The country music scene in 2021 is a fascinating clash of long-held, traditional beliefs up against fresh-faced, more diverse and inclusive mindsets. The sheer amount of money and exposure to be made in the genre has unwittingly set off a chain reaction of questioning as to what exactly country music should look and sound like in the current era.<\/p>\n
For all the massive success enjoyed by your Luke Bryans, Carrie Underwoods, and Blake Sheltons, a glossy sheen envelops their music that I would argue caters to the lowest common denominator. Don\u2019t get me wrong, there is a time and place for that; not every song has to be\u201d<\/span>\u2018Good Vibrations.\u201d But my biggest problem with what passes for the most \u201cpopular\u201d <\/span>in country music is that it could be better. The stories could avoid the cliche, the stereotypes, etc.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a subset of artists currently on the scene that would probably align themselves more so with a genre description of Americana of Outlaw Country. Chris Stapleton, for one, has planted his flag firmly in the realm of mass commercialization, yet his music never comes across as having sold its soul artistically or musically to gain that popularity. His peers continue to respect his output, even as he racks up the sales and awards. <\/span><\/p>\n I have been a fan of Stapleton ever since stumbling across his debut solo record Traveler<\/i> a few years back. His voice is immediately arresting, but it wouldn\u2019t be nearly as interesting if it didn<\/span>\u2019t have stellar songwriting to back it up. Over the course of his next two albums, Stapleton ably demonstrated that the listening public shouldn<\/span>\u2019t expect any decline in those capabilities in the near future. But after the 2017 release of From A Room Vol. 2<\/i>, Stapleton was relatively quiet for a couple of years, at least from a solo artist standpoint. It wasn\u2019t until November of 2020 that we received another record: Starting Over<\/i>.<\/p>\n The title of Starting Over<\/i> belies its sentiment; this record doesn\u2019t feature a Chris Stapleton who has decided to go back to basics, and strip down his sound. Instead, you hear an artist making the effort to add depth to his material, and push a little farther out on the ledge than some of his contemporaries might feel comfortable doing. For instance, using a full string section on the piano driven ballad \u201cCold\u201d is a genius move, reinforcing Stapleton\u2019s absolutely killer vocal, and providing shades of early Paul Buckmaster. There\u2019s an emotion resonance that would not have been present in the song\u2019s underlying, skeletal form.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n There might be an assumption that the lyrics to a song titled \u201cHillbilly Blood\u201d or \u201cArkansas\u201d could lead into the cloying or take the easy way out in portraying the subject matter. What Stapleton does instead though, is lean into darker imagery, or the straight up parody. While stylistically, \u201cArkansas\u201d doesn\u2019t really resemble a classic era Beach Boys song, it\u2019s hard not to read the lyrics as a Southern take on \u201cFun Fun Fun.\u201d You contrast the fast-driving, fun-loving narrator of \u201cArkansas\u201d with \u201cHillbilly Blood\u201d and it\u2019s day and night in tone and imagery. One would seemingly fall under the established canon of a country song, the other takes the opposite tack. It\u2019s that dichotomy which makes listening to Chris Stapleton such a pleasure; he is not afraid to go to places that other artists would avoid.<\/p>\n One of the tracks that received the most attention upon this album\u2019s release was \u201cWatch You Burn,\u201d Stapleton<\/span>\u2019s musical response to the tragic Las Vegas shooting of October 2017. I wouldn<\/span>\u2019t characterize Stapleton<\/span>\u2019s music as generally having a feeling of currency; to be frank it is one of the aspects of his songwriting that I\u2019ve long enjoyed. But here, the entire incident clearly sparked anger that was pent up for years and now has the chance to be fully realized both lyrically and musically speaking. Stapleton attacks the words with savagery, spitting out righteous condemnations over a gospel choir repeatedly reminding the subject matter \u201cyou<\/span>\u2019re gonna get your turn…\u201d Hearing Stapleton in this manner comes off as genuinely terrifying; it is a side of his personality that hasn\u2019t been revealed previously. <\/p>\n It\u2019s an impressive streak that Chris Stapleton is on right now; he\u2019s reached the point where anything he releases is most likely going to be worth a listen. Starting Over <\/i>is a continued refinement of the talents that he has demonstrated for years, and consequently it marks a new high point. Where he goes from here is up to him obviously, but it\u2019s a journey I\u2019m fully on board for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":34246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[10020],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-46079","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-chris-stapleton","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46079"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46079"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}