That was a dark time in country music.
We all know what was going on back in the mid-2010s, when we were knee deep in the crap that was the bro-country era of country music. Florida Georgia Line and Sam Hunt had burst onto the scene a couple years earlier and pioneered a new sound that would dominate country radio, leaning into pop and R&B sounds and overdone cliches about driving down a dirt road with your girl, drinking Fireball and partying in the middle of a field.
Sound familiar? It should, because it was pretty much every country song coming out of Nashville for a solid 5 years.
But all that changed in November 2015, when a then-relatively unknown artist named Chris Stapleton performed alongside Justin Timberlake at the CMA Awards. His song “Tennessee Whiskey,” which was a cover of a song that had originally been recorded by David Allan Coe and George Jones, shot to #1 on the charts, and so did his debut album Traveller, which was released 10 years ago today.
All of a sudden, there was a new standard-bearer for country music, and the bro-country sound fell out of favor as more authentic songwriting took over. (And not only that, but Chris Stapleton proved that not every male artist had to look like a supermodel).
Now, Stapleton was far from a new name in Nashville when he seemingly blew up overnight. He had already written several hit songs for other artists, including “Never Wanted Nothing More” by Kenny Chesney, “Come Back Song” for Darius Rucker, George Strait’s “Love’s Gonna Make It Alright,” “Drink A Beer” by Luke Bryan and Josh Turner’s steamy hit “Your Man.”
But in the same year that he blew up and became a household name, Stapleton was actually already on the country charts…with one of the biggest pop country hits of 2015.
In April 2015, Thomas Rhett released “Crash & Burn,” which was written by Stapleton along with Jesse Frasure. And Stapleton not only wrote the song, but he also provided background vocals for the song, despite the fact that it sounded…well, not like anything he recorded himself.
In fact, the Bruno Mars-sounding hit even had Thomas Rhett concerned that it leaned too pop and R&B for country radio, with the singer admitting at the time that he was nervous to release it:
“I would be lying if I told you I wasn’t extremely nervous about what the feedback was going to be. But it was the perfect decision for us, and I have been completely blown away with the way fans have been responding to it.”
Well the song was a hit, despite the fact that there really wasn’t anything “country” about it. “Crash & Burn” peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, and was #1 on Country Airplay. It ended the year as the #5 song on the Hot Country Songs chart…a full 84 spots ahead of “Tennessee Whiskey.”
But how many people these days are still listening to “Crash & Burn,” versus how many people are listening to “Tennessee Whiskey?” You can’t walk into a bar in Nashville without hearing a band cover Stapleton’s version of the classic song…and the song he wrote for Thomas Rhett…well, it’s just one of many pop country songs that were quickly forgotten after Stapleton came along and changed the game.
