Chris Stapleton’s highly anticipated new album, Starting Over, debuts this week at No. 1 on the Billboard Country Albums chart and #3 on the Billboard 200 with over 102,733 units. The album also tops Billboard’s Americana/Folk Albums and Digital Albums charts and is #2 on Billboard’s Top Albums chart.

Out now on Mercury Records Nashville (stream/purchase here), Starting Over is an album of startling prescience, featuring fourteen tracks that examine life’s simplest joys and most serious struggles. Once again produced by Grammy Award-winning producer Dave Cobb, the record is already receiving overwhelming critical acclaim:

“Chris Stapleton may have the album of the year with Starting Over”—American Songwriter

“a sure-footed masterpiece…one of the year’s finest albums”—Associated Press

“Simply put, there are few recording artists in country operating at Stapleton’s level, and Starting Over keeps the bar very high.”—Billboard

“a dynamite and dynamic new album from the mighty-voiced Kentucky native…the singer-songwriter is hitting new heights, nailing the crossroads of country, rock, gospel, and pop across 14 tracks.”—Entertainment Weekly

“14 rich, intricately-wound odes to tiny admissions and big emotions”—Esquire

“He has nothing left to prove, but somehow, he just gets incrementally better…This is as good as any of his albums and maybe just a tad better.”—Glide

“mixes beautifully stark songwriting with blues, country, and rock melodies, allowing Stapleton’s sturdy, propulsive vocals to carry the show”—GQ

“vividly exemplifies the complex emotional character of Stapleton’s best music. He’s burly but soft. Tough yet vulnerable. A protector of his loved ones and a man in perpetual search of shelter.”—Los Angeles Times 

“What makes Starting Over unique is its emotional center…Stapleton cuts through the tangled jungle of pre-COVID life like a machete, clearing a new path forward.”—Nashville Lifestyles

“Chris is at the top of his game with this record. It sounds like a record from a great.”
—NPR Music

“Starting Over may be Stapleton’s best album yet…every song on the album comes as a perfectly wrapped gift to the listener”—No Depression

“The chill Nashville trailblazer feels at home in songs that echo his pop songwriting and his country roots.”—Rolling Stone

“if Starting Over offers a statement of principles, it’s that Stapleton is going to make Stapleton music, equal parts country, Southern rock, raw sentimentality, and self-reflective singer-songwriter-ism.”—Slate

“It is easily one of the best records I’ve heard this year. It’s easily one of the best country records I’ve heard in a long time. And I have no doubt it’s going to be one of the best country records I’ve heard this decade once everything is said and done.”—The Needle Drop

“lands precisely where country meets Southern soul: with grit, details, clarity and ache.”
—The New York Times

“the results are stunning…his most personal work yet.”—The Ringer

“expands a sonic identity and storytelling fervor that Stapleton established on his paramount debut, Traveller, and its two-part follow-up, From A Room Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.”—The Tennessean

“He has [Willie] Nelson’s tender touch, but his bluesy side is much louder; his is a part-acoustic, part-stinging approach in which Nelson’s Trigger meets B.B. King’s Lucille.”—Variety

“It’s every bit the tour de force his breakthrough album was…Elegant writing and delicate musicianship combine in an album ranking among the year’s best.”—Vulture

In celebration of the release, Stapleton was recently a guest on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” performing the album’s title track and speaking with the host (watch the performance HERE and interview HERE). Additionally, Stapleton was also featured earlier this month on NBC’s “Sunday TODAY with Willie Geist,” NPR’s “Morning Edition” and performed an acoustic version of “Starting Over” at the 54th Annual CMA Awards.

Starting Over finds Stapleton back in his second home, Nashville’s historic RCA Studio A (with additional work done at Muscle Shoals Sound and Compass Sound Studio), surrounded by his trusted collaborators as well as some new faces. In addition to Cobb (acoustic guitar), the record features his beloved wife, Morgane Stapleton (vocals, tambourine), with J.T. Cure (bass) and Derek Mixon (drums). Special guests include legendary musicians Mike Campbell (electric guitar), Benmont Tench (Hammond B3 organ) and Paul Franklin (pedal steel) as well as the All Voices Choir who are featured on “Watch You Burn,” written by Stapleton and Campbell.

Kentucky-born Stapleton is a 5x Grammy, 10x CMA and 7x ACM Award-winner and one of the country’s most respected and beloved musicians. Following 2015’s quadruple platinum breakthrough solo debut album Traveller, Stapleton released two #1 albums in 2017. Both From A Room: Volume 1 (certified platinum) and From A Room: Volume 2 (certified gold) take their name from legendary RCA Studio A, where they were recorded with Cobb. Released to overwhelming critical acclaim, The Tennessean praises, “Both are rich with the textures of Stapleton’s vocals that make him one of country music’s most beloved artists, classic country sounds and thoughtful articulate lyrics about love, life and pain.” He was recently announced as the first-ever “Artist-Songwriter of the Decade” recipient by the Academy of Country Music and will resume his extensive “All-American Road Show” tour next year. Highlights include headline shows at Washington State’s Gorge Amphitheatre, Chicago’s Wrigley Field, New York’s Madison Square Garden and “A Concert for Kentucky”—a special performance benefitting his newly created Outlaw State of Kind Hometown Fund to be held at University of Kentucky’s Kroger Field onApril 24. Presented by Live Nation, the performance is the first concert ever held at UK’s Kroger Field and will feature very special guests Willie Nelson & Family, Sheryl Crow and Yola. 100% of the concert’s net proceeds will go toward Chris and Morgane Stapleton’s Outlaw State of Kind Hometown Fund. Established in partnership with the Blue Grass Community Foundation, the fund will specifically support local and national organizations directly impacting Kentucky, with initial grant distributions focusing on music and arts education. See below for complete itinerary.

STARTING OVER TRACK LIST:

1. Starting Over 

2. Devil Always Made Me Think Twice 

3. Cold 

4. When I’m With You 

5. Arkansas 

6. Joy Of My Life  

7. Hillbilly Blood 

8. Maggie’s Song 

9. Whiskey Sunrise 

10. Worry B Gone 

11. Old Friends 

12. Watch You Burn

13. You Should Probably Leave 

14. Nashville, TN