Chris Stapleton, the new king of country?

His album Traveller was one of the best country discs of 2015. Over the years, Chris Stapleton has lent his songwriting to the whole of Nashville (but not only Nashville!), signing hit after hit for Kenny Chesney, George Strait, Adele, Luke Bryan, Tim McGraw and Brad Paisley, and co-writing with Vince Gill, Peter Frampton and Sheryl Crow. The native of Kentucky no longer has much to prove in terms of songwriting… However getting behind the mic was a different matter and so his first solo album, that he decided to record at the age of 37, had to be up to scratch. And it was. Sure, between 2008 and 2010 Stapleton had led the SteelDrivers, a nice bluegrass group, but this time it was time for him to write his own record - under his name and no one else's…

Traveller proved that Chris Stapleton possessed a truly gifted voice. From the ballads to the considerably more up-tempo tracks, he suited his songs from head to toe, sometimes even adding a touch of southern soul… Two years down the line, the songwriter is back with a superb follow-up: a contemporary country work that preserves tradition while remaining firmly in the present.

After a flawless first volume in May 2017 (From A Room: Volume 1), the second volume has been released this December (From A Room: Volume 2)! Recorded in the lair of the famous RCA Studio A in Nashville where Elvis, Waylon Jennings and other legends hung out last century, this record brings out a more rootsy side from its author. Stapleton still sings divinely well, bawling like a wounded wolf when necessary, playing the southern soul lover if needs be, and rolling out small touches of sticky blues. In short, the bearded-man from Lexington slaloms perfectly between the very personal and the more commercial, giving birth along the dusty road to a record that is just as good as Volume 1... Here's a little interview from Nashville, with Chris Stapleton on air with the Bobby Bones Show on WSIX-FM:

On 24th September, Stapleton participated in an event called A Concert for Charlottesville, an evening of music and unity that brought together several artists who wanted to respond to the violence of white supremacists, whose protest the month before cost the life of a peace activist:

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