Traveller is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriterChris Stapleton. The album was produced byDave Cobb and Stapleton, and was released on May 5, 2015, throughMercury Nashville.
Traveller reached number one on the USBillboard 200 chart after the 2015 Country Music Association Awards, during which Stapleton andJustin Timberlake performed a well-received duet. The album has been certified quadruple platinum by theRecording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and has sold over 2.6 million copies in the United States by November 2019.[2] It was eventually ranked byBillboard as the bestselling country album of the 2010s.[3] It generated three singles: "Traveller", "Nobody to Blame", and "Parachute". "Nobody to Blame" reached the top 10 on theCountry Airplay chart.[4] The album track "Fire Away" was accompanied by a music video.[5] Though not released as a radio single, the album track "Tennessee Whiskey" garnered popularity following its performance at the aforementioned CMA awards, reaching number one on theBillboardHot Country Songs chart and number 20 on theHot 100.[6][7]
I lost my dad in October 2013 and did a little bit of soul-searching. My wife was kind enough to buy me an old Jeep. We flew out to Phoenix and drove it all the way back to Nashville through the desert. I thought a lot about music and my dad, and the things that he would have liked that I should be doing. Out of that, I actually wrote the song 'Traveller' driving down Interstate 40 through New Mexico. That became the cornerstone for the record and wound up being the title track.
— Stapleton speaking about his inspiration for the album during an interview withBillboard[8]
The album is an old-school country record mixed withSouthern rock. Tracks on the album feature electric guitar, mandolin, and acoustic guitar. "The Devil Named Music" exclaims the hard life on the road, while "Might As Well Get Stoned" features resignation lyrics.[9] Musically, "Sometimes I Cry" is a blues song,[9] "Nobody to Blame" is a mid-tempocountry rock track,[10] and "Fire Away" features a beat in a classic soul-ballad time signature.[11] "Daddy Doesn't Pray Anymore" shrouds reflections about his father in the language of religious backsliding, which was previously covered byJulie Roberts in 2013.[12] In an interview forRolling Stone, Stapleton commented "If somebody tells me it sounds dated, I'd say that's great, as long as the date is 1978. My favorite things are from then."[9]
Stapleton wrote or co-wrote all but two of the album's 14 tracks. The album features a blues-influenced cover ofDavid Allan Coe's single "Tennessee Whiskey", andCharlie Daniels' "Was It 26", written by Don Sampson.[9]
Producer Dave Cobb originally intended to record the album atSound Emporium Studios in Nashville, but it was already booked. Cobb had read reports of the impending demolition of the historicRCA Studio A building and itsGrand Victor Sound studios, and decided to record Stapleton's debut studio album there, before the building and its recording studios were gone forever.[13]
The album debuted on the Top Country Albums chart at number two, and theBillboard 200 at number 14, selling 27,000 copies in the week ending May 10.[14]
Six months after the album was released, Chris Stapleton andJustin Timberlake performed "Tennessee Whiskey" at the2015 Country Music Association Awards whereTraveller wonAlbum of the Year.[15] Following the performance, sales for the album increased 6,000%[16] and it re-entered theBillboard 200 at number one after being absent from the chart since September, with 177,000 equivalent album units (153,000 in pure album sales). According toBillboard, the surge in sales is owed to how a mass audience discovered Stapleton on the November 4 CMA Awards broadcast.Traveller is also the first debut country album to reach number one on theBillboard 200 in over four years, withClear as Day (2011) byScotty McCreery being the last.[17] It became the first album to reenter the chart at number one. It remained at number one for a second week with 124,000album-equivalent units, including 97,000 pure album sales.[18] The album track "Tennessee Whiskey" topped theHot Country Songs chart,[19] and reached the top 20 on theBillboard Hot 100.
The album sold 685,000 copies in the United States in 2015.[20] In February 2016,Traveller was certified platinum by theRecording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and double platinum in September.[21] It became the fourth best-selling album of 2016 in the nation, and the top selling country album, with 1.04 million copies sold that year.[20] The album surpassed the 2 million sales mark in the US in July 2017,[22] and it was the second best-selling country album of 2017 (after Stapleton's second albumFrom A Room: Volume 1.[23] It hold the records for the most weeks atop theAmericana/Folk Albums chart (81 in total as of August 2019).[24] It topped theBillboard Year-End Top Country Albums chart in 2016 and 2017.[25][26] It was certified quadruple platinum on July 24, 2019, for 4 million units in sales and streams.[21] As of March 2020, the album has accrued 4.3 million units in the country in total,[27] with 2.6 million copies in traditional album sales.[2]
Traveller received critical acclaim upon its release. AtMetacritic, which assigns anormalized rating out of 100 to reviews frommusic critics, the album has received anaverage score of 85, indicating "universal acclaim", based on 6 reviews.[28] In a review forBillboard, editor Caitlin White gave the album four-out-of-five stars, describingTraveller as a "solemn album, the work of a man gripped by life's impermanence", noting "undercurrents of regret, loss and resignation" in songs like "Daddy Doesn't Pray Anymore", "Nobody to Blame" and "Devil Named Music". About the record's sound direction, she commented "Stapleton's songs are both rhythmic and nuanced, perhaps a by-product of years spent writing for others. They feature a cast of characters that remain likable even as they rush headlong into pursuit of ruin, fortune or chance." White concluded "it's a triumphant debut, encapsulating the grit of life, turning it into a hell of a journey."[12] InLos Angeles Times, Randy Lewis wrote "Stapleton's trenchant pen combines with his soul-drenched rasp of a voice for a moving exploration of the panoply of emotions in the human experience."[36]
Critics fromRolling Stone opinedTraveller "encapsulates everything that makes him one of the most powerful and unique voices in country music today: gravelly, soulful and full of songs that ring like instant classics without ever resting too deeply in the past."[37] In their year-end summary they stated "every track goes straight for the emotional jugular and give a glimpse inside a wildly introspective mind."[38] Editor Owen R. Smith fromThe Seattle Times noted the instruments mandolin, banjo, pedal steel guitar "are all given room to shine, even when Stapleton dips his toe into some menacing country rock in "Nobody to Blame" or electrified bluesy swagger in "Might As Well Get Stoned.""[10]
.jpg)
[29]
