Chris Stapleton Dropped His Cover of Al Green's "I'm A Ram"
During last year's Super Bowl, a unique snippet of Chris Stapleton covering Al Green’s 1971 song “I’m A Ram,” played over a Dodge commercial. Music fans' ears perked up. Stapleton, a huge fan of covering songs at live shows, had just covered one of rhythm and blues and soul's greatest artists' greatest songs. For an ad. Surely, he'd be releasing the song on iTunes the next morning, right? nope. Next month then? Nope. What about youtube? Nah. Country fans were straight dick-teased.
Stapleton discussed why he enjoys covering songs so much:
“I always like to cover songs because I don’t have any ego about ’em. There are lots of great songs to record and there are lots of great songs that I like to sing.
I’m always gonna try to cover things, a lot of my heroes covered things, ya know Willie Nelson’s covered other people’s songs, Aretha Franklin always covered other people’s songs. If there’s a good song out there, it’s always worth singing even if you didn’t write it.”
And Al Green's
"You know, we played it with hopefully the most respect and reverence, and I’m sure we had a fun time doing it. I think it’s a great song that makes you feel good, makes you feel like you wanna get in a truck, and drive down the road.”
Al Green's original version features guitars and trumpets really shining. Stapleton has left out the original horn section and allows the listening to focus on the vocals accompanied by guitars and drums.
The song is great. Per usual. As is everything Stapleton does.
(Sidebar - if you missed Stapleton's cover of Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters", pause reading this blog and listen to this now.)
Dodge released a press release on a special Chris Stapleton-inspired limited edition Ram to accompany the song's release -
Country superstar Chris Stapleton has released his recording of “I’m a Ram”. The song highlights the release of Stapleton's specially designed Ram “Traveller” Truck. The truck is on display at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, along with an exhibit called Chris Stapleton: Since 1978. This partnership between Ram Truck and Stapleton has been going on for several years.
The “Traveller” is part of the latest project between Stapleton and Ram. The eight-time Grammy-winning singer worked closely with the Ram design team to create a modern vehicle with a “Retro” color palette that harkens back to the 1970s and 1980s.
The “Traveller” is built on the platform of the Ram 2500 Heavy Duty. The most striking exterior detail is the large, three-dimensional Ram hood ornament added to give a vintage appearance.
Stapleton brings back other details from his favorite 1979 Ram Palomino truck. The Palomino-inspired exterior uses colors like Linen Cream, Radar Red, Bison Brown and Cashmere. The striped graphics featured on the Palomino are adapted to fit the 2500 Heavy Duty body. Special Turbo Fin 18-inch wheels also give a 1980's appearance.
p.s. - fun fact, "Tennessee Whiskey" was originally recorded by David Allan Coe
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p.p.s. - come on the show Chris