OMMA Catalogue Number

OMMA-0112

Artist

The SteelDrivers (with Chris Stapleton)

Title

The SteelDrivers Direct From Nashville Tennessee Recorded Live 11/8/2006, commonly known as Live From The Station Inn.

Release Details

Issued in 2006 as a self-released CD album with no listed catalogue number. Recorded live at Nashville’s Station Inn on November 8, 2006, the release documents an early SteelDrivers performance with Chris Stapleton on guitar and vocals, alongside Richard Bailey, Mike Henderson, Mike Fleming, and Tammy Rogers. The twelve-song program includes “East Kentucky Home,” “Through the Window Pane,” “To Be With You Again,” “Higher Than the Wall,” “That Train Don’t Stop Here Anymore,” “If It Hadn’t Been for Love,” “Midnight Train to Memphis,” “Peacemaker,” “Heaven Sent,” “Drinkin’ Dark Whiskey,” “You Put the Hurt on Me,” and “Whiplash.”

Edition & Variant Identification

Self-released, stock/commercial CD album, not issued on a conventional label imprint and not assigned a catalogue number. The entry is not marked as a promotional copy, test pressing, or compilation appearance. This disc as a formative, pre-solo-stardom Chris Stapleton object from his period as lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter with The SteelDrivers.

Matrix & Pressing Data

No CD matrix, mirror-band inscription, mastering SID code, or mould SID code has yet been verified for the OMMA copy.

Physical Description

CD Album and CD/Package, with album artwork.

Factory-Origin Characteristics

No factory-origin anomalies or distinguishing manufacturing characteristics are documented in the present SOAT entry.

Condition Report

Media condition NM and sleeve/package condition NM, including album artwork.

Provenance

Acquired by OMMA through Discogs from seller corporalquigg on May 2, 2026. Seller discovered this CD in a music media lot he acquired as part of his music sales business.

Market Context & Historical Notes

This CD catches Chris Stapleton at a hinge point between two lives: the Nashville songwriter whose work was already entering other artists’ catalogues, and the singer whose voice would later become one of the dominant sounds in modern country. In 2006, Stapleton joined The SteelDrivers as lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter, contributing to a live album and then to the band’s first two studio albums before leaving in early 2010. Live From The Station Inn is that first live-album: a small, no-label document of Stapleton as the voice in a hard-edged Nashville string band still forming its public identity.

The Station Inn, a legendary local Nashville venue, opened in 1974 and has been long recognized as a gathering place for bluegrass musicians, fans, drop-ins, and working players. The track list includes early Henderson/Stapleton material that would become central to the SteelDrivers identity, including “If It Hadn’t Been for Love,” “Midnight Train to Memphis,” “You Put the Hurt on Me,” and “Drinkin’ Dark Whiskey.”

Before Stapleton’s debut LP Traveller made him a belated mainstream star in 2015, he spent years in writing rooms, bars, studios, and bands. The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s account of Stapleton’s career places the SteelDrivers period directly between his emergence as a successful Nashville songwriter and his later solo breakthrough. The Recording Academy’s biography likewise frames Traveller as a late-arriving public breakthrough rather than a beginner’s debut. This CD is testimony of Stapleton’s deeper prehistory: Stapleton’s performance identity already audible in a bluegrass-soul setting, years before the market learned how to price his origin objects.

Canonical Status in OMMA

This release is recognized by the Origins of Modern Music Archive as the Chris Stapleton’s canonical debut as a commercial recording artist.

References and Source Documentation

Bluegrass Discography. “Direct from Nashville, Tennessee: recorded live, 11/08/2006 [Live from the Station Inn].”
https://ibiblio.org/hillwilliam/BGdiscography/?albumid=32054&v=fullrecord

The SteelDrivers. “About The SteelDrivers.”
https://www.thesteeldrivers.com/about

Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. “Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum Exhibition ‘The Station Inn: Bluegrass Beacon’ Will Spotlight Venerable Nashville Club.”
https://www.countrymusichalloffame.org/press/releases/country-music-hall-of-fame-and-museum-exhibition-the-station-inn-bluegrass-beacon-will-spotlight-venerable-nashville-club-2

Recording Academy / GRAMMY.com. “Chris Stapleton Artist Page.”
https://www.grammy.com/artists/chris-stapleton/15418/

Discogs. “The SteelDrivers – Live From The Station Inn (Direct From Nashville Tennessee Recorded Live 11/8/2006).”
https://www.discogs.com/release/12955904-The-SteelDrivers-Live-From-The-Station-Inn-Direct-From-Nashville-Tennessee-Recorded-Live-1182006