Album Review: Kenny Chesney - Just Who I Am: Poets and Pirates

Kenny Chesney’s latest studio effort is among the most artistically interesting of his career. Like Be As You Are: Songs From an Old Blue Chair, it reveals a Kenny who’s polished but not blatantly commercial and mildly adventurous if not trail-blazing. The caveat is that, for an artist with Kenny’s deficiencies, artistically interesting does not necessarily mean artistically compelling. Kenny’s limited vocal ability, a few puzzling choices and an unwillingness to stray far from tried and true Kenny material keeps Just Who I Am from becoming a memorable Chesney album.

Things get off to a surprisingly twangy start with radio hits “Never Wanted Nothing More” and “Don’t Blink,” which, despite their success, are the two blandest songs on the album. Subsequent songs build on the established theme of couching some rather weighty life themes within smooth vocals and moderately up-tempo arrangements, but communicate their messages more effectively by presenting smaller slices of the life experience.

Given Kenny’s personal history, it’s tempting to speculate about the true meaning of “Wife and Kids,” a celebration of married life that walks the line between desperate sincerity and cliche inauthenticity, and “Better As a Memory,” a stark revelation of the flaws that lead to the demise of the singer’s relationship. However, these songs are ultimately more puzzling than autobiographical, not because Kenny excels at creating ambiguity but because he lacks the vocal ability to interpret the lyrics with any nuance.

Other cuts sound like light versions of the Jimmy Buffett style Carribbean honky-tonk that Kenny is so comfortable with. “Shiftwork” sounds like the album’s most likely third single and is fun if below George Strait’s usual duet standards. “Got a Little Crazy” has some delicious double-entendre lurking beneath the mariachi horns.

The album would be much improved with the exclusion of “Wild Ride,” a laughably pathetic Dwight Yoakam cover with a vocal distortion loop that absolutely ruins the vibe of the album. One has to wonder if it was really worth sacrificing the cohesiveness of the project for the sake of a Joe Walsh cameo.

Two songs stand tall amongst the rest. “Demons,” penned by Bill Anderson and Jon Randall, is exactly what you would expect from the writers of “Whiskey Lullaby” despite a rather anemic production and performance. “Dancing for the Groceries,” a gem from Don Schlitz and Brett James, is the album’s most inspired performance and among the most compelling material that Kenny has ever recorded. In a perfect world, a superstar like Chesney would send this cut to radio and force the industry to confront the sympathetic figure of an exotic dancer who’s just doing what she has to do. The success of such an edgy song would salvage an otherwise safe project.