Kenny Chesney
Lucky Old Sun

There are songs, there are albums, there are artists who manage to be magical even without speaking of witches, battles, demons, and esoteric rites, and without needing to hire symphony orchestras or resort to who knows what devilry: all it takes is a guitar and a beautiful voice, and that's when the true magic of music ignites: this is what Kenny Chesney taught me with his latest musical effort, "Lucky Old Sun", an acoustic album, beautiful, mature, with atmospheres the color of blue like the sky, just streaked by a few clouds, reflecting in the blue sea of the Keys islands.

"Lucky Old Sun" is an album which, with its wonderful melodies, gently takes the listener by the hand and transports them to a state of total serenity and inner peace. Intimate, heartfelt, and at times melancholic and painful without ever being sad, "Lucky Old Sun" represents one of the most important, unique, and characteristic pieces of Uncle Kenny's career. There is no need for me to bore you once again with my bitter observations on why music like this, in our parts, remains something of, alas, difficult availability and reserved for a few fans, so I move on to describe the album in detail, or rather, I attempt to describe the states of mind and atmospheres that this masterpiece evokes. If I have not been able to do it, I apologize in advance, I did my best.

The beginning of a new day: the sun rises on the horizon, reflecting in the crystalline waters of the ocean and illuminating the sky with its clear golden light: there is no better background than a simple acoustic melody, supported only by a wonderful arpeggio, and a song whose title is almost a program, "I'm Alive", to describe this moment. This first, precious pearl is immediately followed by "Way Down Here", a classic Kenny Chesney ballad, accompanied by a slight shiver running down the spine during the chorus and unexpectedly concluded by a warm sax solo at the end. As in every Uncle Kenny album, even in this one, there are fresher, carefree, and light moments, for example, the very successful reggae digression of the single "Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven", played by the legendary The Wailers, which ends with an improvised finale that further emphasizes the 'loose' spirit of this song, "Key's In The Conch Shell", which winks at Jimmy Buffett with its carefree Caribbean atmosphere and the lively "Ten With A Two", a delightful acoustic twist on the livelier and more reckless country from Kenny Chesney's early days, with the addition of a well-placed horn section, but as I have already said, the highlights of the album are the ballads, like "The Life" and "Boats", simple, sincere, and a bit ramshackle hymns to the simple life and freedom, and especially the nostalgic "Down The Road", strengthened by a melody that immediately enters the ears to go straight to the heart and the intimate and sweet "Spirit Of A Storm" and "Nowhere To Go, Nowhere To Be", the penultimate track of the album... the journey is almost over, the sun is now setting, staining the line of the horizon orange, the last rapture is a true classic, "That Lucky Old Sun", sung in duet with a living legend like Willie Nelson, which sounds like a moving and subdued prayer, with the perfect interweaving of the two voices and the melody that literally takes your breath away.

If this isn’t magic...

"So damn easy to say that life's so hard
Everybody's got their share of battle scars
As for me I'd like to thank my lucky stars that
I'm alive and well

It'd be easy to add up all the pain
And all the dreams you've sat and watch go up in flames
Dwell on the wreckage as it smolders in the rain
But not me... I'm alive

And today you know that's good enough for me
Breathing in and out's a blessing can't you see
Today's the first day of the rest of my life
And I'm alive and well
I'm alive and well

Stars are dancin' on the water here tonight
It's good for the soul when there's not a soul in sight
This motor's caught its wind and brought me back to life
Now I'm alive and well

And today you know that's good enough for me
Breathing in and out's a blessing can't you see
Today's the first day of the rest of my life
Now I'm alive and well
Yeah I'm alive and well"