PERFORMS “COLD” AND COLLABORATES WITH JENNIFER HUDSON DURING LIVE BROADCAST
16x CMA Award-winning singer, songwriter and musician Chris Stapleton led winners at last night’s 55th Annual CMA Awards receiving six awards: Male Vocalist of the Year, Album of the Year (Starting Over, as artist and producer), Song of the Year (“Starting Over”) and Single of the Year (“Starting Over,” as artist and producer). Stapleton also performed twice during the live broadcast: his own song, “Cold” (watch HERE), as well as a special collaboration with Jennifer Hudson in celebration of Aretha Franklin’s life and career—watch HERE.
The awards add to yet another triumphant year for Stapleton, who is currently in the midst of his extensive “All-American Road Show” tour. Of recent performances, the Charlotte Observer praises, “In a live setting, Chris Stapleton is a bit of a revelation, vocally and sonically, able to produce note-perfect facsimiles of the already-astounding studio versions of his Southern rock and outlaw country and bluegrass songs,” and went on to praise him as, “the soul of the show, the deliverer of raw, powerful, beautiful lyrics by way of one of the most uniquely arresting voices in country music today,” while the Austin American-Statesman asserts, “there’s probably no better touring act in country music at present.”
Upcoming “All-American Road Show” stops include two nights at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, Memphis’ FedEx Forum, Washington State’s Gorge Amphitheater and “A Concert for Kentucky”—a special performance to be held at University of Kentucky’s Kroger Field on April 23, 2022. The concert is the first ever held at UK’s Kroger Field and will feature very special guests Willie Nelson and Family, Sheryl Crow and Yola. 100% of the concert’s net proceeds will benefit Stapleton’s newly created 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. Tickets are on sale now at ChrisStapleton.com. See below for complete itinerary.
The tour further celebrates the release of Starting Over, which also won Album of the Year at the 56th ACM Awards and debuted at #1 on the Billboard Country Albums chart. Moreover, the album’s title track recently reached #1 at country radio’s Mediabase Chart, only Stapleton’s second chart-topping single as an artist following 2018’s “Broken Halos.” Released last fall 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 landed on several “Best of 2020” lists including NPR Music, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Esquire, Vulture, The Tennessean and The New York Times, who declares, “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.”
