Kenny Chesney Bestows Big Opportunity to John Baumann and “Gulf Moon”
Texas music songwriter and performer John Baumann is the latest to receive a big opportunity and an adrenaline shot in the royalty department via a big mainstream country name. Announced as part of the rollout of Kenny Chesney’s upcoming album Songs For The Saints out July 27, John Baumann has revealed his song “Gulf Moon” was selected to be one of the album’s 12 tracks. “I am honored, stunned and grateful,” Baumann said about the distinction. “Never quit on your dreams. There is always hope.”
Originally appearing on Baumann’s 2014 record High Plains Alchemy, the song has the nautical references common to a Chesney tune, but is much more poetic and deep than a beach bum ditty—more indicative of a song you may have heard from Guy Clark back in the day, or perhaps James McMurtry.
John Baumann’s writing work has been receiving a lot recognition recently, from fans and musicians alike. His song “Old Stone Church” was nominated for Saving Country Music’s Song of the Year in 2017. It was one of numerous notable compositions from his most recent record Proving Grounds. Baumann also participated with Mike in the Moonpies recently in the rousing track “Country Music’s Dead.”
John Baumann joins Texas country’s Randall King and others in the big news department lately. King just had his song “The Road I’m On” selected by Garth Brooks to be the opening song for his upcoming world tour. Also this week, Texas country’s Cody Johnson signed a partnership with Warner Music Nashville. Add that with the recent news of Cody Jinks signing with Concord/Rounder to release his upcoming album Lifers, and Texas music is on a winning stream when it comes to receiving mainstream recognition.
Though Kenny Chesney remains a polarizing character to some traditional country fans, it’s worth noting he’s pledged that proceeds from his Songs for the Saints record will go toward the Virgin Islands after Hurricane Irma devastated the area. Chesney owns property in the area, and has strong ties to the islands. “To just see the devastation and what that does to people is one thing, but then there’s this courage and resilience people find,” Chesney says. The album will also be Chesney’s first record after switching to Warner Bros. from Sony’s Columbia Nashville.
June 24, 2018 @ 9:33 am
John Baumanns songwriting is superior to most artist out there. How about signing some of these great songwriters and letting them showcase themselves? Fuck mainstream everything.
June 24, 2018 @ 12:12 pm
Rome wasn’t built in a day. Often it’s through songwriting channels that up-and-coming artists receive their initial recognition by the industry. You need massive stars like Kenny Chesney cutting John Baumann songs for artists like Baumann to find traction in their careers. This is how Chris Stapleton and others came up through through the ranks. Yes you may hate Kenny Chesney. But the guy sells out stadiums across the country and has a massive audience. Better to have him cut a Baumann song than something written by Florida Georgia Line like Jason Aldean does.
June 24, 2018 @ 4:05 pm
You make my point valid. Stadiums full of soulless humans, killing their livers, regurgitating mindless autotunes and protools. Hope Baumann made these bitches pay for the good shit. It saddens me, artist like John Baimann aren’t playing sold out stadiums. I forgot we live in the land of idiocracy.
June 24, 2018 @ 11:42 pm
We were made by painfully aware how Chris Stapleton came up through the ranks during that CMA shitfest a couple years ago when the pop country crowd tried to take credit for his entire career.
And honestly, if you’re buying tickets to a Kenny Chesney concert, you don’t care about good music anyway.
June 25, 2018 @ 4:40 am
How many people though do you think actually go and seek out the songwriter’s version of the song? How many people do you think went and sought out Keith Gattis’ (or even Charlie Robison’s) version of “El Cerrito Place.” Especially with the fact that most people are listening to the music either digitally or streaming, they likely may never even know who the songwriter is, unless Chesney verbally tells them, and even then, most of the listeners probably aren’t paying attention.
.
I get that the royalties are important and I get that there are small steps: but it’s steps like Miranda Lambert having Turnpike Troubadours tour with her that are going to have the impact: not a single cut which may or may not even end up as a single.
June 25, 2018 @ 10:15 am
It’s probably a small margin of Chesney fans who will be turned onto John Baumann through this song. But some will, and some will simply because I wrote about it and others talked about it and presented Baumann as someone they should look further in to.
But the biggest impact is now Baumann has a huge resume point he can use to help book shows, find a label, get in bigger songwriting circles, not to mention the royalty windfall which will help him dedicate more of his time to songcraft as opposed to trying to make ends meet. Many songwriters have to sell out to get a song cut by a big mainstream artist. For Baumann, he was just being himself.
June 25, 2018 @ 11:54 am
I kind of take exception to the “stadiums full of soulless humans” comment… I’ve been to countless Chesney stadium shows… I also love a mix of great bands and artists like Turnpike Troubadours, Brandy Clark, Sturgill Simpson, Ashley McBryde, Jason Isbell, Chris Stapleton…just because I’ve enjoyed his music and shows since I was 17 (I’m now 33) and it carries some meaning for me, doesn’t mean I’m an alcoholic who can’t take music seriously.
June 24, 2018 @ 1:03 pm
That FGL song ‘Up Down’ sounds a lot like Theory of a Deadman. Is there some kind of connection anyone is aware of?
June 24, 2018 @ 2:00 pm
I know this is off topic, but I wonder if you’ll review the new Darius Rucker single “Straight to Hell” (feat. Aldean, Bryan and Charles Kelley). I can’t quite figure out if I like that song or not ahah
June 24, 2018 @ 7:18 pm
I’m sure I’ll get around to it so folks can complain I’m ignoring independent artists for the mainstream to get clicks.
June 25, 2018 @ 5:10 am
It’s important to communicate how disconnected mainstream music is relative to the genre since the radio stations are not doing it. Could you imagine yourself being a radio host? You would have to play FGL, Kane Brown and Sam Hunt and claim that they represent today’s country! (ahahah!).
June 25, 2018 @ 7:49 am
Let’s face it Trig – you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t with this crowd! But keep on keeping on.
June 25, 2018 @ 6:48 pm
Just now listening to it but seems pretty good, but it isn’t an original as Cory Morrow did this song several years ago. Either way, nice to hear a song like it get a wider audience, even if I don’t care for the new version as much.
June 24, 2018 @ 4:14 pm
John Baumann’s Gulf Moon can be purchased here https://johnbaumann.bandcamp.com/track/gulf-moon?token=EC-1NV13895DT456402W
June 24, 2018 @ 5:20 pm
Good god, I worded this poorly.
June 24, 2018 @ 5:21 pm
Lets pretend we live in a world where i actually responded to myself as i intended to.
June 24, 2018 @ 5:19 pm
For some reason, I’ve never checked Kenny Chesney out. Does he actually suck, or what?
June 24, 2018 @ 7:15 pm
If by, “Does he actually suck…?…”, you mean – does he actually utilize a negative pressure to cause the movement of fluid/objects in a particular direction – then no. He does not actually suck. He does actually blow though.
June 25, 2018 @ 5:01 am
She’s gone from suck to blow!
June 25, 2018 @ 7:45 am
… and did it feel good?
June 25, 2018 @ 4:26 am
This may be unpopular, but if Kenny Chesney were the worst thing on country radio, we’d be okay. His earlier stuff (There Goes My Life, The Good Stuff, Never Wanted Nothing More, etc.) is solid, formulaic, crowd-pleasing country music, a
June 25, 2018 @ 4:28 am
Oops.
….and his newer stuff, while decidedly un-country, sometimes traffics in thoughtful lyrics and experimental production that a newer artist could never attempt.
June 25, 2018 @ 8:01 am
Agree. He’s pretty harmless if he’s just one ingredient in the great country music soup bowl.
June 25, 2018 @ 7:45 am
He was the worst thing going for a while, now a lot folks long for those days, lol.
“…Never Wanted Nothing More is solid, formulaic, crowd-pleasing country music”
Chris Stapleton – it bought me a house, thanks Kenny Chesney 😀
https://youtu.be/Dd8ScY6QKHE
Beyond “A Lot of Things Different” and “Anything But Mine”, I don’t have much use for the guy. He’s been around long enough now that if there was much more to him than the standard buy a boat, drink a beer, hit-chasing BS, we should’ve heard it by now.
Congrats to John Baumann, hope Kenny helps him buy a house, too.
June 25, 2018 @ 9:15 am
Seems that mainstream radio artists can’t win. Ignore the lesser known or up and coming songwriters and get lambasted. Spotlight them on their upcoming album and get lambasted. KC has a rep for being Buffett/Marley lite and there is a nugget of truth to that. But some of his Buffett/Marley is not bad if you are in the mood to hang out at the pool with a few cold beers. And as far as his bad songs, I’ll give him a pass. Anyone willing to donate all proceeds of his/her album to a good cause like the VI relief fund is okay by me. And keep in mind this is not the first time he’s helped out those affected by the hurricane. Immediately afterward, he had water, food and supplies airlifted to the island via his personal plane. So haters gonna hate but I choose to look at the good in his actions.
June 25, 2018 @ 10:18 am
Give credit where credit is due, and criticism where criticism is due. That’s how you prove you’re actually being objective instead of just reactionary with hate or love for an artist. In this case, Kenny Chesney is due some credit.
June 25, 2018 @ 9:47 pm
Fair enough, but nobody’s saying he’s a bad guy. They’re just criticizing his music and laughing at the fact that it’s considered country.