Few musical performances in the days after the 2016 election were as affecting as Chris and Morgane Stapleton's "You Are My Sunshine" on Fallon. They dragged the best of America from its very worst, pulling melodies from the heavy subterfuge; the delicacy rose to a defiance with each stretched-out phrase. "You Are My Sunshine" was written by a Louisiana governor who fought for segregation; it's also an lovely song when done well. With subtlety and nuance in short supply—a racist, misogynistic, chaotic, seemingly semi-literate, aspiring demagogue taking the White House—the Stapletons not only refused to bow to callow simplicity, they suggested, just for a moment, that our world could be ugly and beautiful at once, and that the latter would eventually win out.It feels like a long time ago, just like everything else. But the notion of Stapleton as a unique and powerful country singer hasn't shifted. His 2015 debut Traveller still holds up, both in the dexterity of its songs and Stapleton's soaring, versatile voice.Yesterday, we were brought back in with a new Chris Stapleton song, "Broken Halos," and the confirmation of a new album, From A Room: Volume 1, out May 5 on Mercury Nashville. "Broken Halos" is a God-tinged ballad that trades the emotional complexity of Traveller's high points for a more comforting fatalism. It's a hymnal, at points: "Don't go looking for the reasons / Don't go asking Jesus why / We're not meant to know the answers / They belong to the by and by," he sings, only stretching out into a flourish at the very end. It's his wife Morgane whose harmonies put the song over the top, weaving in and out, completing Chris's backwards emotional certainty as she goes. It's an odd choice for a first single—it's not as dramatic as Traveller high points like "Tennessee Whiskey" or "Whiskey and You." It's all the more curious when you consider that "Either Way" was slated to be the first single—live videos clearly show it to be the superior song, the type of rousing, vocally ambitious heartbreaker that Stapleton's fans clearly clamor for.But "Broken Halos" hints at Stapleton's talents for just long enough to keep us hanging on. Listen to it above, pray to his God that "Either Way" comes next, and watch for From A Room: Volume 1, out May 5.Alex Robert Ross is listening to country today. Follow him on Twitter.
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