LGBTQ+ Nation Artist Chris Housman Releases ‘Really feel-Good Album’ (Unique)

Chris Housman is discovering a solution to smile.

“I am doing very well, particularly contemplating all the pieces,” Housman says in a hushed tone throughout a current interview with PEOPLE.

Certainly, whereas the nation artist is celebrating the triumphant launch of his debut album Blueneck and the widespread consideration he’s getting for the steamy music video for his present single “Responsible as Sin,” he additionally finds himself mourning the lack of a previous love. 

“He was the love of my life,” says Housman of Nashville songwriter Abe Stoklasa, who died of undisclosed causes final November. He was simply 38 years outdated on the time of his loss of life. 

The 2 first met in August of 2019 at a “little lesbian karaoke bar” in Nashville. “I am most likely going to cry sooner or later, however I do not forget that he walked within the entrance door of the bar, and I stated to my pal that if I might construct an individual, that is the individual that it might be,” remembers Housman, 34, of his first time assembly Stoklasa. “I ended up speaking to him after which we stored working into one another after that.”

However then, issues between the 2 started to escalate rapidly.

“We had been collectively for a pair months, and I feel it was too intense at first, and he ended it in December of 2019,” Housman remembers. “However then, a pair months later, the pandemic occurred, and we ended up form of quarantining collectively, after which we had been formally collectively once more.”

This on-again, off-again relationship continued for a lot of months till the couple broke up for the final time in October of 2021. 

“We each cherished one another,” displays Housman of Stoklasa, who wrote songs for artists reminiscent of Tim McGraw, Woman A and Chris Lane. “And likewise, he was a genius. He was a very profitable songwriter and insanely proficient singer and musician. And I feel that added to the depth of the entire thing.”

Regardless of their breakup. the 2 remained on good phrases till Housman acquired the stunning information of Stoklasa’s passing. 

“I simply all the time thought we might most likely find yourself collectively,” Housman says quietly. “We each simply wanted to get our s— collectively a little bit bit. So then when that possibility was gone? It’s nonetheless exhausting to consider.”

And whereas Housman’s debut album Blueneck might have simply been full of the shock and the angst and the unhappiness that the singer/songwriter has felt for the reason that day Stoklasa died, it doesn’t.

“It is actually only a assortment of my life’s work up so far,” Housman explains of the album created primarily earlier than Stoklasa’s passing. “In a approach, I have been engaged on [this album] since I picked up the fiddle after I was 7 years outdated. I feel it encapsulates my persona too. It is a feel-good album.”

It is a optimistic mindset that Housman says he’s been clinging to.

“The one solution to get by way of that is to discover a solution to really feel good regardless of all the pieces on this planet that occurs,” he says. “I feel the album displays that effectively.”

Nation to its core, the album additionally brings with it some controversy heard throughout the lyrics of songs reminiscent of “Bible Belt,” “Responsible as Sin” and the title observe “Blueneck.” “I needed this album to be a mixture of the stuff that I grew up listening to and the stuff I want I grew up listening to,” Housman says. 

Maybe one of the vital stellar items of labor on Blueneck is “Can’t Go Down That Highway,” an unbelievable tune that Housman wrote alongside Blaine Youthful has actually taken on an entire new that means since Stoklasa’s loss of life. After which there’s “No person,” which straight is impressed by Abe. “I wrote that one after we broke up the primary time, and I used to be simply devastated,” Housman remembers. “After which we ended up getting again collectively for a few years, and he cherished that tune.”

The album concludes with “Why Can’t I Simply Say,” which incorporates the precise recording from a voicemail Stoklasa left for Housman.

“It simply felt excellent to finish the album with that tune,” Housman concludes. “That tune was about him in that second.”