Chris Stapleton’s ‘Higher’ Was Around For A Long Time

Chris Stapleton released his new album Higher last week (11/10), just a few days after winning his seventh Male Vocalist CMA Award.

Chris said, "Whenever we're releasing new music, we don't have a specific ritual really, but I think there's a little bit of apprehension, a little bit of excitement mixed together wondering how fans will react, really. I think that's the main thing going on in our heads when we put something out is we hope whatever we've done will be something that people will gravitate to and enjoy."

He said of the album's title track, "'Higher' is a song that's been around a long, long time. I wrote it in 2001 in the first few months of being a professional songwriter here in Nashville, and it was on the first demo session that I ever did here in Nashville. So, for it to come around 22 years later and wind up being the title track of an album is a pretty unique thing to me."

Backstage at the CMA Award on Wednesday (11/8), Stapleton told us of winning Male Vocalist once again, "These things are always fantastic to win, but when you get nominated or invited to these parties, in my estimation, you've already won, and you've already gotten to be far beyond anything a musician could ever dream of getting to do."

He concluded, "We get to do that every day; we get to live it every day. As far as thinking about going into anything, I'm always genuinely surprised to win anything, and I'm always grateful for it."

What Am I Gonna Do
South Dakota
Trust
It Takes A Woman
The Fire
Think I'm In Love With You
Loving You On My Mind
White Horse
Higher
The Bottom
The Day I Die
Crosswind
Weight Of Your World
Mountains Of My Mind

With the release of Chris Young's new song "All Dogs Go To Heaven," depicting the heartbreak of losing your canine best friend, we got to thinking about what some of the best country music songs were about dogs, and we found some good ones.

Admittedly we were surprised Miranda Lambert didn't have a dog song as she, along with her MuttNation foundation, does so very much for our canine friends. Miranda does have a song from 2020 called "How Dare You Love," along with a lyric video that features pictures of dogs. She also performed on the ACM Awards with Chris Stapleton in 2021 for his song about his dog, "Maggie's Song." We did, however, find gems from Carrie Underwood, Stapleton, and more than one from Blake Shelton.

Here are our top five picks for country songs about dogs.

An early song from Carrie telling who she prefers her canine to the dating scene. The chorus sings, "And, I, I close my eyes / And, I kiss that frog / Each time finding / The more boys I meet, the more I love my dog."

Blake won the CMT Music Awards' Video of the Year award for the video for this song in 2018. The song's chorus includes the lyrics, "I'll hang the pictures, you'll hang the stars / You'll pick the paint, I'll pick a guitar / Sing you a song out there with the crickets and the frogs / You'll name the babies, and I'll name the dogs, yeah."

A great song about losing your best friend. The chorus sings, "All dogs go to Heaven / To spend forever running wild and free, off the leash / I know he'll probably go before me / Oh, and that's the day I'm dreadin' / But he'll be waiting on me at the gates / 'Cause all dogs go to Heaven."

Chris wrote this song about losing his family's beloved lab terrier dog.

Blake's version of this song has become a classic and is also the name of his bars in various cities, including Nashville, soon in Las Vegas, and in Oklahoma. The song was originally recorded by George Jones on his 1990 album; You Oughta Be Here with Me. Kenny Rogers also covered it on his 1993 album If Only My Heart Had a Voice. The chorus includes the lyrics, "And the warden sang / Come on somebody / Why don't you run / Ol' Red's itchin' to have a little fun / Get my lantern / Get my gun / Red'll have you treed before the mornin' comes."