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November brings not just a new Chris Stapleton album but the fifth anniversary of the signal moment that made him one of the most significant figures in contemporary country music: the CMA Awards that had Justin Timberlake joining the then-niche artist for a viral duet of “Tennessee Whiskey.” From then, Stapleton has been that thing that is almost rarer in music than in politics: a consensus-builder, whose humble, rootsy sensibilities and gifts as a growler and an electric guitarist have let him patch together more constituencies than anyone since Willie Nelson’s hippie-and-redneck-uniting heyday.
You can certainly equate his appeal with Willie’s, though his inherent volume as a belter means the comparisons go only so far. At Stapleton’s best, sometimes you imagine you’re listening to a mythical “Gregg Allman Sings the Willie Nelson Songbook” album. There are plenty of these moments in his fourth release, “Starting Over.” He has Nelson’s tender touch, but his bluesy side is much louder; his is a part-acoustic, part-stinging approach in which Nelson’s Trigger meets B.B. King’s Lucille.
