Song Review – Kenny Chesney’s “American Kids”
In this whole muddled, unsettled moment we find ourselves amongst in country music, where so called “bro-country” purely dominates, and and older artists are so quickly being left behind, Kenny Chesney inhabits a very interesting space. Chesney won the coveted CMA Entertainer of the Year prize in four of the five years between between 2004 and 2008, deposing a two year run by Alan Jackson with his first one, and eventually being replaced by Taylor Swift after his last, highlighting just how much Chesney is a bridge between the old and the new. So where does Chesney fit in the current scheme? He can still sell out arenas and stadiums, but is he apt to try and run with the young guns of bro-country, does he simply try to hold ground, does he do battle with the current trends, or does he cash in his chips at the end of one hell of a run?
That’s why his new single—the first one in over a year—is filled with such intrigue. Chesney just took a year or so off to retool and reflect before releasing new music, and now he’s back with a song called “American Kids” written partly by hot commodities Luke Laird and Shane McAnally, mostly known in recent memory for helping Kacey Musgraves with much of her award winning album Same Trailer, Different Park (Incidentally, Musgraves was on tour with Chesney for a while last year).
Prefacing “American Kids”, Kenny Chesney says all of the right things. “There is so much more to being alive than partying, tailgates and bonfires,” Chesney tells CountryMusicRocks. “It’s every single detail of being young, growing up, remembering when, laughing about how, but especially knowing you can still do all those things! American kids are so much more complicated, more fun, more real …. Just because it makes you smile, that doesn’t mean a song can’t say something! To me, it’s the songs that feel so good that really bring home a message.”
Okay, that all sounds good …. And then here comes the song.
Like other mainstream artists that try to work “progressive” but don’t want to go all in on releasing a rap or EDM tune, Chesney puts out a song that despite his denouncement of “partying, tailgates and bonfires,” still relies heavily on the listing off of artifactual staples daisy chained by buzzwords, while favoring a rhythmic delivery instead of a melodic one. This is one of the reasons the term “bro-country” is so ineffectual, because it fails to convey the underlying problem with the trend: the replacement of lists for stories, and rhythm for melody.
Doublewide, Quick-Stop, Midnight, T-Top, Jack in a Cherry Coke Town. Mama and Daddy put there roots right here, ’cause this is where the car broke down. Yellow dog, school bus, kicking up red dust, picking a song by a barbed wire fence. MTV on the RCA, no AC in the vents.How is this fundamentally different than “partying, tailgates and bonfires”?
Like any song that has a chance on radio today, “American Kids” starts off with a heavily-electronicized beat meant to get passive listeners bobbing their heads. The rhythm is just ambiguous enough that maybe it came from a cajón or some other instrument, hoping to shirk some criticism about its origins, and reminds one of the rounded, boppy beats of Surgarland’s 2010 single “Stuck Like Glue”. The “hey!”‘s and hand claps are about 24 months too late to be Lumineers relevant, and comes across as straining. But isn’t that the way of Music Row?
Are the words to “American Kids” a little more weighty than what Florida Georgia Line might throw down? Perhaps, but they also miss the opportunity to delve into the underlying theme that made songs like Mellencamp’s “Little Pink Houses” or Bob Seger’s “Night Moves” or even Simon & Garfunkel’s “America” standards of the Heartland. They all delved into the dicotomy of American youth: the elated sense of freedom, discovery, and hope, but tinged with loneliness, fear, and indecision about what the future holds. Instead of really spelling out this essential part of this eternal theme, Chesney and the songwriting team seem to rely on minor chords in the structure of the song to strike at those dark moods. Maybe it’s not fair to compare any modern song to a standard from a by-gone era, but even in Taylor Swift’s “22” she at least touches lyrically on the youth ying yang. “We’re happy, free , confused, and lonely at the same time. It’s miserable and magical.”
I’m not really able to even label “American Kids” a mixed bag. It’s definitely different, and sonically it may be a little more complex. But that doesn’t necessarily make something good. Change the window dressing all you want, it’s still a laundry list rhythm-based waste. But as we’ve found out too frequently, that doesn’t mean radio won’t play it.
1 3/4 of 2 guns down.
June 23, 2014 @ 1:54 pm
You know, it’s happy summer time music and for once, it’s not offensive to the ears. It’s not the best thing out there, but I can enjoy it for what it is: mindless summertime rock music that may or may not have country leanings to it.
June 23, 2014 @ 1:58 pm
Kenny Chesney was one of the first artists to really shock me out of country radio and “wake up” if you will. This man single-handedly made me hate beach music and quite literally anything that has a tropical sound to it (sorry Jimmy Buffett). While I’m not quite a sure on this one, he’s probably also the reason that I personally hate nostalgia ballads. Being in my early 20s I would consider myself a part of the demographic that most of these fools pander to. Is it just me, or does all of this “back in the day we were wild and free and I wish I could go back” nonsense ring a bit false? I’m well aware that your theory is that all of these songs can be traced back to Bob Seger’s 1976 classic “Night Moves,” Trigger. But even that song leaves a bad taste in my mouth, more due to what it has inspired than the actual music itself. No wonder most of these songs on the radio are immature in nature; all of these guys seem to have stopped growing when they hit 17.
It stinks because like many of his peers, Kenny Chesney has shown himself to be capable of better things. “The Good Stuff,” “There Goes My Life,” “Who You’d Be Today” and his cover of “Down the Road” are all excellent, if grossly overplayed, singles. Why can’t he do more of that and less of this nostalgia crap?
June 23, 2014 @ 2:03 pm
Nostalgia back to teenager times is an extension of the obsession with youth.
June 23, 2014 @ 2:15 pm
Ah, yes. Forgot about that little tidbit. Either way, it still rings false in my ears. It’s fairly obvious they’re just doing these types of songs because of the youth-oriented nature of modern country music than because they necessarily want to. I suppose that if they were pandering to the middle-aged crowd they’d be singing about mortgages? 😛 Of course, I’m not telling you anything that you don’t already know.
August 12, 2017 @ 4:28 pm
Also, it’s someone who has a hang-up and didn’t seize on the rite of passage to mature or be in harmony with the stage of life they’re at — part of that schizoid chicken shit whip out and now he forms the center from which he’ll infect other’s with his weakness.
I never liked that porn-star looking POS Kenny Chesney. . . .
It’s part of a spirit. The road to destruction is wide, and most unconscious people who go along don’t know when they’ve missed the critical moment to assert there will and stave off the destruction of humanity / a life-world / a mind / a ethos / a body or work and pride and esteem. . . .
It’s like Dark Tower where the gunslinger seeks the Dark Tower as the nexus point where the nature of it is both metaphorical and physical; and that’s the power place where either the BLUEBEARD take control as the very skill impostor or the hero ROUTES that sumbitch. . . .
June 23, 2014 @ 2:05 pm
Nostalgia isn’t in and of itself a bad thing. I love being nostalgic, but not at the price of a song being generic. When I hear a song that takes me out of my 31 year old, married with a kid self, and puts me back in me at 16-18 self, I want it to be real. Give me the real emotion I felt then, not just a bunch of randomness that is thrown together to fill time.
June 23, 2014 @ 2:12 pm
That might be part of my own problem with it. Just like laundry list songs, these nostalgia ballads wouldn’t be nearly as annoying or vapid if there weren’t an utter cavalcade of them at any given time. On the other hand, I’m hugely biased as well, so make of that what you will. I didn’t personally enjoy my high school/teenage years due to some personal reasons, so I don’t really want to go back to that myself (and no, it wasn’t the atypical “kid butts heads with parents” situation. Far different, in fact).
June 23, 2014 @ 2:18 pm
I fully get where you’re coming from. My teenage years weren’t that amazing either. But if a song can adequately make me recall the good times with real, honest lyrics, I’ll take that as a win.
It’s a “to each their own” thing.
June 23, 2014 @ 2:33 pm
Ah, just thought of two: “Red Dirt Road” by Brooks & Dunn and “Pan Bowl” (unless I’m remembering the wrong track) by Sturgill Simpson. Both of those songs, while not really sharing anything in common with my own life, have palpable nostalgia that seems real. I still find my other unrelated songs to do a better job for me.
June 23, 2014 @ 2:28 pm
I fully get where you”™re coming from. My teenage years weren”™t that amazing either. But if a song can adequately make me recall the good times with real, honest lyrics, I”™ll take that as a win. It”™s a “to each their own” thing.
I’ve found that songs that I listened to at the time are better at calling up nostalgia than ones that try to bring it up with the theme. For instance, when I was younger I would go swimming at the neighborhood pool. They would always have pop radio on and while I didn’t care for the majority of the songs, I always liked “Higher” by Creed. If I play that song, happen to be in the right mood and shut everything else out, I almost forget where I’m at. The same goes for “My Maria” by Brooks & Dunn or “Sold” by John Michael Montgomery. I can’t think of a single song off the top of my head that has a nostalgic theme that has succeeded in bringing to mind such feelings for me (though there very well be one at the bottom of my head, but I can’t think of it right this moment).
June 23, 2014 @ 3:12 pm
I totally agree, in high school I went through a lot of random phases, and so there was a big punk phase, a very short lived reggae phase, a classic rock phase, and whenever I hear the songs i listened to then, it takes me back, but songs about being a kid? at best they conjure up images of random people being kids, I never relate to them at all.
June 23, 2014 @ 2:00 pm
I expected more. Although I should know by now that doesn’t mean anything for Kenny’s generation of guys trying to stay relevant in today’s trends. Take his buddy Tim as a prime example. With the careers taht both have had for the last 20 years, you’d think they’d be able to say “No, we refuse to go that far.” Not saying that they were ever saviors of country music, but they were stalwarts who at least hung to at least trying to be real country. Now they both just move along with the gravy train. Whatever their reps say do, they look at them with money hungry eyes and say “Sir yes sir. i’ll do Whatever it is you want me to do. Just don’t forget to toss a couple of nickles my way and I’ll make you happy!” They’ve basically turned into aging hookers who will turn whatever trick they have to do in order to stay relevant in a new, younger world.
June 23, 2014 @ 2:07 pm
With Tim McGraw you might be able to partially blame Curb Records. Sure, the irony being that he only “sold out” after securing freedom from the label, but one wonders where he might be if they hadn’t given him trouble. It seems to me that he went with the gravy train because Curb had put such a hold on his new material that he felt the need to catch up with some songs that would essentially be money in the bank. If they hadn’t ever stalled his output, who knows? His current material might have been more along the lines of his mid-2000s output. It might not have been traditional country but most of it was pretty good.
June 23, 2014 @ 2:11 pm
Agreed on blaming the label. I put 50% of the blame of today’s radio on the labels and their politics. Then 25% each to radio for being stupid enough to play it and artists gutless enough to record it.
My point was just that both guys should be above the songs that they are doing at this point in their careers. They should have the stature to be able to hand pick better songs and not to have to continue to do the paint by the numbers lyrics that are so prevalent today.
June 23, 2014 @ 2:22 pm
You’re right, but a sense both of them ARE above such dreck. As I mentioned above, Chesney’s been milking his own nostalgia well for a while now; it just so happens that it’s become more prevalent with other artists. If you go back about five to ten years, it was mainly just him and maybe a song or two from somebody else covering the subject. That doesn’t make them good but again, they’re a lot less annoying when it isn’t 50% of what’s on the radio. And in continuation of my theory on McGraw, notice how after a few dreadful but hugely successful singles he’s put out a relatively good one in “Meanwhile Back at Mama’s”? Good being a relative term, but it’s certainly not offensive to the ears in any way, particularly when compared to the songs that preceded it. I think that he feels like he’s made his little “comeback” and thus can settle back into his groove. Of course I’ll probably eat my words when his next few singles hit the airwaves, but you get the idea.
June 23, 2014 @ 2:36 pm
Artists singles are laid out in a manner that there will be the one wildly successful, but at the same time, mind numbing piece of shit song, followed by a pretty damn good song, followed by something that’s okay, but not great.
Look at Luke Bryan: That’s My Kind of Night, Drink A Beer, Play It Again.
The first is just dreadful. No substance to it, EDM beat, him shaking his ass on a tailgate in the video. The second, meaningful, illicites an honest emotion. Even if someone doesn’t like the song, the lyrics were written from a very real place (props to Chris Stapleton!) The third, meh. Not a button pusher, but nothing that’s game changing in the terms of country music.
I see them hit my desk every month and can pretty much be guaranteed those three types of singles each year.
June 23, 2014 @ 3:09 pm
Artists singles are laid out in a manner that there will be the one wildly successful, but at the same time, mind numbing piece of shit song, followed by a pretty damn good song, followed by something that”™s okay, but not great. Look at Luke Bryan: That”™s My Kind of Night, Drink A Beer, Play It Again. The first is just dreadful. No substance to it, EDM beat, him shaking his ass on a tailgate in the video. The second, meaningful, illicites an honest emotion. Even if someone doesn”™t like the song, the lyrics were written from a very real place (props to Chris Stapleton!) The third, meh. Not a button pusher, but nothing that”™s game changing in the terms of country music. I see them hit my desk every month and can pretty much be guaranteed those three types of singles each year.
I’d have to agree with this assessment with one caveat: “Drink a Beer” was pretty good but it was almost smothered to death by the cliche of beer in a modern country song. Just like “I Drive Your Truck” before it, the emotion seems to come from a real place but just as equally as another attempt to cut a laundry list-esque song but change the tone from a party song to a ballad, if only to say “hey, we have depth!” I like these two songs but they also get on my nerves. Once again, if they weren’t released in a sea of similarly-written songs I would be able to appreciate them much more.
June 23, 2014 @ 2:14 pm
At first I found this song to be a bit odd and an obvious experiment by Kenny. The more I listen to it, the more it has grown on me. No, it’s not a deep song. Yes, it is nostalgic. However unlike the crap we’re getting from Luke Bryan, FGL, etc. it doesn’t try to create a fictionalized, dream-like, tacky experience with a girl and instead focuses on the small memories from growing up. Good work as always Mr. Chesney
June 23, 2014 @ 3:00 pm
I love nostalgia, in general. Probably more than I should really, but oh well. But I tell ya, “nostalgia songs” very, very rarely do anything for me. I don’t know if I just didn’t have a childhood that relates with those songs or what, but most of them are just not about things that really connect with me.
I guess probably the closest thing to a nostalgia song that’s ever really effected me would be “Bamboo” by Robert Ellis. But that’s a whoooole different thing than songs like this.
June 23, 2014 @ 3:30 pm
“the replacement of lists for stories, and rhythm for melody.”
This is the best encapsulation of the fundamental problem with modern country music that I have read thus far.
June 23, 2014 @ 3:35 pm
Kenny Chesney has already done this type of song far better before, in “Boys of Fall”. That song has a beautiful, soothing melody and tells a story that paints a picture and combines with the melody to create a true sense of wistfulness.
June 23, 2014 @ 4:14 pm
I was going to review this song, but I have no idea how I feel about it and couldn’t put it into words right now if I tried. I don’t hate it, but I certainly don’t love it. I know it’s better than his last godawful single “Pirate Flag.” Like many have said above, I’m not a big fan of nostalgia songs (even though I love “Night Moves”). You can’t really sing about being nostalgic. The material of the song has to make you nostalgic. One song that does that for me is Alan Jackson’s “Chatahoochie” because it reminds me of my days of youth in the summertime hanging out with my friends. I will give some credit to Chesney for making this song at least palatable to listen to. It’s better than the other crap on the radio (but it still isn’t great).
June 23, 2014 @ 4:24 pm
Never been a huge Chesney fan myself, though I did think he was quite effective with the whole beach/island thing.
Deeper lyrics would not overcome the bad song structure, instrumentation and overall unlistenability of the song. Conversely, a better song could not mask the idiocy of the lyrics.
So, yeah, overall, it’s a summer hit.
June 23, 2014 @ 4:25 pm
Not a very good song, but it would be much more tolerable without the garbage in the background and the “heys” and the clapping or whatever the hell it is. Otherwise it would just be another placid, mindless tune I wouldn’t mind playing in the background. I don’t mind Kenny generally, but I can’t say I don’t turn the radio dial when a song he’s made in the last four years or so comes on.
June 24, 2014 @ 9:43 am
At the sold-out concert . . .
“Ladies and Gentlemen. Here is your star attraction! 4-time Entertainer of the Year! He has sold 30 million albums worldwide!!! KENNEEE!!!! CHESNEEEEEE!!!!!”
In audience:
Screaming Fan A to Screaming Fan B: ‘Oh My God!! It’s him!! I DON”T MIND HIM GENERALLY!!!’
Screaming Fan B to Screaming Fan A: ‘I know!! He is SO adequate as a singer. OH MY GOD!!!!!’
That’s my problem with, what is it they call him? The Tropical Cowboy, or something? In a nutshell.
And talk about BLAND! Cole Swindell ain’t even a dime-sized, barely-discernible, faintly-pigmented discoloration on the ASS of KC when it comes to bland.
Kenny Chesney! The KING of PLAIN!!! ™
He relies on minor chords because it tends to minimize the effect of his nasally, whiny, flat voice.
(Piling on, now.) His Wikipedia page states he is 5’6″. There is no fucking way Kenny Chesney is any 5 feet 6 fucking inches. Not even in appropriately scuffed up designer lift boots.
Oooh—AND, AND, AND–what DOES Renee Zellweger know that we don’t know?
(Nothing makes my turn my radio dial faster than hearing a KC intro coming on.)
June 23, 2014 @ 5:08 pm
Generic theme , generic rhythm , generic music hooks , generic lyrics ( list ) generic rapid-fire delivery , the obligatory indie-acoustic guitar front and centre and not a melody within earshot. I was bored after the first 30 seconds .
It’ll probably be huge .
June 23, 2014 @ 5:43 pm
“It”™ll probably be huge .”
Ha ha. I think you are right, and your comment made me chuckle.
June 23, 2014 @ 5:33 pm
I”ll admit that I’ve always enjoyed Kenny’s music and have been to a few of his shows (all of which were good, fun experiences). This song doesn’t offend me nearly as much as something by FGL or Luke Bryan, but I wouldn’t say it’s great either. I think Kenny’s capable of much better music, but unfortunately he’s gotta keep up with trends to stay relevant. I wish his version of “El Cerrito Place” performed better cause that could have pushed him towards recording something better than American Kids.
June 23, 2014 @ 5:35 pm
I know I’ll catch a bunch of shit for this but as far as nostalgia songs go, Garth’s “That Summer” was, if un-relatable, always a nostalgia classic for me. It had raw emotion and a real story to guide it through the entire song. Many people here and elsewhere like to brake out the diss-machine when it comes to Garth Brooks. I think with “That Summer” though, he got the sappy nostalgia ballad right.
June 23, 2014 @ 6:09 pm
Garth’s first few albums are amazing. I still listen to them all the time.
August 12, 2017 @ 4:51 pm
yeah, you womern folk, or should i call you female folk cause you promote the cucks and ain’t a woman to me. watch as the world we live in changes by the poepl we admire and look up to and promote.
“you can have her, i don’t want her, she didn’t love anyway, she only wanted someone to play with., when all i wanted was a real culture and not some eugenics castration”
June 23, 2014 @ 5:50 pm
“Mama and Daddy put there roots right here, ”™cause this is where the car broke down.”
Gotta say, I love that line. 😀 I actually like this one. Even if it’s a “list” song it isn’t one that insults my intelligence, and it’s more poetic than the standard bro fare. This song feels like it was actually written by humans, as opposed to whatever process creates things like Boys Round Here, etc. (I imagine it involves monkeys flinging dung at something.)
As a KC fan I’d like to see him do more mature stuff like You and Tequila and El Cerrito Place, but I can’t complain about a fun summer song like this.
June 23, 2014 @ 8:33 pm
Kenny would have to grow up first to do “more mature stuff.” 😀
June 24, 2014 @ 9:45 am
Literally. Cuz he’s so tiny.
June 23, 2014 @ 6:38 pm
As far as I’m concerned, Kenny started sucking with: “How Forever Feels”, and has sucked ever since.
June 23, 2014 @ 6:42 pm
A similar “laundry list” type song that isn’t bro-country that you forgot to mention would be Keith urban & Miranda Lambert’s “We Were Us”
On another note, I feel like if bro-country wasn’t a thing, and “laundry lists” weren’t a common trend, that this song wouldn’t be as ill-received. Many of the lyrics are relatable and do give off that feeling of nostalgia. That being said, you nailed it when you bring up the fact that it doesn’t resonate as deeply as the classic songs that it alludes to. Catchy as it may be, this song is just another one of this decade’s pop-country throwaway songs, with no lingering value past the summer of 2014.
June 23, 2014 @ 7:46 pm
I think it’s really a shame that using lists in lyrics has become so cliche and stigmatized. In truth, it can be a great way to build a song, and it still can. But it has been so undervalued, you pretty much can’t do it and expect people to take you seriously.
June 23, 2014 @ 11:13 pm
Absolutely agree. In fact, one of the best recent uses of list lyrics in laying out a scene is in the opening verse of “I Drive Your Truck”:
Eighty-Nine Cents in the ash tray
Half empty bottle of Gatorade rolling in the floorboard
That dirty Braves cap on the dash
Dog tags hangin”™ from the rear view
Old Skoal can, and cowboy boots and a Go Army Shirt folded in the back
This thing burns gas like crazy, but that”™s alright
People got their ways of coping
Oh, and I”™ve got mine
June 23, 2014 @ 7:33 pm
Gotta love hatin’ on Cocaine Kenny!
June 23, 2014 @ 8:26 pm
I almost made it to the 1 minute mark… Man, that’s just awful! When is this going to end, like seriously??
June 24, 2014 @ 5:36 am
NUFF SAID.
June 24, 2014 @ 10:19 pm
Yes …..you’ve summed this up beautifully . That seems to be exactly what’s happened to commercial country music …song after song after song . And every part of the arrangement is cluttered with , very often , unnecessary lyric just to propel the rhythm . Its like someone who keeps talking AT you ,not TO you and never taking a breath to let you digest and process what they just said . Pretty soon , you simply tune out .
June 24, 2014 @ 6:13 am
I actually finished the song, but I was shaking my head every moment of it.
It’s not really that awful of a song… compared to all the other crap the radio’s playing now. And I don’t know if that’s good enough, but I’m growing tired of waiting for good country music to take back it’s rightful place.
“Well, it might be crap, but at least it’s not shit” shouldn’t be the mindset, but really, that’s where I’m at with this one.
Guess my truck radio’s just going to have to stay on the classic rock stations.
June 24, 2014 @ 6:28 am
I used to be a Chesney fan, but as his popularity grew his music his music deteriorated and became unlistenable.
I also believe he along with the wretched Brad Paisley laid the groundwork for what radio currently passes off as country music. Unforgiveable.
June 24, 2014 @ 7:13 am
Don’t totally hate it don’t love it. Sonically it was decent just kinda wore out with the laundry list stuff, Lot worse out there than Kenny that is for sure. He has some good stuff in his disography.
June 24, 2014 @ 7:31 am
If you hadn’t brought up the “Stuck Like Glue” similarity, I would have picked up on it. that comparison is right on.
I love nostalgia songs, actually. One of my favorite Chesney songs is “Young.” This, admittedly, could be because of when it came out. That song was used in my senior class slideshow, so there’s that. BUT–“Young” was so catchy and had a killer hook. Something missing from this one.
Trigger said it all with: “The underlying problem with the trend: the replacement of lists for stories, and rhythm for melody.”
“Young” was kinda laundry list, but it wasn’t as obvious, and it brought in that “didn’t have a clue” thing…saying something about what it’s like to be a teenager, thinking you know everything, and then realizing you didn’t really. Might just be my preference for “Young” and the melody and structure of that song, but I think it had more substance than “American Kids.”
I think it will be interesting to see what else Kenny Chesney has in store, for the reasons stated in the first paragraph of this post. He has a few directions he could go.
June 24, 2014 @ 8:22 am
To hear just how downhill Kenny Chesney’s music (both albums and singles) has gone, take a listen to his first two CD’s. His 1995 single “Grandpa Told Me So” (from his second album) is probably the best single he ever released, and his first album “In My Wildest Dreams” from 1994 is his best and most country album. And a lot more twang in his voice on those two albums as well!
June 24, 2014 @ 1:15 pm
Mullet Kenny is definitely the best.
June 24, 2014 @ 10:59 am
(I imagine it involves monkeys flinging dung at something.) that had me cracking up…and must be how they come up with this manure they’re feeding the masses….
This is kind of off topic, but I just checked out the Rolling Stone ‘Country’ website and wtf are they thinking? And how could it have possibly been such a big deal to get started? Looks like your standard ass news articles about mainstream / corporate country music – not sure what is supposed to be so groundbreaking, I was really hoping that they would cover some good / real music, but on the front page 95% of the articles have to do with big time ‘corporate’ musicians (with some ‘best of’ lists) very underwhelming to say the least….
June 24, 2014 @ 11:12 am
“Selfies With the Stars”
(FYI This was seriously the main headline / article at the top of their main / home page I…..I clicked to see wtf it was (maybe an article?? NOPE), and the first picture is labeled ‘Selfies with Seacrest!!’ lolol)
Trigger do you think you will do a ‘review’ of this new [RS Country] site at some point, or open some sort of discussion? Would like to hear others opinions…I had high hopes that are quickly dissipating…..
June 24, 2014 @ 2:11 pm
Certainly the rules of the game changed at some point for RS Country. That is why I interviewed the editor. They didn’t hire 15 people, they hired 1, and moved one from another part of the magazine. And if they spent a million dollars on their website, I hope they’re asking for some of their money back, not that it doesn’t look fine, but good gosh.
I may post a review or something soon. Honestly, I want them to be good and figure this thing out, and I also want to give them a chance to find their editorial voice. I think a little more time needs to pass before we truly can gauge what they are, and what their impact might be.
June 24, 2014 @ 2:27 pm
Cool well thanks for the reply…and it is pretty new for me to be judging it. I just thought that maybe since it is Rolling Stone they would want to cover more independent / alternative artists and issues, but as of today, it doesn’t look too promising….it’s just a re-hashing of the same corporate pop country muzak & surrounding BS….
I really see there being a market for covering ‘our’ music, possibly even a profitable one….and if it could just get a little more mainstream coverage / traction I think so many folks would really like a lot of it (the music). Plus I would think that would up RS’ ‘cool factor’ if they were covering some of these bands / artists since most are relatively unheard of..
Aside from you (and a few other blogs / sites), NPR has really been the only big time media outlet that I’ve seen give some attention to this ‘genre.’ The Sturgill Simpson coverage, and even the Robert Ellis coverage on NPR, had a lot of positive feedback and put this music in front of a lot of folks that weren’t familiar – I just can’t believe none of these folks (big companies like RS) can see the potential in getting this music into the mainstream.
Anyways time will tell, but at this point it doesn’t look like they will be breaking any new ground…..and if they did, in fact, spend $1 Million on that site, then I have some property they might be interested in lolol….
I would help with something like that for free, enjoy doing it, and maybe even cover some (real) country music!! That’s a standing offer RS ‘Country’ btw! RS could even salvage some of its image as actually being on top of good up and coming music, rather than what it has become….
June 24, 2014 @ 2:30 pm
Sorry about the long winded-ness….but one last thing: I totally agree in that I want it to work and be a positive force. They obviously have the financial backing, as well as the huge name, but until they make some major changes that whole concept is basically dead in the water imo. I’ll cross my fingers that they get this memo lol
June 25, 2014 @ 2:56 am
Hey Phineas,
I disagee about Rolling Stone Country.
Currently on the front page of the site is a big feature on Brandy Clark, an interview with Kellie Pickler about her classic country heroes, various lists including “10 Greatest Waylon Jennings Songs,” “100 Greatest Country Songs,” and so on. There are also news updates about The Avett Brothers, Willie Nelson, Rosanne Cash, Garth Brooks, and a nice obituary for Jimmy C. Newman. as well as reviews of First Aid Kit and Willie Nelson. That’s not to to mention the recent big feature on Sturgill Simpson. (Actually, there is a second feature on Sturgill in the newest issue of Rolling Stone, but apparently it is print-only article for now. I am hoping it will eventually be made available online.) I’d say that’s a good bit better than what you would find on corporate country blogs like The Boot or Roughstock (a low hurdle, I realize.) Of course, there’s also some stuff about pop-country on the site including “Selfies with the Stars” which is admittedly pretty stupid. There is also a little news tidbit about Luke Bryan’s new music video, which makes me want to hurl.
My point is that I think it may be expecting too much for Rolling Stone to be fully dedicated to covering independent or underground artists, when their main publication doesn’t even do that. At this point Rolling Stone is a mainstream entertainment and music rag. I’m definitley not happy about that fact, but clearly promoting pop stars is part of their buisness model (they’ve had Beiber on the cover for Pete’s sake) along with the more serious music coverage. I would say RS County is consistent with that approach. But to me anyway, they seem to show an inclination to treat indpenendent country music artists as seriously as they do pop-country artists, which we all know is important. I agree 100% that increasing the visibility of independent country music is really important for the future of the genre. That is why I find the success of Sturgill Simpson in infiltrating the mainstream music press to be heartening.
June 25, 2014 @ 11:03 am
Applejack, couldn’t respond to you directly, but thanks for taking the time to do so! I see you commenting on here regularly and you seem to have a pretty level head / realistic view of all this, in regards to having too high of expectations…
Especially considering what their main magazine has become (which I honestly haven’t even looked at in years)…also I wrote that after my first visit to the site (& therefore it was my first impression) which might not have been a very objective look, but even after taking a second look, I still am really not impressed by anything that I read / saw….
They definitely do have some articles about some of ‘our’ musicians, but imo they’ve barely scratched the surface…I was reading their ‘review’ of Meta Modern Sounds, and it sounds like the few people reading it are disappointed as well…
“He should be on the cover of RS instead of getting this cursory blurb. But this is RS now I suppose. Too bad.”
“RS needs to re-visit this review ”
“What a crappy critique. They might as well have just not reviewed it”
“Rolling Stone – you will one day look back on this review with the same sort of embarrassment that you now profess at your old reviews of Led Zeppelin albums.”
“Great album!….throwaway critique.”
and so on…these weren’t cherry picked either, but seemed to be the overall sentiment….not that comments mean anything, but I would try to use them as constructive criticism if I was them, as there are clearly people interested in ‘our’ type of music, that were (similarly) disappointed with the amount and quality of, coverage…
Hopefully they will move in a better direction, and I will check back in a month or two and see if it looks any different….if it doesn’t I have a feeling it will fade into the background….we’ll see! I had to share this that I found as well, seems like a pretty apt description of the situation
‘Rolling Stone evolved over the years from a young, angry, counter culture, rock n roll thrill ride into a middle aged yuppie with left leaning politics and lots of memories about the “meaningful” days of music who was trying to stay relevant in a world of smart, young competitors. Now they are finally coming to face their inevitable twilight years and are exploring other lifestyles. I won’t be surprised if their political slant changes as well in their new Country incarnation. I see more pickup trucks, cheap beer and guns in their future.’
June 24, 2014 @ 11:00 am
Vapid!
June 24, 2014 @ 12:24 pm
Hey Kenny.. the Stray Cats called, they want their bass line back!
June 24, 2014 @ 1:27 pm
Out of all the “country” on “country” radio today, this is one of the better songs.
June 26, 2014 @ 4:53 pm
Awful,just awful.Random words that mean nothing,a nondescript drum program to cover up the lack of melody it will appeal to the lowest common denominator which means it will get tons of airplay and chart high.
June 26, 2014 @ 8:06 pm
Lists songs are a bad idea. The only guy that can pull them off is tom waits but that’s because he doesn’t take them too seriously.
June 27, 2014 @ 8:46 am
KC has NEVER been part of the solution to fix country music , he has ALWAYS been part of the PROBLEM with it.
June 27, 2014 @ 6:42 pm
WTF, WTF, WTF , WTF and finally WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I read about 90% of the reviews before I decided to actually listen to this and to honestly I wish i had read them all. come back with me as relive the last hour of my life leading up to this moment. A moment i did not want to face yet, a moment that anyone who gives a shit about anything saw coming, a moment in which time not only stood still but it also kicked me in the nuts while administering the worst wet willy’s ever unleashed on human ears. A moment that actually really fucking saddens me as a fan of both COUNTRY music and Kenny Chesney. The moment i am speaking of only lasted a little more then 90 seconds, but 25 seconds of that should not be counted because the only thing heard at my house or any house within a block was my heart breaking and he chanting of my favorite phrase nowadays “What the fuck!” this moment has honestly fucking made me sad!! lets go back to a time when lyrics were real, when a song meant more then another record deal. we go back to a time that we let slip away watching it happen our musics decay. back to a time we pray will come back no pop country assholes just more men in black. when kc could stir emotion singing his songs about the good stuff, down the road and there goes my life to when the sun goes down, his sexy tractor and thats why i”m here. Thats only naming a few, but hopefully you see what i mean. say what you want about KC singing about the past, but the bottomline is he did it really fucking well and it sucks that he will go out like a bitch. he is not my heroby any means but he sang some shit that will stand the test of time and isnt that the point? i saw some interview with Garth Brooks on youtube about his comeback and he made a comment about his music standing the test of time. he went to say that if he felt he was of touch with todays music and if his past songs no longer could a crowd to its feet then he would have no reason to attempt a comeback. then it hit me, he was fucking right, if he walked in to almost anywhere and palyed “callin baton Rouge” or Friends in low places” people would go fucking nuts. his music is old now and believe me its hard to admit that shit as i was a GB fan like no other. GB, Alan Jackson, Travis Tritt, Tracey Lawerence, Confederate Railroad, Diamond Rio, Brooks & Dunn, Mark Chestnutt, Joe Diffie and on and on and on and the one and only George Strait who never conformed and did his fucking job day in and day out like a real man. thank you george strait you have taught us all how to respect, stay true and endure with success. wh soproblems and a time when a song was real and don’t talk or blog or tweet of facebook or chat room it up ever. This is the first time i have ever posted a comment online about something that was on my mind. I stumbled upon this website earlier today by mistake when i was trying to find out some background info on someone that I consider to be a major contributor to the assassination of country music, Brantley Gilbert. There are others for sure that i blame for “selling out” and to name them would take to long and from what i have read today on this site it seems we all now who those ear raping eye liner wearing fake ass non creative life sucking pieces of shit are. no need to add to the problem with another list, right? In a throwback kind of reliving the past way lets go bak to the beginning of this paragraph and address the honest sadness that has now reached a point of no return. after he
July 9, 2014 @ 6:09 am
I realize that I am late to the comment party but…
I don’t think that this song was meant to make a statement or cause a music revolution. It’s a catchy summer tune that you don’t have to think about, just enjoy, and sing along. Are all of Kenny’s recent songs great? No. However, I think that he has more than proved himself in the DECADES that he has been an entertainer. Every song doesn’t need to have a deep, thought provoking message to be good. In 5 years, when most of these bro country ken dolls are back to playing locals fairs, Kenny will still be selling out stadiums.
August 12, 2017 @ 4:34 pm
Also, the Burning Man theme is everything that’s wrong with the prison planet that the crony globalist corporate capitalism beast has established. It goes hand in hand with CIA involvement with the drug culture in the sixties son, the new left, overall uglification of everything form art to architecture to “culture” so that you want to drop out of life and go VR where you flip to your social media and social bots nudging you in line.
Like Leon Russel during one of Willie’s concerts PARAPHRASE :
“. . . . be wary the next time you feel like this at concert, don’t trust just anyone to bring you there as we’re bringing you there now, they not always friendly — most often never friendly — and how they do not withstand the test of time and replay value will show.”