Review: Chris Stapleton far from 'Cold' in long-awaited return to Xcel Center

Calling Friday night's Chris Stapleton gig at Xcel Energy Center a country concert is like recognizing Muhammad Ali as only a boxer or Costco as just a store.

There's nothing wrong with a straight-up country concert, mind you. But there was so much more to Stapleton's performance than twangy guitars and boot-scooting beats.

The Kentucky singer, songwriter and guitarist — all three traits carried equal weight Friday — packed a lot of rock, soul and blues elements into his thickly layered two-hour performance.

Stapleton, 44, did not need any hot, younger warm-up acts to help him sell out the nearly 16,000 seats, but he brought along two anyway — both women, each of whom made it an even more richly varied concert.

First came Morgan Wade, a Virginian twang-rocker with a strong buzz in Americana music circles. She sounded like a cross between Loretta Lynn and Jason Isbell. Then fans were treated to a highly entertaining set by "X's and O's" rocker Elle King.

Between frequent drags on a vape pen and a Solo cup, the colorful, sandy-voiced King convincingly showed off her newly fostered country side. She even donned a banjo for a couple tunes and delivered her recent Miranda Lambert duet "Drunk (And I Don't Wanna Go Home)" along with an ultra-charming take on Charlie Daniels' "Long Haired Country Boy."

Friday's concert was sort of overdue payoff for the fame and acclaim that came Stapleton's way via his fourth album, 2020's "Starting Over," which won him multiple Grammy and CMA awards during COVID lockdown.

"Not too long ago, I'd never played rooms this size — and I'd never even played Minnesota," he wistfully noted mid-show. "But I'm here now."

After opening with three deep-bellowing, rock-leaning tunes — his piercing vocals in "Parachute" felt like a punch to the gut — Stapleton quickly switched gears into two of his most tender and folkier tunes of the night, "Starting Over" and "Millionaire." The latter song prompted couples all over the arena to lock arms and sway together as he and his wife/co-vocalist Morgane Stapleton locked into solid-gold harmonies.

The musical change-ups just kept coming. Next up was a blues montage highlighted by a swampy spin through Guy Clark's "Worry B Gone," which suggested a full-blown blues album from Stapleton is a sure bet at some point in his career. Then came a solo-acoustic stretch, which the bandleader introduced as "the part of the show where I fire my band for two or three songs."

He made the most of the intimacy, introducing the stark and triumphant "Traveller" as a song he wrote in the wake of his father's death. He also offered a sweet, homespun take on his first real single, "What Are You Listening To?," about which he humorously recounted, "It shot straight to No. 46 on the charts."

Ironically, one of the most intense numbers in the second half of the set was "Cold," a soulful, slow-burning, new showpiece that suggests he may also have a Stax or Hi Records tribute record in him in addition to that blues LP.

Wherever he went musically, Stapleton very discernibly kept the crowd in the palm of his hand. Instead of the rowdy hell-raising one might've expected, the show turned to a riveted, rapturous state of attentiveness — one more way it was far from a typical country concert.