Chris Stapleton returned to Saturday Night Live to perform a pair of songs from his latest album.
The 45-year-old country music star appeared for the third time as musical guest alongside host Ryan Gosling during the iconic sketch comedy show on April 13.
Wearing his signature straw cowboy, Stapleton opened with a soaring performance of the bluesy “White Horse,” which was co-produced by his wife, Morgane Stapleton, who provided backup vocals and tambourine on stage. “White Horse” appears on Stapleton’s 2023 fifth studio album, Higher, and was co-written with Semisonic’s Dan Wilson. The song also took home Grammys for best country song and best country solo performance at the 2024 ceremony in February.
The country star returned for a passionate performance of “Mountains of My Mind,” which serves as the closing track on Higher.
Higher was produced by Stapleton with Morgane Stapleton and Dave Cobb, and recorded at Nashville’s RCA Studio A. The 14-song set features work from Cobb (acoustic guitar, eclectic guitar), J.T. Cure (bass), Paul Franklin (pedal steel), Derek Mixon (drums), Morgane (background vocals, synthesizer, tambourine) and Lee Pardini (organ, piano). The album debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
Stapleton last took the Studio 8H stage in 2018 when he appeared alongside fellow singer-songwriter Sturgill Simpson for surprise performances of “Midnight Train to Memphis” and “Hard Livin.’” Both tracks appeared on Stapleton’s third album, From a Room: Volume 2.
Watch Stapleton’s SNL performances below. For those without cable, the broadcast streams on Peacock, which you can sign up for at the link here. Having a Peacock account also gives fans access to previous SNL episodes.