Kenny Chesney Born 2LP

Kenny Chesney's always made it look so easy, one might take for granted how deeply rooted his love of songwriters, live music and the people who share his passion actually is. Beyond being the only country artist in Billboard's Top 10 Touring Artists of the Last 25 Years for the last 15... the four Country Music Association and four consecutive Academy of Country Music Entertainer of the Year Awards, as well as a CMA Album and ACM Male and Single Award... the record for most No. 1's on Billboard's Country Airplay Chart and over 31 million albums sold... the East Tennessee songwriter/superstar has forged No Shoes Nation, a country without borders populated by millions of people from one coast to the other.

And with Born, his first album since 2020, the man the Los Angeles Times called "the People's Superstar" and the Wall Street Journal deemed "the King of the Road" creates a project that dips into and considers the myriad kinds of American music that capture coming of age in the 21st century.

"All the way back to playing for tips at Chuckie's Trading Post and Quarterbacks when I was in college, I understood some songs pull people closer to you," explains the unassuming supernova. "I knew even then, that's what I wanted: to make music that showed people their lives, to sing those songs for people like me.

"I was lucky: I got to Nashville when the guys who defined what great songs were everywhere. They were all original, all unique – and they showed you the power of songs that hit people where they live. So when it was time to start really dialing in Born, I decided I wanted an album that reached across all the things I love to do."

Reach it does. From the churning title track to the smoky heartbeat of "One Lonely Island," the banjo speckled life-as-we-love-it "Just to Say We Did," to the surging, guitars wide open "Long Gone" and the sea shanty-esque easy-come/easy-go "This Too Shall Pass," this is the full-tilt, wide-open life affirming country Chesney's created with one of the genre's most enduring catalogues and built his high charging shows around.

Bright and cheerful without being cloying, Born has an easygoing gait and a welcoming warmth; the melodies don't announce themselves but sink their hooks into the subconscious all the same... It's tuneful, mellow, and sunny, not swaggering but comfortable. It's confident enough to not be hurt if you choose to pass it by, but if you choose to stay, you're bound to have a good time.

Born is a record that further cements Kenny Chesney as one of the most consistently soul-stirring artists of the past two and a half decades.