Joseph Hudak
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Chris Stapleton on 'The Late Show' YouTube/The Late Show Chris Stapleton is not one to make political statements. But it’s hard not to read into his Wednesday night appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. The Grammy-winning Nashville songwriter didn’t perform one of the countless country songs he’s written, but rather “Living in the Promiseland,” made famous by Willie Nelson.
Written by David Lynn Jones, “Living in the Promiseland” is a pro-immigrant song about the American dream. Nelson cut it for his 1986 album The Promiseland and released it as a single, taking it all the way to Number One on the country charts. Onstage at Colbert, Stapleton offered a solo rendition of the ballad, backed only by Nelson’s longtime sideman, harmonica player Mickey Raphael, who played on the original recording.
“Give us your tired and weak/ And we will make them strong/ Bring us our foreign songs/ And we will sing along,” Stapleton sang to begin the performance, accompanying himself on guitar as Raphael offered subtle harmonica accents.
Last summer, Nelson, who turned 93 this month, used the song and its poignant music video to open his performances on the Outlaw Music Festival Tour. The video features images of immigrants, many of them people of color, arriving on the nation’s shores in search of a better existence. Today, however, that existence is especially elusive, as the current administration has worked to vilify immigrants while targeting them in an aggressive deportation campaign.
“Give us your daily bread/ We have no shoes to wear/ No place to call our own/ Only this cross to bear,” Stapleton sang, driving home the song’s message.
While a radio hit for Nelson in the Eighties, he retired “Living in the Promiseland” in 2005. A decade later, he returned to the tune at a time when Syrian refugees were fleeing a civil war in their country. “I think this is one of the most appropriate songs that we could do for this period in America,” he said onstage at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., where he was receiving the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, “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.”
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Stapleton is currently on his All-American Road Show Tour. He’s also nominated for six awards, including Entertainer of the Year, at the upcoming ACM Awards, set for May 17 in Las Vegas.
