HIS NEW ALBUM MAY BE CALLED HIGHER, BUT NOBODY IN NASHVILLE IS MORE GROUNDED THAN CHRIS STAPLETON.
Here’s how we know: After winning the coveted Entertainer of the Year award from the Academy of Country Music in May 2023—his first time taking home the grand prize—you could hear in his acceptance speech how completely unexpected it was. “By any imaginable metric, I don’t deserve this,” he said when he took the stage to accept the trophy.
While that 2023 win was a substantial achievement, Stapleton had already collected a long list of awards and accolades in his nine years as a solo artist: He has eight Grammy awards and countless CMA awards and ACM awards. And then there are the bona fide hit songs he’s penned, both for himself and for fellow artists George Strait, Alan Jackson, Kenny Chesney, Luke Bryan, Tim McGraw, Lee Ann Womack, Jason Aldean, Adele, Thomas Rhett, Darius Rucker, Dierks Bentley, Josh Turner, Sheryl Crow, Joss Stone, Alison Krauss, and Patty Loveless — with more to come. He’s still committed to writing the best songs, whether he’s recording them or not.
Stapleton’s latest album Higher was produced by Stapleton, his wife, Morgane, and Dave Cobb, and all 14 tracks were written by Stapleton, either alone or with some of Nashville’s most prolific songwriters.
His approach to making an album is simple. “My wife picks the songs,” he says.
