Page 31 - ARUBA TODAY

A31
PEOPLE & ARTS Tuesday 5 december 2017
Chris Stapleton’s bold but simple plan: to put music first

By KRISTIN M. HALL his producer is Dave Cobb.
Associated Press Stapleton isn’t verbose and
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — neither are his lyrics, so it’s
These last few years, Chris no surprise that everyone
Stapleton is often surprised from Adele to Luke Bryan
by early-morning texts of has recorded his songs. “Ei-
congratulations from his ther Way,” which is nomi-
friends. Take, for instance, nated for best country solo
last week, when the Gram- performance, is literally his
my Award nominations voice and a guitar.
were announced. “I think simple is harder
“That’s how I usually find to do than making overly
out. People go ‘Congratu- complicated things,” Sta-
lations’ and I go ‘What pleton said. “Much in the
for?’” Stapleton said. He way that I think lyrically in
eventually discovered that songwriting less words can
he was nominated for three mean more, the same can
awards, including best be true of music. If you can,
country album, best coun- for lack of a better term, sell
try song and best country a song without putting in
solo performance. “That’s extraneous instrumentation
usually what happens to ... then that’s what serves
me because I usually don’t the song the best.”
know what’s going on.” His touring is an extension In a Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2017 file photo, Chris Stapleton accepts the award for album of the year
Since his sensational debut of the idea of putting the “From A Room: Volume 1” at the 51st annual CMA Awards at the Bridgestone Arena, in Nashville,
solo album, “Traveller,” was music first. On his arena Tenn.
released in 2015, he’s won tour this year, he plays on Associated Press
two Grammy Awards and a stage shaped like a half- what we do onstage. It’s all sic. Morgane Stapleton, about not always under-
scores of Country Music As- circle band shell with lights. from a sound perspective who is also a songwriter, standing why loss hap-
sociation and Academy of “While it looks like some sci- for me and then the visual adds just the right touch of pens, has become a ten-
Country Music Awards. The ence fiction piece, it’s a has to fall in line.” sweetness and softness to der, comforting moment
album continued to domi- giant diffuser that controls Singer-songwriter Kendall his volume and range. for many fans, especially
nate the country album frequency and stage vol- Marvel met Stapleton 15 “When you take her out of after the mass shooting at
sales chart this year and ume,” Stapleton explains. years ago, back when the the equation, he would not a country music festival in
has been certified double He doesn’t use in-ear moni- Kentucky-bred Stapleton be Chris Stapleton,” Marvel Las Vegas earlier this year.
platinum. tors, those ear buds that al- was a clean-shaven new said. Stapleton said he wants his
He released two new al- low artists to hear the music, songwriter with a short, “She is to him and his guitar fans to attach meaning to
bums this year — the preferring monitors placed flattop haircut. They have playing what harmonica his songs that he didn’t al-
Grammy-nominated “From on the stage; the stage al- written some 60 songs to- player Mickey Raphael is to ways intend when he wrote
A Room: Volume 1,” which lows him to better project gether, including songs cut Willie Nelson.” them.
came out in May, and his music to the seats in the by Blake Shelton, Lee Ann Stapleton gives a lot of “I want them to have own-
“From A Room: Volume 2,” back of the arena. Womack and Josh Turner. credit to his wife for know- ership in it because they
which came out Dec. 1. “I am not trying to make the Marvel, who co-wrote “Ei- ing all the songs in his cata- do,” Stapleton said.
His success lies in his bold biggest, most elaborate, ther Way” as well as two log and picking songs that “The songs don’t really
simplicity: His recordings pyrotechnic show,” Staple- other songs on Stapleton’s fans can connect to, like mean as much without
are cut live in the studio ton said. “I am trying to “From A Room: Volume 2,” “Broken Halos,” another them and without people
with his band; his wife, Mor- make the show that sounds said the husband-and-wife Grammy-nominated song. listening to them and in-
gane, sings harmony; and the best, or best represents harmony is key to their mu- That song, which talks vesting in them.”q
Book Review: New Caitlin Strong thriller has complex plot

By BRUCE DESILVA a creep who buys pharma- ley Masters; and Masters’ student — an assault Land
Associated Press ceutical companies to jack sons Luke and Dylan, all re- reveals here for the first
Jon Land’s Caitlin Strong up the price of drugs. turn. The oldest boy, Luke, time. Caitlin soon suspects
thrillers usually have a For the uninitiated, Strong who becomes more like his that the girl’s assailant and
“ripped from the head- is a trigger-happy, insub- father with every book, ini- hers are one and the same.
lines” feel, and the new ordinate, fifth-generation tiates the action when he This makes Caitlin wonder
one, “Strong to the Bone,” Texas Ranger whose ex- faces off against neo-Nazis if she’s always been quick
features violent neo-Nazis, ploits always have a direct who harass his Mexican- to pull the trigger because
industrial robots, a lethal bi- link to one of her ances- American friends. The story she harbors a deep-seated
ological weapon, the inter- tors’ investigations. In this also finds Caitlin coming rage against male offend-
national opiates trade and one, the ninth book in the face-to-face with the dark- ers. Eventually, the Masters’
series, it’s her grandfather est moment in her past. struggle against neo-Nazis
Earl Strong’s pursuit of a Called to the scene of a and Caitlin’s pursuit of the
Nazi who escaped from a nightclub brawl in Austin, rapist merge into a single,
World War II prison camp in she discovers that a young related criminal case. As
Texas in the 1940s. The se- woman has been drugged always with this rollicking,
ries’ other regulars, includ- and raped. The circum- entertaining series, the This cover image released by
Forge Books shows “strong
ing Caitlin’s long-suffering stances are eerily similar to complex plot is resolved to the Bone,” a novel by Jon
commander, D.W. Tepper; what happened to Caitlin in a burst of righteous Land.
her ex-con lover, Cort Wes- when she was a college violence.q Associated Press