Tonight we're going to feature 3 tracks from the brand new album from the wordsmith Chris Stapleton. Although Traveller is his debut album, he's been hanging out in Nashville for over 15 years, writing hit songs for many mainstream country artists. Normally we tend to steer clear of mainstream country music, but tonight we're going to make an exception, this album is just too good to let some arbitrary standard of independent artist get in the way. This guy writes songs like Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt. He sings with the power and soul of Mike Farris and Otis Redding. Traveller is 14 tracks but sprawls from stripped-down acoustic country tracks, like Whiskey and You, to alt-country rockers like Parachute, to pure soul likeTennessee Whiskey. I have a feeling we're going to hear a lot about this album and Chris over the next year. We'll open the show with a four song tribute to our Veterans in recognition of Memorial Day, with tracks from The Black Lillies, Guy Clark, The Drive-By Truckers and Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. We're also going to hear another track from Lucinda Williams' newest album.
