Every few years, an album comes along that cuts through the noise. Chris Stapleton’s Higher is one of those albums. You don’t need to know his past hits or any awards to feel it. The songs are simple, emotional, and powerful enough to hook anyone who presses play.
The songs feel raw, warm, and very human. You hear that gravel in his voice, but you also hear a new softness, a new risk.
That confidence was on full display at the 59th CMA Awards in Nashville. Stapleton walked onstage with Miranda Lambert for “A Song to Sing,” the retro, disco-flavored track they co-wrote.
Under a giant spinning disco ball, in ‘70s-inspired outfits, they turned Bridgestone Arena into a slow-motion roller rink. Just two friends locking in and telling one story.
Album Review Chris Stapleton’s “Higher”
To really understand why “A Song to Sing” has everyone talking, it helps to see everything the article describes come alive in one moment. The swirling disco ball, the ‘70s suits, the velvet-smooth groove, and Jenee Fleenor’s fiddle all lock together around that simple promise: “Together we can write a song to sing.” In this CMA performance, Stapleton and Lambert don’t just sing about partnership, they model it—trading lines, then melting into one voice.
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“Nobody’s Fool,” written by an 18-year-old Chris Stapleton, is the proof that she heard something special in him long before the rest of the world caught up. It is raw, grounded country-rock, all grit and emotion, and it turns their new duet into something bigger. Once you know where their partnership began, every harmony on “A Song to Sing” feels deeper, earned, and impossible to forget.