Kenny Chesney — Just Who I Am: Poets and Pirates

Few country singers have made more out of memories than Kenny Chesney. To hear his singles tell the story, his life has progressed from a string of high school girlfriends to a series of rum-fueled Caribbean vacations. But banking on memories can mean mortgaging the future, and while Chesney sometimes has seemed determined to enjoy himself whatever the cost, he has rarely counted those costs.

He does so on Poets and Pirates, for himself and also, in the case of the single mother/stripper in Dancin’ for the Groceries, in the prices some people pay for others’ pleasure. “I’ve been blessed, I know, but at the end of the day I go home alone,” he sings in Wife and Kids, allowing himself a moment of self-pity in those unfulfilled dreams. But the song also comes as a remarkably vulnerable admission from a man whose one marriage fell apart so quickly and so publicly.

Elsewhere, Chesney sings that he’s “better as a memory.” Those who look forward to his latest for its island rhythms and guest spots from Joe Walsh and George Strait might agree, but the ones who come listening for the man may come away with more than they expected. (***)

>>Sample: Dancin' for the Groceries, Wife and Kids, Demons