Album review: Kenny Chesney, 'Hemingway's Whiskey'
2 stars (out of 4)
Kenny Chesney is the pin-up hunk for the post-Garth Brooks era of country. He wears a cowboy hat and talks with a Tennessee drawl, but he’s also a college-educated marketing major with an affinity for ‘70s singer-songwriters and arena rockers. Put it all together and you’ve got one of the biggest-selling artists of the last decade, a performer who routinely packs stadiums across the United States, much as Brooks did in the ‘90s.
Chesney doesn’t mess with the formula on his 14th studio album, “Hemingway’s Whiskey” (BNA). He’s a troubadour for the suburbs, a guy who sings about middle-class life with a plainspoken mixture of wistfulness and humor. He mixes nostalgia (the camaraderie of high school football in “The Boys of Fall,” the lessons learned and innocence lost of “Where I Grew Up”) with exhortations to cut loose from the routine (“Coastal,” “Reality,” “Round and Round”).
And routine is exactly what this album is all about, a competent professionalism that finds Chesney’s smooth voice and solid band never extending themselves. “Round and round we go,” the singer purrs while a guitar solo curls around him. There are a couple exceptions; he goes deeper than usual on the title song, written by Texan Guy Clark. And “Small Y’all,” a honky-tonk duet with the still slyly brilliant George Jones, is easily the most country-fried song Chesney has done in years. It’s also the friskiest moment on an album that’s more about keeping the franchise afloat than letting it really sail.
greg@gregkot.com
Kenny Chesney is the pin-up hunk for the post-Garth Brooks era of country. He wears a cowboy hat and talks with a Tennessee drawl, but he’s also a college-educated marketing major with an affinity for ‘70s singer-songwriters and arena rockers. Put it all together and you’ve got one of the biggest-selling artists of the last decade, a performer who routinely packs stadiums across the United States, much as Brooks did in the ‘90s.
Chesney doesn’t mess with the formula on his 14th studio album, “Hemingway’s Whiskey” (BNA). He’s a troubadour for the suburbs, a guy who sings about middle-class life with a plainspoken mixture of wistfulness and humor. He mixes nostalgia (the camaraderie of high school football in “The Boys of Fall,” the lessons learned and innocence lost of “Where I Grew Up”) with exhortations to cut loose from the routine (“Coastal,” “Reality,” “Round and Round”).
And routine is exactly what this album is all about, a competent professionalism that finds Chesney’s smooth voice and solid band never extending themselves. “Round and round we go,” the singer purrs while a guitar solo curls around him. There are a couple exceptions; he goes deeper than usual on the title song, written by Texan Guy Clark. And “Small Y’all,” a honky-tonk duet with the still slyly brilliant George Jones, is easily the most country-fried song Chesney has done in years. It’s also the friskiest moment on an album that’s more about keeping the franchise afloat than letting it really sail.
greg@gregkot.com