the traveller chris stapleton

I see the sunrise creeping in Everything changes like the desert wind Here she comes & then she’s gone again

I’m just a traveller on this earth Sure as my heart’s behind the pocket of my shirt I’ll just keep rolling till I’m in the dirt Cause I’m a traveller, oh I’m a traveller I couldnt tell you honey I don’t know Where I’m going but I’ve got to go Cause every turn reveals some other road & I’m a traveller, oh I’m a traveller

My heartbeat’s rhythm is a lonesome sound Just like the rubber turing on the ground Always lost & nowhere bound

When I’m gone Somebody else will have to feel this wrong Somebody else will have to sing this song Somebody else will have to sing along Sing along

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Review: chris stapleton, 'traveller'.

Traveller Courtesy of the artist hide caption

Even the most seemingly organic contemporary country albums — the ones by often-awarded "authentic" artists like Miranda Lambert and Eric Church — can sometimes show evidence of a checklist. Eager to prove both currency and adherence to tradition, these more daring country stars range over predetermined territory, showing familiarity with Southern musical landmarks like the blue hills, the swamp, the honky-tonk and the arena-rock amphitheater. There's almost always a funny song on these album, and a family-focused tearjerker; there are numerous references to hard liquor and soft-focused rural landscapes. There's some fast picking and power-chord riffing, and a soulful moment that hits purposeful transcendence. The best artists perform this predictable eclecticism with skill and passion; they do care about, and have fun with, country's touchstones. That said, a listener can anticipate each required turn, like the compulsory elements in an Olympic skating routine.

On his debut solo album, Traveller , Chris Stapleton has the double axels and triple jumps down, but he delivers each with a remarkable lack of showiness, so that each one feels like much more than an exercise. Partly — mostly, maybe — this is because of his voice, which became one of Nashville's most beloved in the years he spent leading the bluegrass-based SteelDrivers and singing on albums by everyone from Dierks Bentley to Angaleena Presley to Vince Gill. Stapleton, who was raised in Kentucky, sings with the power of a classic Southern rocker, but modulates his rawness with a great sense of soul phrasing and a seasoned balladeer's ability to scale down.

This decade's endless parade of blue-eyed pretenders could learn a lot from the care Stapleton takes incorporating soul elements into a declamatory rocker like "Nobody To Blame" or a smoky love song like "Tennessee Whiskey." Stapleton turns the latter, previously recorded in laconic versions by both David Allan Coe and George Jones, into an Otis Redding-style burner. His melismatic flights on the verses never feel showy; they flow logically from the previous moments when he's held back.

"Tennessee Whiskey" is one of two relatively recent country favorites included on Traveller , allowing Stapleton to prove his bona fides with the genre's songbook. (The other is the charming "Was It 26," previously recorded by the Charlie Daniels Band, which now reads as gentle advice from the 37-year-old Stapleton to hard-partying young fans of the likes of Luke Bryan.) The other songs are all Stapleton co-writes — he's as valued as a Music Row songwriter as he is for his umami-providing background vocals. Stapleton takes back the mournful "Whiskey and You" from Tim McGraw in a version that really feels like a bitter hangover.

Elsewhere, Stapleton artfully employs his skills as a songwriting generalist: There's the Texas dance hall sweetness of "More of You," a duet with the pitch-perfect harmonizer (and his wife) Morgane Stapleton; the hard rock crash of "Parachute"; the nod to Johnny Cash on "Daddy Doesn't Pray Anymore" and the hat-tip to Hank Jr. on "Might As Well Get Stoned." The images of frisky devils, fields full of stars and many empty bottles might not be shockingly original, but they appear within stories that always register as immediate and personal.

Producer Dave Cobb allows Stapleton to lay back or push forward within arrangements that don't have any gimmicks, only great playing and plenty of space for that big voice to fill. Throughout Traveller , Stapleton presents himself as a true Southern character, a family man who can't help but cling to his vices and a searcher whose sometimes old-fashioned dreams of home don't prevent him from wanting to roam the modern world. Has Stapleton lived all of these stories of hard luck and wild times? I hope not, for the sake of his liver and his kids' college funds. But in the imaginary space where country clichés become the gospel truth, he's utterly convincing.

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After 15 years writing classics for other country stars, Chris Stapleton stuck his flag in the ground with ‘Traveller,’ a 21st-century country classic.

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There is an authenticity to Chris Stapleton ’s Traveller that helps make it one of the great debut solo albums in modern country music. Stapleton put his heart and soul into the record, which was released on May 5, 2015. He wrote 12 of its 14 songs; plays electric guitar, acoustic guitar, mandolin, percussion; is the lead vocalist; and even sings harmony with himself on the album. “It could not be more me,” he said.

Listen to Chris Stapleton’s Traveller now .

Stapleton was 37 when Traveller came out, though he was already well known within Nashville circles. The Kentucky-born musician had also lived a full life before his breakthrough success – “I went to college a little bit, and that didn’t work out, and I didn’t finish. So, I would play in bars until I ran out of money, and then I’d get a real job” – and had been penning hits for mainstream country artists for the previous 15 years, including Thomas Rhett’s “Crash And Burn” and George Strait ’s “You Don’t Know What You’re Missing.”

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In addition, Stapleton had sung backing vocals for Angaleena Presley and Vince Gill , and had been a key member of three-time Grammy-nominated bluegrass band The SteelDrivers (from 2008 to 2010).

It was obvious he had the talent and ambition to succeed under his own banner, however, and he got the chance with Traveller , an intense, robust and affecting album. The track “Whiskey And You,” co-written with fellow Kentucky writer Lee Thomas Miller, is a mordant gem, while “Parachute” and the powerhouse ballad “Fire Away” sizzle with energy from his husky voice.

The two covers on the album are bona fide country music classics. Dean Dillon and Linda Hargrove’s tune “Tennessee Whiskey” is probably best known from the almost romantic version by George Jones, but Stapleton gives it a bold makeover. His bluesy rendition is as earthy as a 25-year-old single malt.

The other cover is the visceral “Was It 26,” written by Don Sampson, who also wrote Alan Jackson’s “Midnight In Montgomery.” Sampson later told Stapleton that he had rushed to write the song on a Pizza Hut napkin after the lyrics had burst into his head.

Stapleton’s own songwriting skills stand tall in such elevated company. He said his own rule is to “cut out the fat and get to the meat of what you’re saying,” and he applies that formula to the moving “Daddy Doesn’t Pray Anymore,” a sweet ballad in honour of his father; there is not one wasted word in the song. The closing track, “Sometimes I Cry,” is soulful country music at its best.

Traveller has the feel of a past era of country music, and this is partly due to the excellent production work of guitarist Dave Cobb, the man behind Sturgill Simpson’s Metamodern Sounds In Country Music and Jason Isbell’s Southeastern , who brings out a raw country sound.

Cobb believes that he and Stapleton gelled as collaborators from the start. He said: “We have a lot of the same vices. Guitars and cars and stuff like that. We did a couple of songs and the label, Universal Music Group Nashville, allowed us to go in the studio and make six tracks. In the time we had to mix six tracks, we’d already made the whole record, and it was just all fire.”

Other factors contribute to the overall quality. Morgane Stapleton, Chris’ wife, adds gorgeous harmonies to the album, while the harmonica playing on “Outlaw State Of Mind” and “Nobody To Blame” is superb – no surprise given that the man on the mouth organ is Mickey Raphael, who made so many great records with Willie Nelson .

Traveller has since gone double-platinum and earned Stapleton two Grammys and five Country Music Association awards. “I wanted to make a record for grown-ups to sit around and listen to,” Stapleton said of the album. He nailed it. Traveller is grown-up country music for the 21st century, and both the critics and fans loved it.

Chris Stapleton’s Traveller can be bought here .

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Chris Stapleton's 'Traveller' was an album for the ages

Welcome to liner notes, a new tennessean series that dives into the albums that helped shaped nashville. first up: chris stapleton's 2015 breakout, "traveller.".

A decade ago, Chris Stapleton took a road trip that forever changed country music.

It may be hard to imagine now, but in the summer 2013 his debut solo single stalled at country radio. Weeks later, his dad, a Kentucky coal miner who bought the guitar Stapleton learned to strum on, died.

He needed to clear his head.

That December, his wife-bandmate Morgane Stapleton plotted a cross-country trek from Phoenix to Nashville in a 1979 Jeep Cherokee. Though rainstorms, winter chills and one faulty alternator, the couple embraced 1,600 miles of open-road catharsis.

As the sun peeked out from behind a New Mexico horizon one morning, a few words creeped into Stapleton's head.

"I'm just a traveller on this earth, sure as my heart’s behind the pocket of my shirt," he whispered into his phone. "I’ll just keep rolling till I’m in the dirt."

Nearly a decade later, the words Stapleton unearthed in New Mexico anchor the title track to an album that barnstormed country music — "Traveller." On that trip, he ignited a creative spark that burned bright in Stapleton's return-to-roots songwriting and unfiltered album-making. And like a sunrise after night's darkest moments, listeners embraced Stapleton's road-traveled wisdom with the ambition of a day's first light.

Record-breaking and award-winning, the album set a tone commercially and creatively for modern Music Row storytellers to follow. As for life-changing award show performances and career-defining sales certifications? That was never the goal. He and his collaborators just wanted to make good music.

"It just felt so natural," said Grammy Award-winning "Traveller" producer Dave Cobb. "Everything about working with him, it was like hanging with lifelong friends and good buddies. Cuttin' up and laughing and really just having a blast. Maybe it would sell 20,000 records and everybody would be happy.

"I definitely didn't expect it to do what it did, by any means."

Liner notes: In a world of singles and TikTok trends, the album remains a hit in Nashville

Making 'Traveller'

When "Traveller" sessions started in 2014, a different brand of country music dominated mainstream Music Row. Songs that leaned heavily into replicated rural stories told with snap tracks, pop production and arena rock influence paraded up and down charts.

But not Stapleton. A tenured bluegrass player raised on outlaw country, Tom Petty and R&B records, he channeled Southern rock grit and roots storytelling to carve a reality in his songs that cut through industry illusions - eventually.

First, he needed to cut the album.

Stapleton — a former singer for bluegrass band the SteelDrivers and tenured Nashville songwriter with Luke Bryan and Jake Owen credits under his belt — knew Cobb through chance meetings; he enlisted the Georgia native to produce "Traveller" after hearing Sturgill Simpson's 2014 standout "Metamodern Sounds in Country Music."

They retreated to Nashville's once-endangered RCA Studio A for freewheelin' live sessions fueled by takeout and whiskey.

No mutli-layered vocal overdubs or over-polished post-production. Listeners hear what Stapleton and his band cut on the floor during those days inside Studio A or outside the Castle Recording Studios in Franklin, where they relocated for a day mid-album. A handful of what became signature Stapleton cuts — "Traveller," "Fire Away" and "Parachute," among others — were born in these sessions.

"Humans playing together, there wasn't any trickery or behind-the-scenes magic," Cobb said. "It was humans playing in a room."

And one of the best-selling country songs of this century was born out of a mid-session jam. Each time Stapleton stepped into the room with his band, engineer Vance Powell hit record. After all, he never knew what could happen.

"I built a session called 'jams' that was just them jamming," said Powell, who's cut albums with Jack White and Phish. "I came in and they were nerd-ing around a little bit, had just started playing. I hit record. Dave came in, and they had played through it once. He was like, 'What are you guys doing?" [Someone said], 'Oh we're doing that Dean Dillon song 'Tennessee Whiskey.' We do our own thing.'"

Cobb sat down and they run through it a few more times, Powell said. In the final take, listeners who blast the guitar solo can hear Stapleton laugh in the background.

With nearly 600 million Spotify streams , "Tennessee Whiskey" remains the most popular song in Stapleton's catalog. The song reached diamond-selling certification in late 2021, the highest honor for record sales in American music. It received its 13th platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America in September, signifying 13 million units consumed.

'The world loved him'

As Cobb predicted at the time, "Traveller" opened with modest sales. It spent a few weeks on the chart before fading against a tide of summer releases.

But someone paid attention, because waves of award nominations began rolling in. At the annual CMA Awards set for that fall in Nashville, Stapleton earned nods in New Artist of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year and Album of the Year.

"You look at it now, you don't remember that it was a surprise - all the nominations," said Robert Deaton, longtime CMA Awards executive producer. "Nobody knew that was going to happen."

Show night arrived with Stapleton set to perform and — hopefully — hear his name called in a category or two. He enlisted pop star buddy Justin Timberlake to team the latter's song "Drink You Away" with a rendition of "Tennessee Whiskey."

As for the band? "All of us were scared out of our minds," said Cobb, who joined Stapleton on stage that night. "I remember we all got new boots. That was our costume. We were gonna wear black and get new boots."

Timberlake and Stapleton took center stage with a floodlight backdrop and cohort of electric backing musicians. Morgane Stapleton stood to her husband's left, ready to sing harmony vocals. Behind her, Cobb played acoustic guitar — an unmatched view to an overflowing crowd of peers and friends.

After a few notes, fear melted into a magic that only music can provide.

"The audience is other country stars and they all start standing up," Cobb said. "You can just see the love in in the room, in every single person. From Keith Urban to Miranda [Lambert], whoever was in the audience, they were just going, 'That's our Chris Stapleton.'" ... It was a beautiful experience."

Despite what the time-tested adage says, artists can't actually "tear the house down" during a fiery performance, of course. But Stapleton and Timberlake came about as close as one can get to playing a song that blows the roof off an arena. In his decade-and-a-half with the show, Deaton said he's never seen anything like it.

Oh ... and he won all three awards.

"To this day, people will say that's their favorite award show performance of all-time," Deaton said.

More: Justin Timberlake and Chris Stapleton reunite in surprise sequel

America woke up the next morning with a new favorite country singer.

The album saw a 6,000% sales increase after Stapleton performed with Timberlake, propelling "Traveller" to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album sales chart, according to Luminate, a music data company formerly known as MRC Data and Nielsen-Soundscan.

"All of Nashville already loved him," Deaton said. "Then the world loved him."

And, yes, Cobb kept the outfit.

"Every time we play an awards show, I wear those boots" Cobb said, "I have the shirt from that night. I call it my 'lucky shirt.' I refuse to change it. Chris gets a giggle out of it. It's about to fall apart. ... [but] I refuse to go to an award show without that shirt."

'We can make art again'

Rewind to six months before Stapleton stepped on stage at the CMA Awards.

Inside a shoulder-to-shoulder Cannery Ballroom for one of two back-to-back "Traveller" releases shows, Powell saw how quickly Stapleton's songs could spread. Despite minimal radio support at the time, a fire began smoldering among dedicated listeners when "Traveller" hit record store shelves and streaming services.

"We're like 20 feet from the door in, we're way in the back," Powell said about that night at the release show. "He starts 'Traveller.' When he hits tht first line, the guy next to me's singing it. And the guy behind's me singing it. The crowd's singing 'Traveller.' It's been out four days. That doesn't happen in Nashville. Nobody gives a s***."

Like the '79 Jeep Stapleton took on his cross-country trip, the album just needed a little gasoline.

"Traveller" hasn't left the Billboard 200 since his CMA Awards performance, charting for more than 350 consecutive weeks as of August 2022, per Luminate. As of August, the album accounted for nearly 1% of all U.S. country music streaming in 2022. Behind "Traveller" and his growing catalog of country hits, the Kentucky singer-songwriter stands next to Bruno Mars and Coldplay as one of the 50 most-streamed artists on the planet.

The album continued to bring home trophies, as well. During its release cycle, "Traveller" earned nods at the Grammy Awards, Academy of Country Music Awards and Billboard Music Awards, among others.

Stapelton continues to work with Cobb and Powell on albums, including 2020 LP "Starting Over." Like "Traveller" before it, the album blurs lines between country, roots and Southern rock in a way only Stapleton can. Earlier this year, "Starting Over" helped Stapleton bring home a trio of Grammy Awards, bringing his career total to eight.

"When he made Traveller, I don't think he went in there to take over the world," Cobb said. "I think he went in there and made the record he wanted to make. The most honest record he could possibly make. Made the record he would enjoy listening to and he would be proud of."

And "Traveller" didn't just change country music. For some, it changed everything.

"The thing that Chris did, in my opinion, is bigger than Nashville," Powell said. "Chris made a record - and was allowed to make a record. 'Traveller' made the industry, for a minute, think, 'Wow. We can make art again.'"

Liner Notes

Welcome to Liner notes, a new Tennessean series highlighting some of the ground-shaking albums to be released from Nashville this century (so far). From commercial powerhouses to critical mainstays, we'll go behind the scenes each month with an album that helped shape today's Nashville.

• Next month: "Van Lear Rose," the 2004 classic from Loretta Lynn produced by garage-rock upstart Jack White.

Want to see an album you love covered in an upcoming Liner Notes story? Email [email protected] with suggestions.

• chris stapleton

Behind the Album Cover: Chris Stapleton’s Stunning “Traveller”

by Cillea Houghton June 9, 2023, 2:13 pm

It’s safe to say that Chris Stapleton’s life changed with the arrival of Traveller . In May 2015, Stapleton released the album that took him from a behind-the-scenes songwriter and under-the-radar singer into a superstar. In addition to achieving critical acclaim, the album put Stapleton on the mainstream map with the Top 20 singles “Parachute,” “Nobody to Blame” and the title track. But the music came from a somber place.

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Stapleton’s father passed away in 2013, which led him and his wife, songwriter, and background singer Morgane Stapleton, to go on a cross-country road trip that inspired the title track. The spirit of the album is also reflected in the cover art. The black-and-white shot shows the singer standing alone in the middle of the desert. His face and beard are somewhat hidden by the angle of his signature cowboy hat, as well as the dark shadow that hides most of his features.

The stunning photo was taken by photographer Becky Fluke, who’s also shot videos for Little Big Town, Caitlyn Smith, Keith Urban and Miranda Lambert, and others, who joined the couple to document the trip in 2013. “The album cover was actually shot a year before the album was even made,” Fluke tells Medium . “Chris and [his wife] Morgane bought a Jeep [Cherokee] online, so we went on a road trip to drive it from Phoenix back to Nashville. The photo was shot somewhere in Arizona or New Mexico.”

“We were taking a trip and my wife decided it would be good to have Becky document it,” adds Stapleton. “We didn’t know that we’d end up doing an album cover or anything like that.” The singer also partnered with the design company, Milkglass Creative, to bring the cover to life. Founders Mary Hooper and Amy Stroup sat down with the singer over breakfast in Nashville to discuss his vision for the cover where he explained the trip he’d taken with his wife.

Hooper and Stroup were drawn to the “everyday rockstar moments” Fluke captured. “This collection of imagery became the cornerstone for the project,” they described . “We settled on an obscured polaroid from the group for the front cover. There was a sense of mystery in the grainy texture of the photo and in Chris’ windblown desert cowboy posture. A stark difference from the high gloss close-ups the industry is used to. Perfect for Chris Stapleton.”

Following Stapleton’s performance of “Tennessee Whiskey” at the 2015 CMA Awards with Justin Timberlake, the album peaked at No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200. Stapleton’s cover of “Tennessee Whiskey,” one of the deep cuts on the album, hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and No. 20 on the Hot 100, becoming his signature song. Traveller also won Best Country Album at the 2016 Grammy Awards.

Photo by Erika Goldring/Getty Images for Pilgrimage Music & Cultural Festival

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Traveller by Chris Stapleton

Songfacts®:

• The title track of Chris Stapleton's debut solo album was inspired by some soul-searching in the desert. "My father passed away in October 2013, and [I] had a single die around the same time on radio, so I needed a little head clearing space," he recalled. "My wife had the presence of mind to know me well enough that I needed that. She bought me an old jeep out in Phoenix, Arizona, and we flew out there and decided to drive it home." "Along the way, just driving through the desert, I was thinking about life and how we're all just passing through it and that's what the song is," Stapleton continued. "So, as I was driving, I was humming lyrics into my phone and wrote the song then and there. Somewhere in New Mexico, probably, that song was born."
• Chris Stapleton won Album of the Year for Traveller at the November 4, 2015 CMAs along with Male Vocalist of the Year and New Artist of the Year. Following his breakthrough night at the ceremony, the Traveller record made a spectacular re-entry at #1 on the Billboard 200. It was the first ever album to re-enter at the peak position, after dropping out of the chart. The 177,000 album units it earned in the week following the ceremony were more than Traveller had sold in total prior to Stapleton's CMA appearance. From Traveller 's release on May 5, 2015, up through to the week ending October 29, 2015, it had sold 96,000.
• This won the Grammy Award for Best Country Solo Performance at the 2016 ceremony. Traveller also won for Best Country Album.
• More songs from Chris Stapleton
• More songs that won Grammys
• More songs about getting away
• More songs from 2015
• Lyrics to Traveller
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Chris Stapleton's Traveller is smooth as Tennessee whiskey, but it's made in Kentucky

Several of grammy-winning singer-songwriter chris stapleton's songs mention whiskey. now, the performer is launching his own traveller whiskey with famed buffalo trace distillery..

Chris Stapleton has been able to distill some smooth country blues music over the years. Now he's teamed with a famed distillery to create a special spirit: Traveller Whiskey .

The eight-time Grammy award-winning country artist collaborated with Buffalo Trace Distillery – maker of Eagle Rare, Weller and Pappy Van Winkle bourbons – on the whiskey, which gets its name from Stapleton's 2015 album "Traveller," and is now hitting retailers nationwide (price: $39.99).

Stapleton and Buffalo Trace are a comforting fit. He was born in Lexington, Kentucky, "a stone's throw from" Buffalo Trace's location to the northwest in Frankfort, Kentucky.

Of course, other distillers had approached Stapleton, a writer and singer of songs that flow with whiskey references, including songs he co-wrote such as "Whiskey and You," "Whiskey Sunrise" and "Tennessee Whiskey," a classic song he covered.

Previous offers didn’t speak to him or feel like true collaborations, Stapleton told USA TODAY in an interview on Thursday Jan. 18.

$22,000 of bourbon: Pappy Van Winkle, Buffalo Trace being raffled off. How to enter

Stapleton's hit album paved the way for the collaboration with Traveller Whiskey

When the opportunity came to work with Buffalo Trace master distiller Harlen Wheatley, said Stapleton, "that's kind of a dream scenario. It's the company that makes the things that I'm the biggest fan of in the space."

That connection goes back a decade or so, he says. Audio engineer Vance Powell introduced Stapleton to E.H. Taylor Jr., bourbon whiskey during the making of the "Traveller" album.

"Every record we've ever made, a Buffalo Trace product has been in the room somewhere and it's backstage before the shows, so there's certainly a knowledge there," Stapleton said.

The relationship between the distillery and singer-songwriter grew "as we got a little more popular and we were able to make some contacts there, we did do a few barrel picks with them for charity things" including collaborations with Chris and Morgane Stapleton's Outlaw State of Kind charity on multiple fundraising projects.

Coal mines, medicine and mules: How Buffalo Trace and the oldest distilleries survived Prohibition

How does Chris Stapleton and Buffalo Trace's Traveller Whiskey taste?

Buffalo Trace, in a press release , describes the 90-proof blended whiskey as "characterized by notes of oak, sweet maple, tart currant and leather. Complex aromas of vanilla, aged fruit and buttery shortbread are rounded off by caramel and a touch of oak. The flavor profile also showcases a touch of sweetness, followed by spice, toasted nut and oak flavors, closing with a robust finish."

Stapleton doesn't get as nuanced when he talks about it.

"I have kind of a thumbs-up, thumbs-down method whiskey," he said. "It's just, 'I like that' or 'I don't like that.' And I like this, I think it's great. I think it's really smooth and finishes really good."

Stapleton enlisted some fellow musician friends in the Zoom tastings for the creation of Traveller Whiskey: In addition to Powell, longtime friend and band member bassist J.T. Cure, and Mike Harris, a guitarist, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist with the band Old Crow Medicine Show, joined in.

Buffalo Trace created 50-plus blends for Stapleton and friends to sample, Wheatley told USA TODAY. "The sample that won the show happened to have the number 40," he said. "On the front (of the bottle), that's why we call 'Batch No. 40.' We spent a lot of time with Chris and his team, and we all agreed and aligned on the whiskey."

The typical consumer was top of mind, with the goal of a mellow, rich taste without that bold "burn" some whiskeys have. Still, whiskey geeks who sip it straight will like its spicy follow through.

"We wanted to have the word 'approachable,' we use it a lot and we want everyone across the country, and hopefully the globe, to be able to enjoy it and not be overpowered by, you know, too strong of a taste profile," Wheatley said. "But we thought it was really important to have the character on the finish that we have with the tannins and the caramels and things out of the aging process. We want it to be authentic, but easy to drink. And I think that's what we ended up with."

He paid what for a bottle of whiskey?: A whiskey collector paid a record-setting $2.8 million for a rare bottle of Irish whiskey

Stapleton's touch is in every drop and detail down to the bottle

Stapleton was truly involved, coming to the distillery for the first day of bottling and helping design the bottle, Wheatley said. "I've done record launches and things like that and it's all very similar to that," Stapleton says.

In choosing design elements about the label, colors, and type of wood for the cork, Stapleton said, "those things are really important, particularly when you only get one chance to make a first impression. I wanted it to be something that felt authentic to everybody involved."

Here's a few factoids about the Traveller Whiskey bottle you can ruminate on while sipping.

• The Traveller font is from a 1880s Kentucky map Stapleton found.
• Look through the bottle and you will see a replica of an 1800s map.
• The map is centered on Stapleton's birthplace of Lexington and shows Lee's Town, the founding site of Buffalo Trace and there's a railroad between them.
• Railroad tracks extend out of the front Traveller label, too.

"There's a lot of, kind of, Easter eggs there if you want to dig into the bottle that way," said Stapleton, who hopes Traveller Whiskey is incorporated into his upcoming spring and summer tour . "I dig stuff like that and, I think, probably people who enjoy whiskey do, too."

Follow Mike Snider on X and Threads:  @mikesnider  & mikegsnider .

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TRAVELLER WHISKEY

Blended whiskey.

For this first-of-its-kind collaboration from Buffalo Trace Distillery, Traveller brings together the collective artistry of 10X Grammy Award-Winning Artist Chris Stapleton and Buffalo Trace Distillery Master Distiller, Harlen Wheatley.

In pursuit of the finest possible whiskey, over 50 blends were sampled before making Blend No. 40 the chosen combination. Blend No. 40 is the carefully curated result of countless hours of testing & tasting and is exactly what you’d expect – a premium whiskey that speaks for itself. 

Authentically crafted to be there whenever you find yourself in good company, Traveller Whiskey is Easy to Drink, Hard Not to Love. 

TASTING NOTES

Complex aromas of vanilla, aged fruit and buttery shortbread rounded off by caramel and a touch of oak. The palate has just a touch of sweetness, followed by spice, toasted nut and oak flavors, with a robust finish. 

Chris Stapleton’s “When The Stars Come Out” Is Officially Certified Platinum

One of  Chris Stapleton’s most underrated gems.

His song “When The Stars Come Out” has officially been certified Platinum by the RIAA, which means it has moved over one million units since it was released as part of his debut studio album Traveller in 2015.

Written by Chris and Dan Wilson, I’ve always felt like it was one of his most underrated tunes and such a gorgeous song about young love and longing, which coupled with Stapleton’s incredible vocals and a simple production, has always been one of my favorite songs.

In addition, his song “Hard Livin’,” which was included on his 2017 From A Room: Volume 2 album, was certified Gold. That means it has moved over 500,000 units since it was released quite a few years back:

Seriously, I’ve always felt like “When The Stars Come Out” should’ve been a single or something, because it deserves to be heard by the masses… of course, I imagine picking just a few singles from any given Stapleton album is no easy task, but clearly this song has organically become a favorite among fans regardless of radio play, so I’ll take it.

If you’ve somehow never heard this deep cut before… it’s well past high time to change that:

“When The Stars Come Out”

“Hard Livin'”

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