Music Review: Kenny Chesney, Lucky Old Sun

By Steve Morley

You wouldn't think Kenny Chesney and Willie Nelson would have much in common: Chesney is known for slick mainstream country, while Nelson is a raw-boned musical rebel who severed ties with Nashville years ago. But the affinity between the two performers led to a duet of the oft-recorded classic "That Lucky Old Sun," the centerpiece of Chesney's new island-themed album. It's not his first collection of Caribbean-flavored country: he did it on Be as You Are in 2005, the same year he married—and divorced—actress Renee Zellweger. The emotional fallout of that union hasn’t really been addressed in his work until now. On Lucky Old Sun, the sailboats and tropical locales that once afforded lazy, beer-cooled introspection have become, if only temporarily, Chesney’s refuges of retreat and healing. With the wind back in his sails, he reveals aspects of his painful personal journey, making it a metaphor for the private places in our souls where we run when the storms get too turbulent.

Chesney taps a vein of melancholy on "Way Down Here" and "Spirit of a Storm," which are plainspoken about inner turmoil and the need to accept it as a stop along recovery’s path. ("And oh, it’s been a long, long time/ Since I had real peace of mind/ So I’m just going to sit right here/ In this old chair till this storm rolls by…") I’m Alive" searches valiantly for the silver lining of gratitude, its rising and falling chord sequence symbolizing the halting process of emotional recovery. But the grief just below the surface adds a poignancy absent from the album’s more openly confessional numbers. When Chesney sings "today’s the first day of the rest of my life," what at first seems an inexcusable banality slowly reveals the strained optimism behind the song. ("It'd be easy to add up all the pain/ And all the dreams you sat and watched go up in flames/ Dwell on the wreckage as it smolders in the rain/ But not me...I'm alive.")The wistful title track is an unexpectedly inspirational highlight, evoking Negro spirituals with its lament of life’s labors and its implicit longing for a home in the sky. ("Up in the morning, out on the job/ Work like the devil for my pay/ Lucky old sun ain’t got nothin’ to do/ But roll around Heaven all day.")

The album’s mostly pensive mood is lifted by the joyful reggae sing-along, "Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven," which is lent authenticity by members of Bob Marley’s former band, the Wailers. The tune’s flimsy rationale for delaying our earthly departure hardly amounts to valid spiritual commentary, but the happily hedonistic lyric does point out how weak the flesh can be, vaguely recalling St. Augustine's prayer, "O Lord, help me to be pure—but not yet." ("[I] said Preacher, maybe you didn't see me throw an extra twenty in the plate/There's one for everything I did last night/ And one to get me through today/ Here's a ten to help you remember, next time you got the good Lord's ear/ Say I'm comin' but there ain't no hurry/ I'm havin' fun down here.")

Chesney falters most notably when he shrugs off the notion of chastity altogether on "Ten With a Two," which regrettably revives the dated and demeaning practice of assigning numerical values to women based on physical attractiveness. The low-class track might be expected on a typical Chesney outing, but here it mars the album’s thoughtful, inward-looking aesthetic. The pull of mediocrity’s powerful tide ultimately prevents Lucky Old Sun from reaching the shores of true artistry, though Chesney—who hits a few high-water marks here—deserves credit for rocking Nashville’s boat.

Audio Clips

"I'm Alive"

"Way Down Here"

"Boats"

"Everybody"