Kenny Chesney: Country Music with a Caribbean Soul 

The hardest part about doing my job is trying to find nice things to say about people younger, better looking, and more successful than myself. At 40, Kenny Chesney has produced more than thirty Top Ten singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, fourteen of which reached #1, holds a degree in marketing from East Tennessee State, and looks like a buffed-out cherub in a damn cowboy hat. Guys, back me up on this one, some people are just too damn lucky.

            Don’t get me wrong now, I’m not saying he’s had an easy road…before and after graduation he played for nothing in dives all around Tennessee, paying his dues in Nashville honky-tonks and so on. Of course, he didn’t start learning guitar until he was well into his college career, and he managed to keep his grades up enough to graduate while making and selling his demo disc, and writing songs, and he probably restored paintings and annotated Voltaire in his free time. Yeah, Kenny Chesney’s bio reads like a testament to the work ethic. "I made up my mind I was going to figure out how to make my living playing music. Having done that, I figured I could scrape out a gig somewhere in Nashville, anything playing music was fine."  Well, yeah, I think I’m gonna make up my mind to become President of the World, if that’s all it takes… sheesh!

His main talent, and what gives him his status as one of today’s leading “Progressive Country” artists, is his knack for taking everyday stuff and pulling songs out of it. His lyrics sound like the sort of thing you’d talk about with a bartender, or the guy across from you on the bus, and his voice has that “Howdy Neighbor” twang that most country musicians would kill for. He comes from a southern-Midwest background that should be familiar to all us native Hoosiers, which is probably what gives his music such a comfortable feel…the experiences he draws on are ones we can touch. “I grew up in a very small town, went to a small elementary, then high school – and got to play football as a starter. I skinny-dipped and fished in a lake, had my heart broken by my high school girlfriend. I've lived like a lot of guys listening to my music live… and I think that's why people buy my records, because they can relate to the guy singing those songs. They feel like the songs are about their lives, because they're about my life – and I'm not all that different from them, even now." I imagine Kenny doesn’t have too big of a fan base in Chicago, New York, Seattle or Miami, but then again, I don’t suppose that bothers him too much either.

            Chesney is well versed in all the traditional country styles, ballads and road songs and what have you, but his forte is more in country-rock good-time music. There’s more than a little Jimmy Buffet in his work… he writes good vacation music that can lift you out of a drab office and set you down on a Caribbean beach with a drink in your hand. As a bit of advice, don’t play No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems  or Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates at work: nobody will get anything done the rest of the day.

            I know I’ve said before that I’m not much of a country fan, but once again I’m forced to admit that there’s some awfully good country music out there, and a lot of it is being made by Kenny Chesney. His music doesn’t move me, it doesn’t inspire me, and it certainly doesn’t enlighten me. But it’s entertaining, and well done, and I understand where he’s coming from. He sings songs that remind me of high school dances, family picnics and drinking whiskey stolen from my parent’s liquor cabinet on old corn roads in the middle of a starry night. I’m not the kind of guy to get lost in that whole Midwestern bathos kind of thing, but Kenny Chesney touches the same spot as John Mellencamp or Meatloaf. He just makes you feel great to be rural.

Kenny Chesney along with Gary Allan will come to Roberts Stadium on Thursday, July 10 at 7:30 with his Poets and Pirates Tour. Seats are $69.50 and $36.50. All tickets are subject to Ticketmaster Fees, Handling Charges and Facility Fees. Additional fees apply for Credit Card purchases.Tickets can be purchased at The Roberts Stadium Box Office, The Centre Box Office, All Ticketmaster outlets including fye in Eastland Mall and Evansville Schnuck's locations. Tickets can be charged by phone by calling (812) 423-7222 in Indiana and (270) 926-6661 in Kentucky or on the Internet at Ticketmaster.com.