Mark Chesnutt: (1) Look at Me Now

 by Country Music Saved My Life

After listening to Tradition Lives front to back and being completely on the edge of my seat the whole way through, I concluded that this album is a masterpiece from start to finish. But several cuts approach perfection.

Lone Ain't the Only Game In Town, Is It Still Cheating, Oughta Miss Me By Now, Neither Did I, Never Been to Texas, So You Can't Hurt Me Anymore, Look At Me Now and the album opener I've Got a Quarter In My Pocket... Ah, the album opener! What a perfect indication of mood for the songs to come.

Mark Chesnutt's Tradition Lives is a flawless album released on July 8, 2016. Along its thirteen tracks, the artist gifts us with a refreshing throwback of country music purity and goodness.

While the content of each song differs, one thing they all have in common is their pure country sound that both tips its hat to traditional country and also stays modern. 

Musically, this stunning collection (whose songwriting and recording process reportedly took three years) stays true to its title, as it's loaded with acoustic and steel guitars, country-leaning electric guitar, honky tonk-tempo piano, glissando-filled fiddle, and Chesnutt's signature twang.

There's no rapping. There are no polished and sterile EDM-sounding tunes. And, thank the stars, there's no Auto-Tune. Powered with steel guitar and country fiddle, Tradition Lives is country. Pure and simple country, whilst not sounding dated or getting stuck in the past.

The album features the strong Look at Me Now, a ballroom stomper, beer joint, piano- and steel guitar-drenched uptempo tune that is aimed straight at a crowded honky-tonk. I can picture how the artist can go with fantastic stage presence and perform this memorable tune, barnstorming up and down.

Co-written by Blaine Larsen, Don Poythress, and album producer Jimmy Ritchey, a team that makes the traditional instrumentation shines and hooks the listener in, Look at Me Now is all about good country music, soaked in picked guitar licks, and fiddle and twangy steel guitar sounds.

The lyrics to this foot-tapping tune let us know that a man is alone in a hotel room, and listen to a next room honeymoon couple making love.

He has left his town not long ago, despite having been warned by a fellow countrywoman, who knew him through and through, that he wouldn't be able to put up with the loneliness and the pressure of the big city lifestyle.

As things went south in his pursuit of a career as a musician, he spends his days playing guitar, eating junk food "with a plastic fork from a coffee pot" and watching reruns.

Upon the contrast between his situation and that of the next-door couple, the narrator finds himself reflecting on his past and the poor choices he made.

This lively tune puts us in mind of the dance halls and honky-tonks down in Texas, a bottle of Bud in hand, hoe-downing an all-nighter.

Drawing from roots country and sticking close to his reverence for honky-tonk, Western swing, and all sorts of hardcore country sounds, the Southeast Texas-born singer holds steady as a standard-bearer for modern traditional country music, committed to upholding the beloved sounds and songwriting of traditional country music.

To put the significance of this release in perspective, when Tradition Lives was released Mark Chesnutt had been out of the public eye since 1989, and the album was his first release in six years.

Since then and to this day, Tradition Lives remains the best country music collection that came out in the twenty-first century (although I do recognize that the past decade has ushered a team of stellar raising artists devoted to filling the shoes of country icons from bygone days).

Yet, even though Nashville major labels have turned their backs on him a long time ago (this period found him focusing mostly on his live performances), Chesnutt no longer needs radio play to raise awareness. By making the music he wants to, now is the time to Mark Chesnutt proudly ignore Music Row offices and executives.

With his ability to blend classic and contemporary country, honky-tonk, Western swing, and the twang accent of old-school country, Chesnutt has been a household name from the start. And, with this collection, he carefully crafted a staunch down-to-earth brand of music that lives up to the mid-'80s and early '90s new traditionalists' efforts to introduce the authentic sounds of country music, in which he engaged back in the days when he still was an up-and-comer artist.

Albeit it took Chesnutt a while to get himself back on track in the studio, Tradition Lives strongly proves that, at least for some artists, waiting for pays off.

Song Information

• Writers: Blaine Larsen,  Don Poythress and Jimmy Ritchey

• Mark Chesnutt - vocals
• Eddie Bayers - drums
• Glen Worff - upright bass
• Jimmy Ritchey - electric and acoustic guitars
• Jim "Moose" Brown - piano and Hammond B3
• Mike Johnson - steel guitar and dobro
• James Lowery - acoustic guitar
• Brent Mason - electric guitar

• Producer: Jimmy Ritchey

• Recorded at Jimmy Ritchey's home studio

• Release date: July 8, 2016

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