Saturday Night Live music: Chris Stapleton performs ‘Midnight Train to Memphis’

Chris Stapleton was the musical guest for this weekend’s new episode of Saturday Night Live, and we of course had every belief that he was going to be brilliant. After all, we’re talking here about one of the best singers in his genre — he’s someone who consistently gives great performances and he’s also making a return trip to the stage. If you don’t impress SNL straight out of the gate, they don’t tend to invite you back. Consider that a sign that Stapleton figured out a way to make some of the producers very happy.

If you love Stapleton’s music, there is a pretty good chance that you loved this. It was far more rock-focused than country, but his ability to mold together genres is one of the things that people have always loved the most about him. This song was “Midnight Train to Memphis,” and it was a bold choice for SNL given that Stapleton doesn’t actually sing lead for all of it. There was a lot of blues in the song just as there were also some opportunities for him to really bush out some bold guitar licks and do some interesting things with the beat.

If there’s one critique we can offer it’s that in terms of song of the singing, there was a tendency for some of the enunciation to get lost in the studio. It wasn’t the easiest song to understand. We like to be able to understand some of the lyrics much of the time.

Second song – “Hard Livin'” – This was our favorite performance of the two, mostly because it appealed to some of our own rock/blues sensibilities a little bit more — honestly, it felt like it blew by. Sometimes in the midst of a long SNL some of the musical numbers, even the good onews, can feel like they blow by in the blink of an eye. This one absolutely did.

It was nice overall to have Sturgill Simpson, one of the other great performers in the Nashville music scene right now, turn up for the performances. While this was far from pure country music, we’re glad to see some evolution and change going on there.

What did you think about Chris Stapleton’s performance on Saturday Night Live this week? Do you think that he’ll be invited back to host for a third time? Be sure to share in the comments!

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