Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates

I first came across Kenny Chesney music,when a friend introduced me to the greatest hits,since then I was hooked. There isnt a single album not worth buying, and i have got them all, this last one called (just who I am)poets and pirates,is with a difference, still sounds great,no much of twang,lots of ballads, but still powerful voice, only kenny Chesney can deliver. You will like this latest album, guaranteed .

I started off in country music with Garth Brooks and progressed on, i brought Kenny's Greatest Hits cd after seeing him sing on the 2005 CMA Awards and haven't looked back since.He has some really really great stuff out there,but i really love this album Dont blink being my favorite song on the album. the album is more thoughtful than some of the others,one of the most thought provoking is Dancing for the groceries.
I would say to anyone give the albun a go it is one of my most played cd's since I brought it
. i wait in anticipation of a new album hope its soon!!!

Back in the late 90s, Kenny Chesney was just another popular "hat act"; as respected as the next singer, but generic all the same. Ever since 2002's No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problems, however, he has found his niche, taking over from that beach-loving, elder statesman of Country, Jimmy Buffett, to pen and perform songs about tequila, sunshine and surf. A love affair with the Caribbean islands has served as inspiration to many of his recent hits, and coloured his 2003 masterpiece When the Sun Goes Down and its follow-up The Road and the Radio. Although his new album, Just Who I Am: Poets and Pirates, doesn't break any new ground thematically - indeed, many of the songs could have featured on any Kenny album this decade - the now-forty year-old has at least delivered a mature, reflective album, surprisingly complementing the fun-loving, beach-party songs. In the past, Kenny has added an underlining vulnerability to the most seemingly nonchalant narrative. His 2005 Number 1, "Beer In Mexico", wherein he struggles with the prospect of leaving the care-free youthful existence of old and accepting the responsibility which comes with age, and eventually deciding to "sit right here and have another beer in Mexico" is a valid example. He frequently masters such themes which can be easily over-looked even at the second or third listen. With his latest album, he adds to that parallel premise, adding weight to what he terms to be his most personal album yet. Surprisingly, he doesn't have a single writing credit on this disc, but the songs seem to be so in-tune with his personality, they must have been tailor-made for him.

Attempting to sustain youthful nonchalance, a theme hitherto featured in "Beer In Meixco", "Don't Happen Twice" and "Young", make a re-appearance here in the exuberant "Just Not Today", while in the disc's first Number 1, "Never Wanted Nothing More" he remembers wanting a car more than anything, and then a girl and finally God. In the soul-searching Number 1, "Better Than a Memory" Kenny tries to explain why he is better than a memory than as her man. It's a song packed with metaphors and similes, which include the wistfully sung, "I move on like a sinner's prayer."

The crowning moment on this set is undoubtedly the chart-topping, make-every-moment-last, "Don't Blink", a sentiment echoed from his 2002 Number 1 "The Good Stuff" and detailed even more in another chart-topper, 2003's "There Goes My Life".

The album does sit back and kick it's shoes off however, particularly on the reggae-styled "Got a Little Crazy Last Night", where he sounds like Men At Work in their eighties hey day. Joe Walsh of The Eagles guests on the joyously upbeat, "Wild Ride" and on "Wife and Kids", Kenny yearns for a family. The track is filled with earnestly, notably as Kenny has just hit 40 without said wife and kids. Vulnerability is highlighted once more in "Scare Me" and the ballad "Demons". It is "Dancin' for the Groceries", however, which has caught most critics' attention, with it's depiction of a single mother doing a strip to pay the bills. The song is tastefully narrated and elicits sympathy for her plight.

Although this isn't exactly Kenny's best album - that accolade should surely go to When the Sun Goes Down - it is nevertheless a good album. Fans will like it and it should win over a few converts too.