Chris Stapleton and the Grammys: the next stop for the Traveller

Probably the last thing the Central Kentucky faithful expected as they squeezed into CD Central last Mother’s Day was a glimpse of a future Grammy contender for Album of the Year. No, the modest crowd, which was still big enough to take up every available inch of standing room in the South Limestone record store, was there to simply see one of their own – the man who would be country king, Chris Stapleton.

Prior to that 30-minute in-store performance, Stapleton was known largely as a songsmith to the stars of contemporary country and, in more discerning circles, a performer through music he fashioned with the bluegrass/Americana band The SteelDrivers and the makeshift Southern rock troupe The Jompson Brothers. But being Lexington born and Paintsville reared, the burly, bearded Stapleton was also a hometown hero.

Sure, Stapleton’s debut solo album Traveller was already generating hefty critical praise following its release the preceding week. But the turnout at CD Central was essentially an enthusiastic legion of locals championing a homegrown talent they hoped would become a star.

On Monday, the Kentucky contingency gets a bigger look at a far bigger celebrity. On the live broadcast of the 58th Grammy Awards, Stapleton’s assured and refreshing traditional spin on soul-infused country music will compete against Alabama Shakes, Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd and Taylor Swift for Album of the Year.

Stapleton is also up for several other Grammys, all country-specific, including Best Country Solo Performance, Best Country Song and Best Country Album — all of which he has a high probability of winning, especially given the Grammys’ history of shunning more pop-saturated Nashville fare. But the cross-genre Album of the Year, widely viewed as the Grammys’ biggest prize? To an artist singing authentic country music? From Kentucky? Now that’s pretty remarkable.

How Stapleton wound up here is hard to fully pinpoint, although one has to weigh the exposure gained by perhaps the oddest of promotions — an appearance at November’s Country Music Association Awards (five months after Traveller’s release) alongside the decidedly non-country Justin Timberlake — as a breakthrough. It was as though mainstream country audiences had not even heard of Stapleton prior to the broadcast. Perhaps the Grammys were oblivious to him up to that point, as well. But after the CMA show, record stores — including the one in the town he was born that hosted his appearance the previous spring — couldn’t keep Traveller on the shelves. The recording, having already dropped off the Billboard 200 all-genre album chart, promptly re-entered at No. 1.

Though a remarkable achievement, the true magic remains with the music. Stapleton possesses a voice that sounds like it was soaked in vintage Memphis soul, a songwriting prowess that turns country sensibility back 40 years (and in some cases, more) and an effortless understanding of tradition and interpretation that can make a decades-old George Jones hit like Tennessee Whiskey sound indistinguishable from his own sterling compositions. But that doesn’t always translate into commercial visibility. That’s not to insinuate the CMA appearance was a fluke, but rather a catalyst. It was exactly the commercial push a staunchly traditional artist needed to win over a country audience so accustomed to being force-fed pandering pop fluff that they likely greeted the poetic earnestness of real country music as something of an epiphany. And somehow, both parties connected.

Now, what are Stapleton’s chances for winning Album of the Year at the Grammys on Monday? Frankly, they’re remote. Country has never fared well here, but then it has seldom wedged its way into the category in recent memory. There are worthy contenders to deal with, especially Alabama Shakes’ extraordinary psychedelic soul party platter Sound & Color and Lamar’s critically acclaimed but overproduced To Pimp a Butterfly. The Weeknd’s heavily hyped Beauty Behind the Madness is the long shot. The heaviest competition will come from the category’s most bankable star, the unstoppable Taylor Swift and her country defection opus 1989.

Sure, surprises happen. Remember when Herbie Hancock skunked Kanye West in 2008? While it would be nice to think that kind of upset could happen again, it likely won’t. Despite the late-year sales and awareness Traveller chalked up, Swift seems all but a shoo-in.

But Stapleton has already achieved, if anything, a bigger win. His prominence in this year’s Grammy field actually gives us a reason to care about the ceremony again in the first place. Given the Grammy’s typically dim acknowledgment of contemporary music’s breadth outside of what is commercially successful, that’s a rare and distinguished accomplishment.

Will we think better of Stapleton and his music if he wins big at the Grammys? Of course. But the far grander trophy is the understanding that such a genuine and uncompromising Kentucky artist made it there in the first place.

This story was originally published February 14, 2016 at 8:37 AM with the headline "Chris Stapleton and the Grammys: the next stop for the Traveller."