Kenny Chesney’s recent single “Noise” is a jeremiad about how things have basically gone to hell. It’s more in the spirit of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” than the old-days-were-better country classics like the late Merle Haggard’s “Are The Good Times Really Over For Good?”
Chesney sounds a little resigned and beat-down, “I can’t take the noise,” he sings.
Chesney has a peculiar perspective, one that’s more than just trucks and Solo cups. The title track on 2014’s “The Big Revival” is a rock-tinged ode to Pentecostal snake-handlers. Earlier in his career he did a duet with Randy Travis about a river baptism. Elsewhere Chesney borrows a little of the stomp-and-shout vibe from artists like the Lumineers, transposing the sound to songs about down-home nostalgia. He’s been known to also sing about chicken, beach-bumming and tractors, to give you a sense of where his head’s at.
Chesney plays Mohegan Sun Arena, 1 Mohegan Sun Blvd., Uncasville, Friday, May 13, at 7 p.m. Tickets are $95 to $125. 860-226-7711 and mohegansun.com.
