Post by beerinboston on Apr 20, 2008 10:37:15 GMT -5
MUSIC REVIEW
Chesney Sticks To Tried And True
By THOMAS KINTNER | Special to the Courant
April 20, 2008
Kenny Chesney's career has become a clockwork success since the turn of the century, with five straight chart-topping studio albums, a steady stream of radio hits and annual tours that rank among the biggest cash cows around. Friday night, the twice-reigning Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year kicked off his latest summer tour, and a two-night stand at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, with a performance that leaned heavily on familiar hits.
Backed by an 11-piece band, Chesney stuck to a formula that has been true for him, barking the likes of "Live Those Songs" and the hook-slathered "Beer in Mexico" while counting on his support group to infuse the material with juice rather than making any real showing of his own personality.
Long on starry-eyed nostalgia for carefree days, Chesney's tunes are simple, uniform and predictable in a way that is more often drab than ingratiating, whether such schmaltz-thickened ballads as "Don't Blink" or clunky bursts along the lines of the lyrically ghastly "Young."
Chesney earned points for the sheer conviction with which he delivered them, but that didn't amount to anything like presence in the pulsating sway of "Don't Happen Twice" or the banjo-flecked, bargain basement reverie of "Never Wanted Nothing More." The performance wasn't Chesney at his sharpest, and when he lost track of lyrics in one place or tried to ad-lib in another, the wince-inducing results showed how reliant he is on a reliable structure.
A creature of steady habits, Chesney closed his show with the same run of hits he always saves for the end, including the ham-handed island groove of "When the Sun Goes Down" and the jaunty finisher "How Forever Feels." His encore was also by rote, right down to its paint by numbers bound through "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy."
Chesney Sticks To Tried And True
By THOMAS KINTNER | Special to the Courant
April 20, 2008
Kenny Chesney's career has become a clockwork success since the turn of the century, with five straight chart-topping studio albums, a steady stream of radio hits and annual tours that rank among the biggest cash cows around. Friday night, the twice-reigning Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year kicked off his latest summer tour, and a two-night stand at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, with a performance that leaned heavily on familiar hits.
Backed by an 11-piece band, Chesney stuck to a formula that has been true for him, barking the likes of "Live Those Songs" and the hook-slathered "Beer in Mexico" while counting on his support group to infuse the material with juice rather than making any real showing of his own personality.
Long on starry-eyed nostalgia for carefree days, Chesney's tunes are simple, uniform and predictable in a way that is more often drab than ingratiating, whether such schmaltz-thickened ballads as "Don't Blink" or clunky bursts along the lines of the lyrically ghastly "Young."
Chesney earned points for the sheer conviction with which he delivered them, but that didn't amount to anything like presence in the pulsating sway of "Don't Happen Twice" or the banjo-flecked, bargain basement reverie of "Never Wanted Nothing More." The performance wasn't Chesney at his sharpest, and when he lost track of lyrics in one place or tried to ad-lib in another, the wince-inducing results showed how reliant he is on a reliable structure.
A creature of steady habits, Chesney closed his show with the same run of hits he always saves for the end, including the ham-handed island groove of "When the Sun Goes Down" and the jaunty finisher "How Forever Feels." His encore was also by rote, right down to its paint by numbers bound through "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy."