CMA Male Vocalist of the Year Chris Stapleton is set to release his new album, Higher, on Friday (November 10th). Produced by Dave Cobb, Morgane Stapleton, and Stapleton, Higher was recorded at Nashville’s RCA Studio A. Across its 14 songs, Stapleton showcases his supernatural voice and musical versatility with songs that span genres and defy easy categorization. Alongside Stapleton (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, slide electric guitar), the album features Cobb (acoustic guitar, eclectic guitar), J.T. Cure (bass), Paul Franklin (pedal steel), Derek Mixon (drums), Morgane (background vocals, synthesizer, tambourine), and Lee Pardini (organ, piano).
When releasing new music, Chris and his team feel a combination of anticipation and apprehension about how fans will react. “Whenever we’re releasing new music, we don’t have a specific ritual really, but I think there’s a little bit of apprehension, a little bit of excitement mixed together wondering how fans will react, really,” he says. “I think that’s the main thing going on in our heads when we put something out is we hope whatever we’ve done will be something that people will gravitate to and enjoy.”
The new album follows 2020’s acclaimed Starting Over, which went on to win three awards at the 67th Annual GRAMMYs: Best Country Album, Best Country Solo Performance (“You Should Probably Leave”) and Best Country Song (“Cold”) in addition to earning Album of the Year honors at both the CMA and ACM Awards. Called a “a sure-footed masterpiece” by the Associated Press, the album landed on “Best of 2020” lists at NPR Music, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Esquire, Vulture, The Tennessean, and The New York Times, who declared, “Chris Stapleton’s roar isn’t designed to scare you off. It’s regal, an announcement of an alpha figure asserting his primacy…on this, his fourth album, the thrill is back.” Prior to Starting Over, Stapleton released a pair of Platinum-certified releases in 2017 — From A Room: Volume 1 and From A Room: Volume 2 — as well as his 5x Platinum breakthrough solo debut album in 2015, Traveller.
HIGHER Track List:
- What Am I Gonna Do
- South Dakota
- Trust
- It Takes A Woman
- The Fire
- Think I’m In Love With You
- Loving You On My Mind
- White Horse
- Higher
- The Bottom
- The Day I Die
- Crosswind
- Weight Of Your World
- Mountains Of My Mind
Audio / Chris Stapleton says there's always a little apprehension and a little excitement mixed together when releasing new music.
DownloadChris Stapleton (releasing new music) OC: …and enjoy. :22
“Whenever we’re releasing new music, we don’t have a specific ritual really, but I think there’s a little bit of apprehension, a little bit of excitement mixed together wondering how fans will react, really. I think that’s the main thing going on in our heads when we put something out is we hope whatever we’ve done will be something that people will gravitate to and enjoy.”
Audio / Chris Stapleton talks about the time in between writing the title track of his new album, Higher, and actually putting it on an album.
DownloadChris Stapleton (Higher title track) OC: …to me. :22
“’Higher’ is a song that’s been around a long, long time. I wrote it in 2001 in the first few onths of being a professional songwriter here in Nashville, and it was on the first demo session that I ever did here in Nashville. So, for it to come around 22 years later and wind up being the title track of an album is a pretty unique thing to me.”
