “Scarecrow in the Garden” is a hard-luck story of a third-generation farmer driven to desperation when the family land will no longer produce. It’s a slice of classic country heartbreak.
The heavy crunch of roots-rocker “Midnight Train to Memphis,” however, owes as much to Led Zeppelin (or at least Bad Company) as anything from Nashville or Bakersfield. Reimagined from Stapleton’s former bluegrass band the SteelDrivers, the song mines the tradition of songs like Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues.”
Stapleton is a triple threat as songwriter, singer and guitarist. By all appearances, his career has legs and room to run. He appears in Tinley Park on Saturday, but it may not be too long before Stapleton is headlining Wrigley Field himself.
* Chris Stapleton’s All American Road Show, with Marty Stuart and Brent Cobb, 7 p.m. Oct. 6, Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, 19100 S. Ridgeland, Tinley Park. Tickets: livenation.com.
Jeff Elbel is a local freelance writer.ail: elbel.jeff@gmail.com
