Chris Stapleton will release a new album called Higher next Friday (11/10), and fans can’t wait to hear the new music, which includes his latest song, “White Horse.”
The new powerful song’s lyrics include, “If you want a cowboy on a white horse / Riding off into the sunset / If that’s the kind of love you wanna wait for / Hold on tight, girl, I ain’t there yet / No, I ain’t there yet / No, I ain’t there yet.”
Over the years, I’ve talked to Chris many times, and in one interview, he told me his method for making records. He said, “I heard Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top; I read an interview with him one time where he said he always just tried to make music that he would want to listen to, and I think that is the best kind of litmus test for what you want to record or make. And I’m a big fan of albums too, so I always like things that kind of work together in a pot.”
Staplerton’s songs have become legendary in country music in the 10-plus years he’s been in Nashville. And he has won his share of awards. While he considered other professions in life in his native Kentucky, making music always rose to the top. He told me, “I found out a bunch of things that I was not, sold cars and, drove an ice truck and went to college.”
Chris concluded, “You find out who you are not, and the thought of doing anything else just made me so miserable. I think that really kind of steered my path, and for better or worse, and fortunately for me, it kind of worked out, and I’m pretty lucky in that way.”
Stapleton is nominated for several awards at next week’s (11/8) CMA Awards, including Entertainer of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year. If he wins Entertainer, it will be his first win in that coveted category for the CMA. He’s already won the Male Vocalist Award six times.
Five 2023 CMA Male Vocalist Nominees: Who Will Win?
The CMA Awards’ Male Vocalist category has existed since the CMA Awards began in the 1960s. During that decade, winners of the award included Johnny Cash and Glen Campbell. In the 1970s, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, Charley Pride, Kenny Rogers, and Ronnie Milsap won the Male Vocalist Award. Milsap took home the honor three times, and Pride won it twice in that decade. The 1980s saw names like George Jones, Ricky Skaggs, Randy Travis, and George Strait win the honor. Vince Gill dominated the Male Vocalist category at the CMAs in the 1990s, winning the trophy five times.
The 2000s saw Alan Jackson, Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, and Brad Paisley take home the award. Blake Shelton won Male Vocalist five times in his career from the CMA beginning in 2010.
Flash forward to the late 2010s and the 2020s, and Chris Stapleton dominates the category with six wins, including a win for Male Vocalist last year (2022). Chris said when he won the honor for the sixth time. “Well, okay. Man, thank you so much for this. It means so much to get an award from my friends back here. I was sitting over there, and all the guys in the category all deserve this award. Everybody’s killin’ it. I am so honored to be a member of the country music community.” He then wished his daughter Ada a happy twelfth birthday. There’s a good chance Stapleton could win his seventh award in the category at the award show next month.
The 2023 CMA Awards is only weeks away, and we will know who takes home Male Vocalist in 2023. The nominees are Chris, Luke Combs, Cody Johnson, Jelly Roll, and Morgan Wallen. We take a look at each nominee in this year’s category to shed some light on who may walk away with the Male Vocalist prize this time.
Luke has won this award twice in his career from the CMA already in 2019 and 2020. At the top of his game, Combs has already won the Entertainer of the Year from the CMA twice in 2021 and 2022. Luke’s voice and popularity make him a shoo-in to win this honor once again. It would be no big surprise if he walked away with the honor again in 2023.
Below is his first win for Male Vocalist presented by Trisha Yearwood, who noted before she gave out the award that Male Vocalist fifty years ago went to the Man in Black himself, Johnny Cash.
Jelly Roll
This is Jelly Roll’s very first nomination in the Male Vocalist category for the CMA. With the on-fire year that Jelly has had in 2023, he very well could win. Jelly has yet to perform at the CMA Awards and will undoubtedly do so this year. In June, he made his debut performance on the CMA Fest stage and said that he was “trembling” when he performed, being nervous about stepping onto the stage that he has watched all of his life as a Nashville native.
Cody Johnson
This is Cody Johnson’s second Male Vocalist nomination at the CMA Awards. A win in this category would be so important to the Texan who is lighting up country music and releasing his much-anticipated “Leather” album a couple of days before the CMA Awards are to be handed out this year on November 8. Cody performed his CMA winner for Single of the Year in 2022, “Til You Can’t,” at last year’s CMA Awards.
Chris Stapleton
Chris has won twenty-five CMA Awards in his career so far, including six Male Vocalist wins in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2021, and 2022. Known as one of country music’s best vocalists ever, Stapleton has also won the Album of the Year award three times.
When he won last year, he wished his daughter Ada a Happy Birthday as he promised her he would if he won.
Morgan Wallen
This Male Vocalist nod is Morgan’s second nomination in the category. With his amazing success and selling out multiple nights at stadiums this past summer, a win for Morgan here would be no surprise. Although he has been nominated for eight CMA awards to date, including a nomination for the Entertainer of the Year this year (2023), he has only won a CMA once. He won the New Artist Award in 2020.
Nancy Brooks has been working in the country music industry for almost 30 years. She has interviewed pretty much any country star you can think of. In the late 1990s, she started working with Dolly Parton. And yes, Nancy reports that Parton is as sweet as you would think. She loves her life in country music and has been backstage at every CMA Awards show since the late 1990s.
Many of her stories are from her one-on-one interviews. She was there at the beginning of the incredible careers of many music superstars today, including Taylor Swift, Shania Twain, and Blake Shelton, and has interviewed them multiple times throughout the years.
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