Chris Stapleton Covers Willie Nelson on Colbert Before May 21 Run Ends
Chris Stapleton put willie nelson back in the frame on Wednesday night by singing 'Living in the Promiseland' on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. He chose Nelson's pro-immigrant ballad instead of one of the many country songs he has written, and he closed the performance with thanks for Stephen Colbert's run.
Stapleton and Mickey Raphael
The performance was stripped down to a solo vocal and Mickey Raphael on harmonica. Raphael is Nelson's longtime sideman, and he played on the original recording, which tied the television appearance directly to the song's first life rather than treating it as a simple tribute cover.
Stapleton sang, 'Give us your tired and weak/And we will make them strong/Bring us our foreign songs/And we will sing along,' then followed with, 'Give us your daily bread/We have no shoes to wear/No place to call our own/Only this cross to bear.' That lyric choice kept the focus on the song's immigration imagery instead of Stapleton's own catalog.
Nelson's 1986 return
Nelson cut 'Living in the Promiseland' for his 1986 album The Promiseland and released it as a single that went to Number One on the country chart. David Lynn Jones wrote the song, but Nelson made it the version that mattered commercially and politically.
He retired it in 2005, then brought it back a decade later when Syrian refugees were fleeing civil war in their country. At Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., he said, 'I think this is one of the most appropriate songs that we could do for this period in America,' and added, 'Many years ago, I recorded this song, and I felt like this might be a good time to kind of try to bring it back.'
Colbert's final season
The timing gave the cover extra weight because The Late Show With Stephen Colbert is in its final season and will conclude its run on May 21. Stapleton is also on his All-American Road Show Tour and is nominated for six awards, including Entertainer of the Year, at the ACM Awards set for May 17 in Las Vegas.
Stapleton ended by telling Colbert, 'I want to thank you publicly for all the good that you’ve done for me and so many musicians that have come on this show' and 'You are a gift to the world.' For a late-night stage heading toward its last broadcast, the cover functioned less like a novelty and more like a clean reminder that a country standard can still carry politics, history, and a live audience in one pass.
