Chris Stapleton’s newest record, Higher, releases across all platforms Friday, November 10th. It features fourteen tracks in total, including the title track by the same name.
While Traveller, Stapleton’s debut album, was only released in 2015, he has been writing music in Nashville for decades. While most of the songs he has put out in recent years have been written fairly neoteric, some have been on the shelf for years.
In a recent interview with TODAY, Stapleton revealed that he wrote the title track of the new record over two decades ago.
“The title track, Higher, is… well what year is it? It’s twenty-two years old, twenty-three years old. That song was on the first demo session I ever did when I moved to town as a songwriter.”
When asked why he didn’t release the song earlier on in his solo career, he replied:
“I think I was probably afraid of it for a long time and my wife would always push for that song. She was like ‘try that one’ and I was always like I don’t know if I have it right now, I don’t know if I have that anymore.”
It’s understandable that Stapleton feels his voice has shifted over the years and certain tracks just don’t feel as doable as in the past. That being said, any fan of his most likely questions how a man of that level of talent can have any fear over releasing a song- he could literally sing a phone book and people would listen.
Stapleton’s wife and backup singer, Morgane, has a large influence on him as a musician- he’s been vocal about this in the past. She clearly knows his voice and range better than anyone other than Chris himself. The You Should Probably Leave singer is one of the most soulful, skillful artists country music has to offer and it’s fascinating to see songs he has written long in the past, with a little nudge from his wife, creep back into his repertoire.
If Higher is anything like Stapleton’s previous work, it’s sure to be a country, bluesy, genre-hopping mix of tunes with deeply rooted stories. The new record drops November 10th and if you would like to check out his TODAY interview, view it here: