No intro music, no explosions, no trapdoors. On the final evening of ACL’s first weekend, Chris Stapleton strolled onto the Samsung stage alongside his bandmates – including wife and backing vocalist Morgane – strapped on his guitar, and played with the same heart-on-his-sleeve conviction that’s turned him into a bona fide superstar in the past year.
The crowd couldn’t have asked for more.
Women in cowboy boots and men in Garth Brooks tour tees roared for the duration of the Kentucky native’s hourlong set, belting along to cuts from his 2015 debut, Traveller. Combining country outlaw grit and scorching blues-rock, Stapleton meets the authenticity quota that so many of his Nashville peers lack, transcending the confines of the genre with his powerhouse voice.
As sole six-stringer, Stapleton attacked his instrument on “Outlaw State of Mind” and unleashed his Chris Cornell-like howl on the slow-burning, bluesy epic “I Was Wrong.” Had Led Zeppelin sojourned to Nashville on their way to the Mississippi Delta, “Since I’ve Been Loving You” would have sounded exactly like this. Then came “Tennessee Whiskey.”
Like any polished superstar, Stapleton saved his biggest hit for last.
He gazed longingly into his spouse’s eyes as the two harmonized. She took one tantalizingly small step toward him as he lifted his guitar neck upward and launched into one final incendiary solo. The band, the crowd, the whirlwind of a year that’s propelled Stapleton to unfathomable heights all disappeared for a moment.
All that remained was a husband tenderly serenading his wife.
This article appears in September 30 • 2016.