Mark Chesnutt

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Mark Nelson Chesnutt (born September 6, 1963) is an American country music singer and songwriter.

He had his greatest chart success with Universal Music Group's MCA and Decca branches between 1990 and 1999, selling eight albums between those two brands.

Chesnutt also charted twenty top-ten hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, of which eight of which have reached number one: "I'll Think of Something," "It's a Little Late" and a front of Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing."

The Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) has awarded platinum status to his first three albums for MCA (Too Cold at Home, Longnecks & Short Stories, and Almost Goodbye), as well as a 1996 Best Hits collection released on Decca, and 1994's What a Way to Live, which was also released on Decca, is a platinum award winner.

Chesnutt has continued to record mainly on independent labels following a self-titled album on Columbia Records in 2002. Chesnutt is best known for his neotraditionalist nation and honky-tonk influences, as well as frequent stylistic comparisons to George Jones.

Hank Williams Jr., John Anderson, Don Gibson, Conway Twitty, and Charlie Rich have all recorded many cover songs as both singles and album cuts, as well as covers.

Jones, Tracy Byrd, Vince Gill, and Alison Krauss are among the artists with whom he has collaborated.

Mark Wright made only one of his albums in the 1990s, while Jimmy Ritchey produced all of his albums since 2005.

Chesnutt has received two prizes from the Country Music Association: the Horizon Award (now known as Best New Artist) and the Vocal Event of the Year, both in 1993.

Personal life

Chesnutt has been married to Tracie Motley since 1992. "She went out with a guy she was with at the time, and I took her away from him," Chesnutt said. Waylon, Casey, and Cameron are three of the couple's children. Waylon was named after Waylon Jennings, who jokingly suggested during the recording sessions for their cover of "Rainy Day Woman" that the then-pregnant Tracie name their child after him. Despite Jennings' statement that the suggestion was a joke, Chesnutt chose the word anyway. Tracie stayed home at the couple's house in Jasper, Texas, while still working as an artist in late 1995. Waylon Chesnutt's birth. Chesnutt's sons' birth had also caused him to travel less often by the 1990s because he wanted to spend more time with his family.

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Musical career

In 1990, Chesnutt's first big-label debut Too Cold at Home debuted. On the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs) charts, it was responsible for five chart singles. Bobby Harden of The Harden Trio wrote "Too Cold at Home" in the first story. This album debuted at number three on Billboard, while Radio & Records, Gavin Report, and Cashbox debuted the song at number one on the country music charts, while also landing first on the country music charts released by Radio & Records, Gavin Report, and Cashbox. "Brother Jukebox" was written by Paul Craft and first appeared as a single by Don Everly of The Everly Brothers in 1977 and then on Keith Whitley's 1989 album Do You Think of Me. Chesnutt's interpretation of the song became his first top-one hit on Hot Country Songs in 1991, while "Blame It on Texas," "Your Love Is a Miracle," and "Broken Promise Land" all ranked within the top ten of the same chart by year's end. Waylon Jennings' "broken Promise Land" was first published in 1986. Richard Bennett, David Briggs, Mark O'Connor, Harm "Pig" Robbins, Brent Rowan, and Glenn Worf were among the contributing artists to Too Cold at Home. Wright produced the album and provided background vocals on several tracks. He wrote or co-wrote five of the company's ten songs, including "Blame It on Texas" and "Your Love Is a Miracle." Chesnutt's version of "Mates in Low Places" was also included on the album, which was released as a single by Garth Brooks in late 1990.

The reception at home was generally positive and commercial. Entertainment Weekly's Alanna Nash lauded Chesnutt's singing voice and honky-tonk look, but complained that the album had too many cover songs. AllMusic's Brian Mansfield compared the album's sound to Western swing and George Jones. Too Cold at Home was awarded a Platinum Award by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 1994 for one million copies in the United States. In addition, the Country Music Association nominated him for the 1991 Horizon Award (now known as Best New Artist).

Longnecks & Short Stories, Chesnutt's second album, received a platinum award. "Old Flames Have New Names," "I'll Think of Something," "Bubba Shot the Jukebox," and "Ol' Country" were among the series's singles (also written by Harden). "I'll Think of Something," first a single for Hank Williams Jr. in 1974, became Chesnutt's second top-one single on Billboard in 1992. The other three singles all made it to the top ten on Billboard. Many of the session musicians as its predecessor, as well as guest vocals from George Jones on "Talkin' to Hank," and "It's Not Over" by Alison Krauss and Vince Gill. Reba McEntire's original recording of the latter was released, but "Who Will the Next Fool Be?" opens the front page. Charlie Rich was the first recorded musician on this site. In a 1992 news story in The Tennessean, Chesnutt said that "Bubba Shot the Jukebox" (written by Dennis Linde) had been released as a single due to fan demand, and that he was delighted to have performed a duet with Jones, whom he described as a musical idol. He also stated that "Bubba Shot the Jukebox" had been "a joke" by Nashville song promoters and was not taken seriously by other musicians, but that the song had potential. The song was not designed to be a single, but it was chosen as one after a number of stations on the Billboard poll played the song often enough for it to debut in the charts. In AllMusic, Mansfield wrote that the album "heralded the emergence of a Texas voice with both humor and compassion." Nash praised the song variety, highlighting the singles and "It's Not Over" in particular, but felt Chesnutt's voice was "a little too laid back."

Almost Goodbye, Chestnutt's third album for MCA, was Almost Goodbye. It was released in 1993 and released three straight number-one singles on Hot Country Singles & Tracks: "It Sure Is Monday" (also written by Linde), the title track, and "I Just Wanted You to Know." The album's final single, a tribute to Don Gibson's 1972 single "Woman (Sensuous Woman), was less popular on the charts. The album also became his third to be named platinum. "Weak stuff weighs down Chesnutt's third album," Mansfield said of the album, though he still performs them as the most romantic western swinger since George Strait. He praised the title track for its string section, but dismissed the uptempo content as inferior to "Bubba Shot the Jukebox" and "Old Flames Have New Names." Nash believes that the album was "class-A honky-tonk, ballad, and Texas swing from a guy whose instincts are almost as solid as his pitch," but that "The Will" was criticized in terms. Chesnutt received two awards from the Country Music Association, including the Horizon Award, and Vocal Event of the Year for George Jones' 1992 album "I Don't Want Your Rockin' Chair," which featured Chesnutt as one of many guest vocalists and was given to all participants on the album. Chesnutt embarked on his first headlining tours in 1994, a move that Chesnutt later said inspired him to focus more on songwriting due to touring's low success.

MCA's Nashville branch of Decca Records was revived in 1994, and Chesnutt was relocated to it. What a Way to Live, his first Decca album, came out in that year. "She Dreams," "Going Through the Big D," "Gonna Have a Life," and "Down in Tennessee" were among the album's four songs: "She Dreams," "Goin' Through the Big D," "Gonna Get a Life," and "Down in Tennessee." "She Dreams" was first a single for John Anderson in 1993, when "Down in Tennessee" was previously a single for him. In 1995, "Gonna Get a Life" was the most popular of the singles, peaking at the top of the Billboard country charts. Two other cover songs were also included on the album: Willie Nelson's 1960 album "Rainy Day Woman" featured Jennings on duet vocals and lead guitar, while Waylon Jennings' 1974 single "Rainy Day Women" featured Jennings on duet vocals and lead guitar. While listening to Jennings' albums on his tour bus, Chesnutt said he chose Jennings' cover at the request of his managers and that Wright was in charge of making arrangements for Jennings to appear on the album. David Zimmerman of Gannett News Service, who praised the album's diversity of traditional-leaning country sounds and Chesnutt's singing voice, praised the album's positive reception. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic said that the album "is dogged by mediocre content," but Chesnutt's fine singing helps keep the bulk of the poorer stuff from being a bore." In 1995, What a Way to Live received a gold medal from the Royal Institute of British Agricultural Association (RIAA) for exporting 500,000 copies.

Wings, his next album, came out in 1995. Tony Brown replaced Wright as the producer on this album rather than Wright. According to Chesnutt, he selected a different artist because Wright wanted to push him to a more country pop style, something with which Chesnutt disagreed. Chesnutt said that the album was completed quicker than his previous ones, that others took longer than two months to complete due to his having to schedule recording sessions around tour dates, but he was only able to complete Wings in ten days in a row. He took the majority of April and May 1995 off from touring, but in June, he retracing Brooks & Dunn. Jim Lauderdale and Mack Vickery, two of the contributing writers on Wings, were among the songwriters. The first single was a recreation of Todd Snider's "Trouble," which Chesnutt performed at the top 20 of Hot Country Songs in 1995. "It Wouldn't Hurt to Have Wings," the album's second single, was a top-ten country hit, but "Wrong Place, Wrong Time" was less popular on the charts. Hank Williams Jr.'s 1972 hit "Pride's Not Hard to Swallow" was also included on the album. Chesnutt co-wrote the song "As the Honky Tonk Turns," which he said was inspired by his youth in honky-tonk bars and watching the crowds. It was described as a "honky-tonk concept album" that "bucked the commercial trend toward throwaway novelty tunes and lightweight country-pop," according to Rick Mitchell of The Encyclopedia of Country Music. The album received mainly favorable reviews from newspapers including Country Standard Time, Billboard, and AllMusic, all of which praised the songwriting style and honky-tonk stylings of the music, with the former two publications naming it as one of the year's best album launches.

In 1996, Decca released a Greatest Hits box. In "It's a Little Too Late" and "Let It Rain," the former was released as a single, with the former becoming a number one single on Billboard in 1997. Chesnutt said he had been touring almost nonstop for the past six years and that he had been looking for longer breaks between touring but that he was unable to do so because his album sales were not as good as those of his contemporaries. Greatest Hits debuted on Chesnutt's fourth and final platinum album four years after its debut.

Chesnutt's book Thank God for Believers, which reunited him with Wright on production duties, was released in 1997. Wright said he felt like both of them were "on a downslide" prior to Wings, while Chesnutt said that "Mark and I kind of stepped away from each other for a while because we needed it." We all missed a little bit of what we started with, and that, after the two began working together, "it was like we were never apart." Several songs written by Roger Springer were also included on the album, with whom Chesnutt and his bandmate soon formed a friendship and songwriting partnership. This album's title track, as well as the lead single, climbed to the top of the Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts by the end of 1997. Chesnutt and Wright decided to use the same song from "It's Not Over" on Longnecks & Short Stories to replace a song that did not fit with the rest of the collection. Due to the desire from radio listeners, "It's Not Over" was released as the second single from Thank God for Believers. Chesnutt decided to perform the song because he liked it as a single, but he was "disappointed" that it wasn't a single from its original album. In 1998, two more singles were released: "I Might Even Quit Lovin' You" and "Wherever You Are." "The album is often a striking reminder of the singer's first-rate, smooth-bourbon interpretation style," Nash described it. In AllMusic, Thom Owens wrote that the album was "strong, thoroughly enjoyable modern country."

Chesnutt produced a cover version of Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" in late 1998, at Wright's behest, who had heard the song on his car radio. Decca decided against the cover over "Wherever You Are" since the two artists felt the song had a chance as a single, which resulted in "Wherever You Are" falling to the bottom of the country music charts for the first time. Chesnutt said he chose the song because he felt he was "not getting noticed" due to poorer sales of his last two albums relative to his first three. While still noting that many of his previous hits songs had been ballads, he felt that covering a pop song would "show people [he] could sing something other than the same old stuff." His version of "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" had reached the top of the Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts by early 1999; it was also his first entry on the Billboard Hot 100, where it climbed to No. 68. 17. Despite showing support for the cover song at the time, he later expressed disdain for recording it, told the website Taste of Country in 2018 that despite the song's success on radio, the band and the related album did not sell well, and that he refused to have another pop song cover. In "This Heartache Never Sleeps," the related album, which was also named I Don't Want to Miss a Thing, went on to account for only one other track. The country's top 20 songs on the charts, which have risen to the top 20. Nash said on the record that the front was "a bit of a joke," but that Chesnutt would "continue to find enough snappy rhythm tunes and scampering Western swing to keep the toes tapping." Chesnutt's singing voice and the "good and varied songs" were lauded by People magazine in an uncredited review.

MCA Nashville dissolving the Decca Nashville division in January 1999. Although most of the artists were dropped, Chesnutt was one of only three artists to return to MCA, alongside Lee Ann Womack and Gary Allan. In October 2000, MCA released his album Lost in the Feeling. "Fallin' Never Felt So Good" and "Confessin' My Love" were two songs that were co-written and first recorded by Shawn Camp on his 1993 self-titled debut album, which Wright also produced: "Itso Good" and "Confessin' My Love," were among the album's covers. The title track, which was previously a single for Conway Twitty in 1983, and Gene Watson's 1975 single "Love in the Hot Afternoon" were also included on the album. Both "Fallin" and "Lost in the Feeling" were released as singles, but neither made it to the Top 40 of the country music charts. A review in Billboard was encouraging, noting that "seldom has packed more power and emotion into a record," referring to the cover songs in particular. When comparing Chesnutt's voice to that of Merle Haggard, Maria Konicki Dinoia of AllMusic also favored the cover songs. Lost in the Feelings were commercially ineffective, and Chesnutt was dropped from MCA's roster one month after the album was announced. Despite not being on a label at the time, he performed duet vocals on Tracy Byrd's early-2001 single "A Good Way to Get on My Bad Side," which was part of Byrd's album Ten Rounds.

In 2002, Chesnutt signed to Columbia Records for the debut of his self-titled studio album. On the Hot 100, the lead single "She Was" rose to number 11 and number 62, while "I Want My Baby Back" and "I'm in Love with a Married Woman" did not make it to the top 40 of the former. Chesnutt went on a 75-date roadhouse tour, which also included Joe Diffie and Tracy Lawrence, to promote the album. Billy Joe Walker Jr. produced the album, as well as Aubrey Haynie, Brent Mason, and Dan Dugmore. Both William Ruhlmann and Peter Cooper of AllMusic and Peter Cooper of The Tennessean chastised the album for poor songwriting, while Country Standard Time's John Lupton thought that the album was "about average for him," but "it's usually a cut above." Chesnutt's later reported that he left Columbia Records because executives had pressured him into recording more modern-sounding country pop rather than his traditional style, which he feared during his remaining years at MCA.

Savin' the Honky Tonk, Chesnutt's 11th album, was released in 2004 by independent Vivaton! label. Jimmy Ritchey was the album's producer and one of many contributing songwriters, as well as Chesnutt, Jerry Salley, Jason Sellers, and Kevin Fowler. Chesnutt said that he wanted the album to be a tribute to his older albums' honky-tonk sounds, and that being on an independent label enabled him to record music he wanted to hear rather than being coerced into recording songs demanded on him by major-label executives. The album contained three singles: "The Lord Loves the Drinkin' Man," "I'm a Saint," and "A Hard Secret to Keep." "Chesnutt not only looks safe and relaxed, but he's re-energized," Erlewine said of the album, "Chesnutt" feels both comfortable and relaxed, as well as the freedom to choose songs without having an eye on the airwaves. Robert Loy of Country Standard Time characterized the album as a concept album, despite the fact that most of the songs had a common theme of alcohol intake. In 2004, and 2005, Chesnutt performed in small venues in favor of the album.

Heard It in a Love Song on CBuJ Records in 2006. The Marshall Tucker Band's title track was once a pop hit, but many of the album's other songs, including Charley Pride's "A Shoulder to Cry On" and Hank Williams' "Lost Highway," were also covered. The album was rated by Barry Gilbert of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, who praised Chesnutt's singing voice and the comparison of the title track to other cover songs. "while Heard It in a Love Song lacks the [Savin's Honky Tonk]'s hard country feel, it's a good set that confirms the man's musical instincts are back on track." Mark Deming of AllMusic said.

In 2007, Chesnutt signed to Lofton Creek Records. Rollin' with the Flow was his only album for the company, and it was a number-one single on the country charts for Charlie Rich in 1977. "She Never Got Me Over You" made the charts in late 2007, early 2008, when Chesnutt's version reached the top of the charts in late 2007-early 2008. Jimmy Ritchey as producer, alongside contributing musicians such as Glenn Worf, Brent Mason, Eddie Bayers, and Lonnie Wilson. Ritchey co-wrote several songs on the album. AllMusic's Mark Deming said of the album that it was "as good an album as Chesnutt's ever recorded," which is a lot. Matt Bjorke, who wrote for Roughstock, said that it was "the kind of record that traditionalist country enthusiasts dream about." It has something for all those fans, highlighting Chesnutt's vocal performance on the title track in particular.

Chesnutt announced the debut of his forthcoming studio album, Outlaw, in 2010. The collection includes covers of songs by outlaw country performers, including Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Hank Williams Jr., Kris Kristofferson, Billy Joe Shaver, David Allan Coe, and Jerry Jeff Walker. When Sasnutt Road Records was looking for an artist to perform a covers album, he was approached by record producer Pete Anderson, best known for his work with Dwight Yoakam. In only two days, Anderson's Burbank, California, recorded the album. Tracy Lawrence and Richie McDonald (of Lonestar) toured with Tracy Lawrence and Richie McDonald on the Country Rat Pack Tour to promote the album. Thom Jurek referred to the album as "a no-frills, lean, mean, protesting, and a nodal to the outlaw generation, which is in many ways, an extension of Chesnutt's own persona."

In 2012, Chesnutt founded Nada Dinero, his own brand. Live from the Big D, his first release on this site, was in Dallas, Texas. In 2015, a new Greatest Hits package was introduced. "When the Lights Go Out (Tracie's Song)" was the album's single.

During the 2010s, Chesnutt continued to tour. On the last show of George Jones' farewell tour at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee, he invited Chesnutt to be his opener. Jones died before the show was over, so Chesnutt and other artists held a tribute show in Jones' name instead. Tradition Lives, his forthcoming studio album, came out in 2016. Merle Haggard's "There Won't Be Another Now" was included on the album, as well as a cover of his 1985 album Kern River. The front was something Ritchey and Chesnutt had done for fun, but Chesnutt had no intention of releasing it on an album, due to Chesnutt's favorite Merle Haggard songs. When Haggard died just before the album's release, they included it as a tribute to him. Chesnutt remarked on the album's performance that "I wanted to tell the world that I'm still here and that I'm still here." "I'm not adapting with the times." Erlewine praised the album's "simple, spare, and basic" production, and believed it was similar in appearance to Chesnutt's earlier albums.

Chesnutt announced in October 2021 that he would not be touring until 2022 in order to recover from back surgery.

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