Starting Over

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.

Starting Over finds Stapleton not only maintaining his momentum, but also opting for diversity as well. While his influences are as obvious as always, he breaks out of the Southern rock mold he established early on.

Stapleton could use a bit of Petty's flair -- there's not a lot of humor here, nor are there any flirtations with modern sounds -- but his straight-ahead style nevertheless satisfies on Starting Over.

Chris Stapleton rides roughshod over country music formulas on Starting Over, with assistance from a pair of Heartbreakers. [Dec 2020, p.39]

Unlike the 2017 pair of albums which were rather short, Stapleton delivers a generous heaping of 14 songs here. He has nothing left to prove, but somehow, he just gets incrementally better as he takes more control and confidence in his own songwriting.

Stapleton, the artist, isn't beginning, and he does not need to. With Starting Over, he furrows broad terrain with confidence, leading to plenty.

Stapleton’s writing is solid, but his vocals, arrangements, and instrumentation imbue most of these songs with something remarkable.

It's a cozy-campfire roots record. [Nov 2020, p.71]