The start of November signals the countdown officially being ON for the release of Chris Stapleton’s next studio album, Higher. With just nine days until we can enjoy this album filled with gems, I know I have been soaking up all the Chris Stapleton content.
With singles of “White Horse,” “I Think I’m In Love With You,” and “It Takes A Woman,” we have seen Stapleton’s prolific songwriting already shine on the promotional singles for this album. No doubt about it, Stapleton is opening the vault, as he always does, finally releasing songs that have been marinating over the years.
He first sang (that we have record of) “It Takes A Woman” back in 2013 at Nashville’s Station Inn when Stapleton was focusing on his songwriting career, and he recently revealed the title track of the album, “Higher,” has also been in hi back pocket for quite some time.
During a recent sit down with The Today Show, Stapleton revealed that he wrote “Higher” over twenty years ago.
“The title track “Higher” is what 22… 23 years old. That song was on the first demo session I ever did when I moved to town (Nashville) as a songwriter. I wrote that song by myself, and it’s been hanging around ever since.”
Willie Geist, who was conducting the interview, naturally was curious as to why it took Stapleton so long to pull that track off the shelf and what was the deciding factor to finally take it to the studio.
“I think I was probably afraid of it for a long time. My wife would always push for that song and be like, ‘You should try that.’
I was always like, ‘Eh, I don’t know if I have it right now, I don’t know if I have that anymore.'”
What he is referring to is the high notes found in the chorus of the song. After he makes that statement, a snippet of “Higher” plays in the background, highlighting the incredible range that Stapleton’s vocals can hit.
“That’s me on a good day.”
Good day? You can sing anybody in the business under the table, Chris… let ‘er rip.
There is no doubt he has a one-of-a-kind voice, and later in the interview, he shares that he tried to box it up for a long time, even trying to be a Vince Gill. Selfishly glad that didn’t pan out for him because we have one of the most talented voices in music now unleashing his power onto fans.
Man, I can’t wait to hear what else Higher has in store for us.
“It Takes A Woman”
