CHRIS STAPLETON - OVO Hydro, Glasgow 17 October 2024

If there is anyone out there who is not familiar with Chris Stapleton, he is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist who is generally regarded as one of the biggest names to have emerged in country music within the last decade. However, for those who listen to his music he is so much more than a country act, is a leading songwriter (having ploughed his trade in Nashville writing more hits for big names than I could list here) and since establishing his solo career in 2015 has released five outstanding albums of the wider type of music which he wants to play which have attracted fans of country, rock, blues and Americana due to their richness and diversity in sound. In 2015 he also played a crossover cover of ‘Tennessee Whiskey’ with Justin Timberlake at the Country Music Awards which provided a breakthrough and since then his own cover of ‘Tennessee Whiskey’ has received over 1 billion streams on Spotify, with several of his own songs since also in the hundreds of millions of streams territory.

Back to the gig. In contrast to the grey outside, bringing early colour to the night were the wonderfully-named Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives who provided the sole support. With a name like that (and particularly uttering it in Glasgow), they deserve our respect and attention. Arriving part-way through their set, I initially thought that as a four-piece they appeared a little lost on the size of the stage and dwarfed by, the then, only half-full venue. However, as seasoned professionals, each also wearing different boldly coloured rhinestone suits and with their bass player and drummer also taking a turn on lead vocals, they did their best to warm up the crowd with their own blend of bluegrass and honky tonk, with a bit of boogie-woogie and rockabilly thrown in. While I hadn’t been familiar with his music, I was interested to read later that Marty was previously a member of Johnny Cash’s band, has had a solid solo career including being a Grammy winner and Country Music Hall of Famer. Much respect due.

As the venue filled up the closer we got to the time that the main act was due on, the number of cowboy hats of differing sizes, colours and styles throughout the crowd also increased to the extent that I was starting to feel a tad under-dressed. But, maybe next time …

Anticipation built further as the house lights went down and The Band’s ‘Up on Cripple Creek’ was played in full through the PA system. This was a great choice of song, not just because it’s a great song, but also as it set the scene perfectly for the night. The Band were instrumental in mixing up musical styles including folk, rock, country and Americana, and with it’s prominent jazz/funk bass line ‘Up on Cripple Creek’ got the groove going and set the mood for an evening of cross-genre music.

The wall of noise which met Chris and the band’s arrival on stage was immense - probably not surprising, as he has played the multi-band Country 2 Country festival in Glasgow previously, but I think tonight marked his first headlining tour of the U.K.

Wasting no time, they launched into the soaring and more rock-based ‘White Horse’, the first single from his latest album, ‘Higher’ (2023). As a song, this provides a great vehicle for his prodigious ability as a guitar player while allowing his vocals free rein. This also provided almost immediate reassurance through how quickly the band filled the Hydro with their sound. I’d been a bit wary about this before the gig and during the support, as while this is a more modern purpose-built venue for concerts, arenas are cavernous spaces and not the best acoustically or most forgiving.

‘Nobody to Blame’ maintained the pace with its country blues before the raw guitar riff of ‘Second One to Know’ which was even bigger live.

Taking it down, Chris and his wife Morgane delivered a heartfelt ‘Millionaire’ with Morgane’s harmony vocals providing the perfect counter-balance to Chris’s rawer vocal delivery.

After only a few songs, a number of things had already started to become clear. The sound quality was really high, the guitar sound was big, Chris’s vocals were superb (a description I would revise to flawless before the night was done) and while the quality of his recorded output has been high, these songs were written to be played live where they take on another life.

While we were seated quite far from the stage and would have seen little without the benefit of the screens on either side of and above the stage, our elevated position did enable us to see more of what was happening on the stage. Positioning themselves within the front half of the stage, leaving the rear more for a backdrop, this kept the band closely positioned and flanked across the stage - Chris (on vocals and guitar) and Morgane (on backing and harmony vocals) front and centre, with Mike Eli LoPinto on guitar to his right, JT Cure on bass to Morgane’s left and with Derek Mixon on drums behind and flanked by Paul Franklin on pedal steel and Lee Pardini on keyboards - a tight formation which they maintained for most of the night, barring regular guitar changes, and of which many sporting teams would have been proud.

The tone had also been set early by Chris saying that they had a couple of hours tonight and were going to play as many songs as they could. Mark made. This was going to be purely about the music. No gimmicks, no dancers, no fancy stage show - just pure music of the highest quality. And while the lighting did change this was more to enhance the mood of each song.

If I’m honest, I hadn’t handled the release of ‘From a Room: Vol. 1’ and ‘From a Room: Vol. 2’ in 2017 the best. While they avoided the ‘80’s trap of Guns’n’Roses releasing ‘Use Your Illusion’ (1 & 2) or Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Human Touch’ and ‘Lucky Town’ albums on the same day, releasing two albums only 6-7 months apart felt like too many new songs to take in at once and I didn’t appreciate them the way I would have if I’d had more time. As such, I’ve tended to favour ‘Traveller’ (2015) and ‘Starting Over’ (2020) and not given as much listening time to the two volumes of ‘From a Room’ although I’ve made up for this in the last few years.

One such song was ‘Midnight Train to Memphis’ from Vol. 2. Played live with the stage bathed in red lighting, this was a beast of a song. Swampy rocking blues played and sung with an intensity which has to be experienced this was way beyond what might be considered country music and with Chris vocally summoning something guttural from deep within. If we believe the often told story about Robert Johnson selling his soul at the crossroads to play the blues, I can only assume that Chris and his band were there a good few generations before and provided lessons to the old Devil and his grandchildren on how to sing and play the guitar to pass on to others.

For those only familiar with a few of his gentler whiskey-soaked love songs, the rockier side to his music may be more surprising, but not so to fans of his albums or earlier band The Jompson Brothers.

‘Might As Well Get Stoned’ switches the dial to gently strutting and swaggering and is great fun live.

Changing the mood to more traditional country territory, the gentle and mournful ‘What Am I Gonna Do’, about the difficulty of moving on, is emotionally-disarming and the soulful and sensual funk of ‘Think I’m In Love With You’ reveals another side to their sound. While some fans might think that their favourite singers are singing their songs to them, it’s clear from watching the big screens why Chris and Morgane are positioned where they are - with Chris looking into her eyes when he sings … making these songs even more intimate and, on more than one occasion, reminding me of Fleetwood Mac.

The rest of the band retreat from the stage to allow Chris to play an acoustic version of his first, pre-album, single ‘What Are You Listening To?’ - one of the most beautiful and heartfelt songs you’ll hear.

‘Starting Over’ lyrically provides another take on moving on, this time with another partner and ‘You Should Probably Leave’ (a massive audience favourite) provides a slow sensual groove containing sensible advice which your head might provide and which your heart and other senses might ignore.

Approaching the end of the gig the deeply atmospheric ‘Cold’, probably my favourite Chris Stapleton song, is simply sublime. ‘Fire Away’ and ‘Traveller’, both from his debut album, are greeted for the classic songs which they’ve become and sung communally and loudly by the Glasgow audience.

‘Broken Halos’ lifts the audience participation higher before the set closes with a nine minute version of ‘Tennessee Whiskey’ including sung band introductions.

Looking genuinely taken aback by the warmth of the reaction which they received throughout the gig, they returned to the stage after sustained applause for a single encore of ‘Sometimes I Cry’.

While another couple of encores would have been great, the preceding two hours had been intense, uplifting and emotionally-draining (all in a very good way) and as the band left the stage it was clear that we had all experienced something very special.

In line with his own creative abilities, Chris Stapleton has assembled a band of exceptional musicians. The quality of songwriting, musicianship, their tone and feel, and vocal delivery was of a level which few artists can match. And at the heart of that was THAT voice and in which Chris Stapleton tonight probably delivered one of the best live vocal performances of any artist, gender or genre which I’ve heard in over 40 years of live music.

Simply flawless.

GMcA