Kenny Chesney-”All I Need To Know”
It’s now been fifteen years, since Kenny Chesney’s first hit album (second overall), “All I Need To Know”, appeared on the market. In the fifteen years since, Chesney has skyrocketed to the top of his field, becoming one of, if not the top concert draw in country music, winning awards, selling millions of albums. The guy is a lock for future Hall Of Fame induction.
But let’s take a moment and look back at that 1995 album that first brought Kenny Chesney to most country music fans.
The first thing you will notice when listening to this disc, is the traditional sound throughout it. Chesney, on occasion, has gotten some criticism (as have several others, for that matter) for at times straying too far from straight country, but this disc shows that when he wants to, he can twang with the best of them.
Staying traditional could have actually hindered his career, I think. When listening to this disc, one thing that I was reminded of, is the similarity he has, vocal-wise, to another artist of that era, Aaron Tippin. Kenny Chesney singing traditional country, sounds very similar to Aaron Tippin. That could potentially have hurt his career, had he not branched out his sound on ensuing albums.
This disc starts with the song that became his first hit, and a song that I still rate as one of his best, “Fall In Love”. If that infectious combination of fine lyrics and solid beat aren’t enough to lift your spirits, then there may not be anything that can.
Anyone who’s been fortunate enough to grow up with close relationship to a grandfather, can identify with “Grandpa Told Me So”. I’m still not sure how this song wasn’t a bigger hit than just the mid-twenties?
“The Bigger The Fool (The Harder The Fall)” is so true. The song is one of the album’s better cuts, and features background vocals by Ricky Skaggs.
Following the success of his first hit, “Fall In Love”, “All I Need To Know” was released and promptly became his second top ten hit. Kenny Chesney may well be country music’s best ballad singer of the past thirty years; this is where we first heard that potential.
“Honey Would You Stand By Me” is another standout track on an outstanding album, and comes from the pen of legendary songwriter Bob McDill.
Chesney shows some throwback on “Someone Else’s Hog”, a song he co-wrote. That throwback feel can be heard in the arrangement, but also is felt in the song, itself. Try listening to it and tell me that you can’t hear Buck Owens doing this one?
The best cut on the album may well be “Me And You”, which was ultimately carried over to his next disc, in fact was the title cut. With this song, we really get our first strong glimpse of Chesney’s version of emotional singing. He is arguably one of country music’s all-time greats when it comes to showing emotion in his singing. However, unlike George Jones, Vern Gosdin, or Jack Greene, whose emotions are in their voice, Chesney’s is more in his phrasing. I’m not sure that makes much sense in writing, but listen to one of his songs like this one, and then listen to Jones’ “The Grand Tour” or Greene’s “Statue Of A Fool”; you’ll see what I mean. Lots of emotion, just different in how it comes out.
“Between Midnight And Daylight” describes Saturday nights (and other nights as well) in bars, dance halls, honky tonks, and night clubs all across America. It’s an okay song, nothing special, probably the weakest song on the disc.
“Paris, Tennessee” shows that country can rock without sounding like rock.
The last song on the disc is “The Tin Man”. This song also appeared on his debut disc, a year earlier, and made a very brief appearance on the country charts. It would also later appear on the “Greatest Hits” disc, and would re-chart, cracking the top twenty in 2001. It’s a great song, frankly deserving of being a bigger hit than it was.
This album is still available, both on CD, as well as an MP3 download. Overall, I rate it 5 out of 5. This is one of the best albums of his career, and it could be argued that this is one of the best albums of the decade of the 1990′s.
