Via the fine folks at Country California, we have this from Kenny Chesney:
"Growing up, I don't think anybody listened to any one kind of thing," he says. "What I think of as country, well, that's not really what we do. But then again, I think most of our fans are listening to other stuff, too, whether it's Dave [Matthews], [Bruce] Springsteen, [Tom] Petty or Jackson Browne, not to mention Bob Marley, who I think may be the great equalizer among all kinds of music."
Wow. So now we have a major artist using the old "listening to all kinds of music" thing to justify his own slide into mediocrity and being the one-trick pony he's turned into. I don't know about the rest of you, but to me that sort of thing is not only long in the tooth, but it's also painfully transparent and more than a little bit judgmental. It seems to me that Mr. Chesney's saying all his detractors have narrow tastes in music when he really doesn't have any concrete evidence to back that up with. I will freely admit that when it comes to country music, I like the more traditional country and that's all I listen to as far as the genre goes. And that's not the result of me not giving the other music a chance. It's the result of me tuning in and finding the music more than a bit lacking. It isn't the country-ness of the music, it's my perception that it just sucks. As far as my tastes, a random sample from the iPod...
Gordon Lightfoot, "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"
George Jones, "The Grand Tour"
Kelly Clarkson, "Walk Away"
Metallica, "Disposable Heroes"
Lefty Frizzell, "Look What Thoughts Will Do"
So anyone who would accuse me if not having varied tastes myself, I would thank them kindly to keep their mouths shut -- because, just like Kenny Chesney, they don't really know what they're talking about.
Oh, the "one-trick pony" remark. Well, I don't know, how many songs about summertime, the beach and all that has he done in the last 5 or 6 years? Way the hell too many, if you ask me. That's gotten long in the tooth, too. Jimmy Buffett he'll never be, no matter how hard he keeps trying.
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