If you’re one of those who believes country music is periodically in need of saving, then you probably already know about Chris Stapleton and may view him as a welcome corrective to the Solo-cup country that Nashville has been churning out lately.
Stapleton is a singer and songwriter in the outlaw tradition. He’s got the hat, the hair and the beard to prove it. (He also has a song called “Outlaw State of Mind.”) He looks a little like David Allan Coe and he sounds a lot like Willie Nelson with a diesel boost of Stevie Ray Vaughan blues and soul. He can do honky tonk and biker rock with a gospel fervor. Stapleton sings a lot about people who have tried hard and maybe have done a little backsliding. In Stapleton’s songs, whiskey, lust, music and the lure of the road loom as infernal demons that waylay many an earnest seeker of peace and happiness.
When it all gets to be too much, he sings about getting high to forget his troubles. Fans of Waylon Jennings, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Bruce Springsteen will all find elements of those giants in Stapleton’s sound.
Chris Stapleton at Xfinity Theatre, 61 Savitt Way, Hartford, Saturday, July 15, at 7 p.m. Tickets are $30 and up. livenation.com.
