Either Way

Either Way: Chris Stapleton's Heartbreaking Country Masterwork

"Either Way" is one of the most critically admired tracks from Chris Stapleton's second studio album From A Room: Volume 1, released on May 5, 2017, through Mercury Nashville and Universal Music Group Nashville. Stapleton, who had spent years as one of Nashville's most respected professional songwriters and as a member of the bluegrass group The SteelDrivers before his own performing career exploded with the 2015 debut Traveller, brought to "Either Way" the kind of heartbreak storytelling that had made him one of the most in-demand writers in country music for over a decade.

"Either Way" was written by Chris Stapleton himself, reflecting the songwriting autonomy that had become central to his artistic identity. Unlike many country acts who rely heavily on the Nashville professional songwriting ecosystem, Stapleton's ability to write with the craft of a journeyman songwriter and the emotional directness of a confessional artist gave his albums a cohesion and personal authority that distinguished them from more commercially formulaic Nashville product. The production of the track was handled by Dave Cobb, Stapleton's primary producer and a figure who had reshaped the sound of Americana and country music in the 2010s through his work at RCA Studio A in Nashville. Cobb's production philosophy, which emphasized live-room performance energy and sonic warmth over digital precision, gave "Either Way" an organic, emotionally immediate quality.

From A Room: Volume 1 debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, an extraordinary achievement for a country album with no concession to pop crossover production values. The album also topped the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and demonstrated that Stapleton's commercial breakthrough with Traveller had not been a fluke but represented a genuine and durable connection with an audience hungry for substantive country music grounded in traditional craft rather than contemporary pop production trends. "Either Way" was among the most discussed tracks on the album, with reviewers consistently citing it as a highlight of extraordinary emotional power.

The song received extensive airplay on country radio stations, earning Stapleton one of the more significant radio presences of his career for a track that operated in an uncompromisingly traditional mode. It performed on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, adding to a chart presence that had been building since "Tennessee Whiskey" had become his signature breakthrough. The Grammy Awards recognized the broader excellence of the album cycle as well, with Stapleton winning multiple Grammy Awards during the period spanning his first two albums, including Best Country Album for From A Room: Volume 1.

The cultural reception of "Either Way" extended well beyond country music circles. Stapleton's crossover appeal, rooted in the universal emotional intelligence of his writing and the raw power of his voice, made the song accessible to listeners who did not typically engage with country music. His 2015 surprise appearance at the CMA Awards alongside Justin Timberlake had introduced him to a global audience, and the ongoing quality of his releases ensured that the new audience remained engaged and continued to discover his catalog in depth. "Either Way" benefited from this expanded listener base, accumulating streams across demographic groups that traditional country radio metrics would not fully capture.

Critical reception to the track was uniformly enthusiastic. Reviewers praised the economy and precision of the songwriting, noting that Stapleton accomplished with a handful of specific details what lesser songwriters could not achieve with much more elaborate emotional machinery. Publications across the music press landscape included "Either Way" in year-end lists and assessments of the best country music of the 2010s, citing it as evidence of Stapleton's position as the most important country artist of his generation. The song was also covered by other artists and became part of the repertoire of cover versions that circulated in live music contexts, a testament to its structural soundness as a piece of songwriting independent of any specific performance.

Dave Cobb's production choices for the track were specifically noted in coverage: the decision to maintain a stripped-down arrangement that placed Stapleton's voice and guitar at the center of the listening experience, rather than layering in the kind of production ornamentation that had come to define mainstream Nashville records, created a sonic environment in which every element served the emotional content rather than competing with it. This restraint was itself a creative and commercial statement, declaring that in the right hands, the oldest tools of country music storytelling remained entirely capable of producing work of the highest order.