Lovin' Us Some Chris Stapleton

As Appalachians, we are mighty proud of Chris Stapleton, the 47-year-old Lexington, Ky., native who grew up not far from us in the tiny Johnson County town of Staffordsville in Eastern Kentucky.

To date, Chris has won 11 Grammys, 11 Academy of Country Music Awards and 15 Country Music Association Awards.

Besides that, he also has been named the ACM's Artist-Songwriter of the Decade, and not long ago Rolling Stone magazine included Stapleton among the “200 Greatest Singers of All Time.”

Stapleton had written and/or co-written nearly 200 songs. He has six No. 1 country songs to his credit, including Kenny Chesney’s “Never Wanted Nothing More,” Josh Turner’s “Your Man,” George Strait’s “Love’s Gonna Make It Alright” and Luke Bryan’s “Drink a Beer.” His work has appeared on albums by Adele, Kelly Clarkson, Brad Paisley, Taylor Swift and so many others.

About This Stapleton Song

History lovers also have always populated The Flood camp, so it’s not surprising that this is our favorite Chris Stapleton composition.

“Can You Run?” is set during the American Civil War and tells the story of a young slave pleading with his lover to join him for a dangerous dash to the Union line so that he can join “the freedom line of the Lincoln soldiers.”At one point in the song, he tells her: You know I hate to ask so late But the moment's finally come, And there won't be time to change your mind. Can you run?

Click here to read more about this wonderful work.

Our Take on the Tune

The Flood’s current iteration of “Can You Run?” has been eight years in the making. Randy Hamilton brought the song to the band in the spring of 2017. He already had worked out the basic arrangement in his head, but it took a while to get the instrumentation just right.

For instance, Jack Nuckols, whose drumming is so fundamental to this track, didn’t arrive on The Flood scene until a couple of years ago, about the same time that Charlie Bowen began learning a bit of banjo, so that his five-string could provide a kicky little counterbalance to the sweet soloing by Danny Cox and Sam St. Clair.

Happy with where the song has come, the guys are pretty likely to want to include it among the tunes they record on the new album they hope to start work on this fall. Stay tuned!

More From Randy?

Finally, if you’d like to hear more tunes that feature Randy Hamilton’s vocals, check out the Randy Channel on the free Radio Floodango music streaming service.

Click here to give it a spin!