Review: Chris Stapleton delivers a solid set at Saratoga Performing Arts Center
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » Local country music fans got a special treat this Thursday evening: a Spa City visit from the one and only Chris Stapleton.
The Grammy award- winning artist made his Saratoga Performing Arts Center debut this week on his the All-American Road Show Tour, among the good company of supporting acts Brent Cobb and Marty Stuart.
These talented openers were an appropriate warm-up for Stapleton’s set. A young Cobb, with his thick Southern accent and musical style, welcomed concert-goers into the venue before the more well- seasoned Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives gave the crowd a rockabilly, honky tonk country show.
What the audience was most anticipating, of course, was headlining act Chris Stapleton, who gave a two-hour performance to the thousands of fans packed within the SPAC grounds that evening.
Once Stapleton was in the spotlight, the Kentucky native delivered a solid set of some of the best songs from his portfolio. From his 2015 debut studio album Traveller, the country star and his band played hits like “Nobody to Blame,” “Parachute,” “Fire Away,” title track “Traveller,” “Whiskey and You” (Stapleton’s second most well-known song about whiskey) and “Might as Well Get Stoned,” for which he brought back Cobb to the stage for a duet.
Stuart also made another appearance during Stapleton’s set, when they teamed up to play two of his fun tunes “Now That’s Country” and “Honky Tonkin’s What I Do Best.”
Off of Stapleton’s more recent From A Room: Volume 1 and Volume 2, both released last year, he performed Willie Nelson’s “Last Thing I Needed, First Thing This Morning,” another popular cover “Millionaire,” a bluesy number called “I Was Wrong” and radio favorite sing-a-long “Broken Halos.”
Stapleton rounded out his set with his famous rendition of “Tennessee Whiskey,” but not
without first stretching the song’s intro to sing each band member’s bio.
Returning back to the stage after constant cheers, Stapleton gave an unforgettable encore of “Outlaw State of Mind,” then officially ended with Lynyrd Skynyrd cover “Simple Man,” which served as a touching tribute to the classic band’s guitarist Ed King, who died on Wednesday, as well as a beautiful send-off for fans as they headed out into the night.
As the summer season comes to a close there are only a handful of LiveNation shows left on the SPAC schedule. While the few remaining events - including Kid Rock, Zac Brown Band and the Outlaw Music Festival starring Willie Nelson and Neil Young - are all sure to be a good time, Chris Stapleton’s SPAC debut will certainly go down as one of the best country concerts of the summer.