re: New Chris Stapleton Out Today

Is it sold out already?

I'm wondering if Houston is sold out now

Just gave it a listen and I like it. It does have a very bluesy feel that I think for the most part goes well with his voice.

I didn't love the beginning. I found "Broken Halos" only okay, and it is hard to listen to "Last Thing I Needed" without comparing it to Willie Nelson's version. This version is good, but first time around I do like Willie's better.

For me it gets better after that and I think the middle section is really strong. Second One to Know, Up to No Good Livin', and I Was Wrong are very good.

Closes out pretty well, Them Stems is nice and lively and Death Row ends it on a strong note.

I wanna like Chris Stapleton but all of his songs sound the same. The alt bro country sound is so played out

I'm a little late to this party but I wanted to listen for awhile. Here are my first impressions...

- This album is filled with a bunch of songs that are-like Traveller-scattered from the past 10 years. Folks who have mentioned a song like Death Row-which I think is fantastic with the sparseness and the occasional rail car recording dubbed in-have a point. But they recorded so much in Studio A that they had to split the work into two albums. They may have had to slice the tracks down the middle unevenly and it got added into this one.

-As I mentioned, the sparseness! I love this about Stapleton and Cobb in general. Just get the hell out of the way, and don't be afraid of giving the artists and the bare essentials from an instrumental standpoint room to roam.

Either Way is haunting. Stapleton absolutely wails here and as mentioned before, tracks like this allow him to show off his vocal talent which is at its peak here.

Death Row may just be my favorite track.

Last Thing I Needed, First Thing This Morning is a huge hat tip for Chris. He considers this one of the best examples of country music songwriting in existence today. Covering it is an homage not only to Nelson's singing talent but also to Gary Nunn and Donna Farrar as songwriters. Beautiful song.

Them Stems is a fun example of his own talents as a songwriter.

Broken Halos as a song was inspired by a conversation with a friend who mentioned the way Keith Richards referred to friends who passed away as Broken Halos in his book. This was the one he performed on Stern BTW.

Up To No Good Living is my #2 on this album.

I will go a little against the grain here an so say I thought that his wife's backup vocals didn't mesh well. This album is so wonderful to me on the whole-and this genre is so starving for quality, authentic work-that this is really splitting hairs and Stapleton gets a pass for it.

Cobb is an effing genius. I'd love to see or hear what he could do with an Adele or a Taylor Swift. I truly think he could probably produce me to a gold record. LOL. He's so egoless. The country music industry has been unable to find anyone so willing to get the hell out of their own way long enough to let the music speak to the listener for the most part outside of him.

I expect his influence to shift radio back towards country's roots. I'm excited.

Anyway, sorry for the delayed bump. Now if Jamey Johnson would just give Dave Cobb a ring.

Can y'all imagine a Stapleton/Johnson/Isbell/Thompson modern day collab ala The Highwaymen? Would boggle my effing mind.

blah blah... I cry in my whiskey cuz ole girl left me