CHRIS STAPLES, DON'T WORRY

“I’m still making up for / the person that I wasn’t then / I still got a little time / to become what I could have been,” Richmond, Virginia’s Chris Staples sings off his newly released album, Don’t Worry. He said in an email that he shared with his followers that “many of the songs are about my adolescent years and the decades that followed. I spent much of my young life feeling a little lost, not sure where I’d end up, or where I was headed exactly. I remember feeling uneasy, wondering how things would pan out. I’m very grateful for the life I have now given the path that led me here.”

What unfolds in his latest album of ten soft-rock indie songs are snippets of time, shared with loved ones he has offended or lost, or wants to know that he has an “Open Mind.” He’s forgiving with his old self (“if I saw you today / I know what I’d say / I’d say sorry but I was / the only person / I could be”) and his memories are not all bad, either, with songs about being on tour on “San Pedro Avenue” and laughing in bed with his lover. The main thrust of the album is that who he is is “Good Enough For Now.” That who we are in any given moment is someone with good intentions and a mind like a “twelve lane highway,” with plenty to think about and steer him in the best direction.