10 Years Ago: Chris Stapleton Revolutionizes Country with Landmark Album

There are just a few landmark records that you can point back to in the history of country music and legitimately claim they revolutionized the genre in fundamental ways.
There are just a few landmark records that you can point back to in the history of country music and legitimately claim they revolutionized the genre in fundamental ways.
It’s just the ACM Awards. And it’s just their “New Artist of the Year” categories that are split into three separate awards. But the good guys won, and it does perhaps portend positive things for the future.
The debut country album from Shooter Jennings called Put The ‘O’ Back in Country was a critically-important moment in the country music revolution we’re currently in the midst of.
Producer Dave Cobb has been announced as UMG Nashville’s CCO, or Chief Creative Officer. This puts one of the primary actors in the country music turnaround of the last decade in a direct position of power.
Cross Canadian Ragweed and Oasis have reunited, and Jamey Johnson has announced his first new original album in 14 years. In fact, Johnson hasn’t just promised a new album, but a series of them.
Here we are in a moment in country music custom made for the neotraditional sounds of Midland, and here they are invoking the era in music when folk rock turned into mom rock on the easy listening station.
The new song comes from the new Oak Ridge Boys new album called “Mama’s Boys” to be released on October 25th. The album is not just a tribute to their own mothers, but mothers around the world.
Whether the world is ready for them or not, the Alabama-bred roots music collective known as the Red Clay Strays are here, and surging in a way that is reminiscent of the meteoric rise of other independent-minded performers.
Depending on who you talk to, Sturgill Simpson’s new album ‘Passage Du Desir’ is either a serious Album of the Year contender, or a big letdown. Such is the polarizing environment that persists around Sturgill Simpson these days.
The Red Clay Strays are already taking the country and roots world by storm with their throwback Sun Records-inspired sound. Their new album produced by Dave Cobb and backed by RCA Records only promises to up the ante.
Jesse Welles has taken to social media, going where even many of the supposed bravest Americana songwriters are unwilling to go after weighing what sharing the honest truth might do to their careers.
Sturgill Simpson is releasing a 10th Anniversary edition of his landmark and iconic breakout album “Metamodern Sounds in Country Music.” The album is given credit for turning the tide in country music.
The Red Clay Stray are now major label artists. Announced on Saturday, March 30th, the throwback Sun Records-inspired outfit from Alabama has officially signed to RCA Records, which is a division of Sony.
Patient, purposeful, authentic, vulnerable, and expressive, Ol’ Kayce Dutton isn’t just relying on his Yellowstone cred and what your girlfriend thinks is a cute butt to get by. He put in his time, paid some dues…
Along with being a founding member of the band since its inception in 2000, Brit Turner was the actual brother of Blackberry Smoke bass player Richard Turner, and was also considered the big brother to everyone in the band.
At this point, Blackberry Smoke has nothing more they need to prove to anyone. They’re an institution, and the Georgia natives have stepped up to fill the shoes of the Southern rock bands that have come before them.
As the name implies, the new movie has a major musical component, pairing it perfectly with a soundtrack that could have implications well beyond the film, and expose an audience to important music and performers.
It may not be the music that most defines your life, but it’s music you don’t mind moving in and out of it. It’s Chris Stapleton, which means always on brand, always enjoyable, even if rarely exceptional.
Here comes the newest installment of the Hunger Games movie franchise that not only has a bunch of deserving artists on the soundtrack, but has a significant musical element throughout the script.
Those who are generally timid of nature, go ahead and turn back now. But for the rest of you who love their music loud and Southern, it’s time to celebrate the announcement of a brand new album from Blackberry Smoke.
There are a lot of threads and tentacles to talk about and run down when it comes to the ultra viral explosion of Oliver Anthony and the video for his song “Rich Men North of Richmond.”
Here over 10 years later, country and Americana music continue to be significantly influenced by ‘Southeastern,’ evidenced by the emulation of the album’s songs by so many songwriters.
“There are the songs of Lori McKenna, and then there are the songs of everyone else in country music. Lori McKenna songs should constitute their own subgenre in the way she’s so deftly captures feelings and sentiments…”
Similar to his previous releases, Stapleton is not saying much to the public about what to expect from the album, what the inspirations behind the album are, or anything else. Instead he’s allowing the music to speak for itself.