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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
CountryInterviewsOnline.net Review, November 12, 2006
There are many things to like about Kenny Chesney's new CD, "Live Those Songs Again" - and just as many to dislike. Chesney claims he put the CD together to help capture the fun of a live stadium concert, which it does to some degree. The question is whether we need it.
Every track on the new CD appears on a previous CD, for some this is the third time around. This time we get to hear the songs with the crowd cheering, Chesney yelling at the crowd to sing and gaps where Chesney lets the audience take up the lyrics and longer instrumental bridges. The quality of the songs is excellent considering the recording was done on the road and we get the benefit of Chesney's tour band (which are terrific musicians). It's also obvious, if one hadn't noticed this before, that Chesney doesn't need the confines of a sterile studio to sound great.
So does it remind you of the concerts? Well, I've seen Chesney eight times over the last 7 years. I've seen him in medium arenas and at Gillette Stadium (home of the Patriots). Each year, the concert gets bigger and bigger and I seem to be further and further from the music. On the CD he explains why he likes certain songs and introduces the band - things I've missed hearing because of the lousy acoustics in a football stadium. I've had "fan club" seats for the last two stadium shows but the echo along with 56,000 screaming fans wipes out or distorts the music. The concerts are outdoors under blazing hot sun (it reached over 100 degrees this year) and begin early - about 3:30 p.m. so by the time Chesney appears many are drunk and rowdy. Also, when you are short, anyone under 5'11" you are reduced to seeing the concert on the video screen because everyone else seems to tower over you!
The songs are all past hits - "Young," "Back Where I Come From," "I Go Back" with some newer ones like "Key in the Closet" and "Beer in Mexico." This is Chesney's idea - he believes that his fans want to hear the hits, but many of us would like to hear him due some of the newer songs live. This is playing it safe. He doesn't include anything from his best CD, "Be As You Are, Songs From the Old Blue Chair" - only one or two are included in the concert set.
Topping the charts the minute it was released, you have to wonder if the fans will just buy anything Chesney puts out. Don't get me wrong, I probably will continue to go to Chesney concerts whenever and wherever as long as I can afford the $85 plus for the ticket. Although it would be nice to see him up close for once (the first 100 rows seem reserved for radio give-aways and the Boston Red Sox). But the CD can't capture the pre-concert tailgating, the hundreds of Chesney wannabes in their cowboy hats, or the excitement of the music starting and Chesney suddenly coming up on a small stage in the middle of the sea of fans. You don't see the energy he brings to the huge stage - running, dancing and teasing the audience while keeping up the song and totally enjoying the moment. That's what you remember about his concerts - how can you really capture that?
By: Maxine MacPherson
CountryInterviewsOnline.net
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Chesney Live: Decent Songs Made Better By Live Band and High Energy, September 19, 2006
From the opening bars of Live Those Songs we are reminded of why Kenny Chesney is the star that he his. While Chesney's material has always edged more bubble gum than his contemporaries like Tim McGraw and Keith Urban, the ability for his material to get a live crowd going and his road bands ability to convey more than the studio recordings is evident here.
The band is tight and Chesney's vocals are developed throughout. Somehow most of the tracks here, particularly Beer in Mexico, What I Need to Do and Anything But Mine seem a lot better than the studio recordings and I would have to attribute that to the road band (and one wonders if Chesney shouldn't pull a Tim McGraw and record with them).
The song selection is good...particularly the inclusion of On the Coast of Somewhere Beautiful which Chesney obviously realizes is one of his finest non-single tracks. As noted by many, the songs are primarily from No Shoes and When the Sun Goes Down, logical considering they are is better works, but one wonders why more (album tracks perhaps???) from The Road and the Radio were not included as I consider it to be Chesney's best overall album.
There are some simply cheesy aspects to this album that seem to plague all "live" albums. First, the crowd sounds like it's from some canned "crowd cheer" tape. They always sound the same (like they are 90% females between 15 and 25) and fade in and out in between the vocal parts in a very orderly fashion (which, for anyone who attends concerts on a regular basis knows, crowds don't do). I know, I know: the producers want the purchaser to be able to hear the performer but still, change it up a little. Second, there are weird stutters between a couple tracks where the editing is a little off. In general however, this does not take away from the many positives of the disc.
Overall the disc is a pleasure to listen to for its energy and the added depth that is brought to most of the tracks. I have always wondered why Kenny Chesney is such a star (considering he is a short, bald, semi-average looking guy with less than an great voice and suspect song selections on his CD's) and it is clear from how warm and humble he his on this disc (the way he says "I love you guys very, very much" when the crowd finishes singing Back Where I Come From is from the heart) that he knows that two or three songs and a strategic debut of a new physique before the release of No Shoes is probably the only reason he is still making music. Yet, that is enough. Chesney is a nice guy that made good and that comes across here to the benefit of the disc.
Live country albums are rare (see George Strait for the last one I can remember) and that is regrettable because it is a format that lends itself to great live shows. You have to give props to Chesney for taking a risk in doing this and one hopes that it will drive others to do so as well (wouldn't a Tim McGraw, Keith Urban or Rascal Flatts Live disc be awesome?). One also hopes that this is sign of maybe something different from Chesney in the future. He has refined the beach bum formula of No Shoes a couple times and its time for leap of faith, something different than the songs he has done before.....
But in the meantime the fun continues as we live those songs again.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
LIVE Those Songs Again, July 30, 2008
This was a pretty good purchase for me. I really love live songs and the crowds really add more to the songs and it just sounds better to me.
Kenny really has changed since first coming to country but this is a good collection of songs that he has done in the past. Uncle Kracker even makes an appearence in the When the Sun Goes Down segment and that got the crowd really loud after the introduction of him. Pretty good LIVE cd but not as good as Garth Brook's LIVE cd's, still great though.
Pretty good cd to pick up. If yall like LIVE cd's or songs Kenny has done in the past then I recommend on picking this one up.
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