Kenny Chesney - The Road And The Radio

Released in November 2005 and debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 with 470,000 copies in its first week, The Road And The Radio arrived at the absolute peak of Kenny Chesney's stadium run. It is also, somewhat against expectation, the most emotionally serious album he had made to that point.

"Who You'd Be Today," written about a friend who died young, is the reason people still reach for it. Released as the first single, it peaked at number two on the country chart and became the song audiences went quiet for at shows where nothing else made them quiet. Around it, the record does what it needs to do: "Living In Fast Forward" and "Summertime" are the hits that kept the tour packed, "You Save Me" is the ballad, and "Beer In Mexico" is the beach song, done properly rather than by formula. Five singles came off it across two years. Buddy Cannon co-produced with a Nashville A-team behind the players, Michael Rhodes on bass, Paul Leim on drums, Dan Dugmore on steel, which is why the record still sounds sturdy twenty years on.

The tension in Chesney's catalogue has always been between the party and the person throwing it. This is the album where he let both sides sit next to each other without resolving them, and it holds up better than most of what country radio produced in 2005 as a result.

Single LP reissue mastered by Andrew Mendelson. On Legacy.