CHRIS STAPLETON LEADS NOMINEES AT 55TH ANNUAL CMA AWARDS 

September 9, 2021—Ten-time CMA Award winner Chris Stapleton leads nominees at the 55th Annual CMA Awards with nominations in five categories: Entertainer of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year, Album of the Year (Starting Over), Single of the Year (“Starting Over”) and Song of the Year (“Starting Over”), while also earning additional producer credits in both the Album of the Year and Single of the Year categories. The awards ceremony will be broadcast live on ABC from Nashville on Wednesday, November 10 at 8:00pm ET/7:00pm CT.

The nominations add to yet another monumental year for Stapleton, who is currently in the midst of his extensive “All-American Road Show” tour. Of recent performances, the Charlotte Observer praises, “In a live setting, Chris Stapleton is a bit of a revelation, vocally and sonically, able to produce note-perfect facsimiles of the already-astounding studio versions of his Southern rock and outlaw country and bluegrass songs,” and went on to praise him as, “the soul of the show, the deliverer of raw, powerful, beautiful lyrics by way of one of the most uniquely arresting voices in country music today,” while the Austin American-Statesman asserts, “there’s probably no better touring act in country music at present.”

Upcoming “All-American Road Show” stops include New York’s Madison Square Garden, two nights at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena and Washington State’s Gorge Amphitheatre as well as “A Concert for Kentucky”—a special performance to be held at University of Kentucky’s Kroger Field on April 23, 2022. The concert is the first ever held at UK’s Kroger Field and will feature very special guests Willie Nelson and Family, Sheryl Crow and Yola. 100% of the concert’s net proceeds will benefit Stapleton’s newly created Outlaw State of Kind Hometown Fund. Established in partnership with the Blue Grass Community Foundation, the fund will specifically support local and national organizations directly impacting Kentucky, with initial grant distributions focusing on music and arts education. Tickets are on sale now at ChrisStapleton.com. See below for complete itinerary.

The tour further celebrates the release of Starting Over, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard Country Albums chart. Moreover, the album’s title track recently reached #1 at country radio’s Mediabase Chart, only Stapleton’s second chart-topping single as an artist following 2018’s “Broken Halos.” Released this past fall on Mercury Records Nashville (stream/purchase here), Starting Over is an album of startling prescience, featuring fourteen tracks that examine life’s simplest joys and most serious struggles. Once again produced by Grammy Award-winning producer Dave Cobb, the record won Album of the Year at the 56th ACM Awards and landed on several “Best of 2020” lists including NPR Music, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Esquire, Vulture, The Tennessean and The New York Times, who declares, “Chris Stapleton’s roar isn’t designed to scare you off. It’s regal, an announcement of an alpha figure asserting his primacy…on this, his fourth album, the thrill is back.”

“Chris Stapleton may have the album of the year with Starting Over”
—American Songwriter

“a sure-footed masterpiece…one of the year’s finest albums”—Associated Press

“Simply put, there are few recording artists in country operating at Stapleton’s level, and Starting Over keeps the bar very high.” —Billboard

“a dynamite and dynamic new album from the mighty-voiced Kentucky native…the singer-songwriter is hitting new heights, nailing the crossroads of country, rock, gospel, and pop across 14 tracks.”—Entertainment Weekly

“14 rich, intricately-wound odes to tiny admissions and big emotions”—Esquire

“mixes beautifully stark songwriting with blues, country, and rock melodies, allowing Stapleton’s sturdy, propulsive vocals to carry the show”—GQ

“vividly exemplifies the complex emotional character of Stapleton’s best music. He’s burly but soft. Tough yet vulnerable. A protector of his loved ones and a man in perpetual search of shelter.”—Los Angeles Times 

“Chris is at the top of his game with this record. It sounds like a record from a great.”
—NPR Music

“Starting Over may be Stapleton’s best album yet…every song on the album comes as a perfectly wrapped gift to the listener”—No Depression

“Regardless of where he’s going lyrically, Stapleton brings to each successive tune a rugged assuredness and a steely resolve: There’s never any doubt that he means what he says”—Relix

“The chill Nashville trailblazer feels at home in songs that echo his pop songwriting and his
country roots.”—Rolling Stone

“if Starting Over offers a statement of principles, it’s that Stapleton is going to make Stapleton music, equal parts country, Southern rock, raw sentimentality, and self-reflective singer-songwriter-ism.”—Slate

“It is easily one of the best records I’ve heard this year. It’s easily one of the best country records I’ve heard in a long time. And I have no doubt it’s going to be one of the best country records I’ve heard this decade once everything is said and done.”
—The Needle Drop

“lands precisely where country meets Southern soul: with grit, details, clarity and ache.”
—The New York Times

“the results are stunning…his most personal work yet.”—The Ringer

“expands a sonic identity and storytelling fervor that Stapleton established on his paramount debut, Traveller, and its two-part follow-up, From A Room Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.”
—The Tennessean

“He has [Willie] 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.”—Variety 

“It’s every bit the tour de force his breakthrough album was…Elegant writing and delicate musicianship combine in an album ranking among the year’s best.”—Vulture

Kentucky-born Stapleton is a 5x Grammy, 10x CMA and 9x ACM Award-winner and one of the country’s most respected and beloved musicians. Following 2015’s quintuple platinum breakthrough solo debut album Traveller, Stapleton released two #1 albums in 2017. Both From A Room: Volume 1 (certified platinum) and From A Room: Volume 2 (certified gold) take their name from legendary RCA Studio A, where they were recorded with Cobb. Released to overwhelming critical acclaim, The Tennessean praises, “Both are rich with the textures of Stapleton’s vocals that make him one of country music’s most beloved artists, classic country sounds and thoughtful articulate lyrics about love, life and pain.” He was also recently announced as the first-ever “Artist-Songwriter of the Decade” recipient by the Academy of Country Music.