Country music has changed since the â90s when Mark Chesnutt was releasing hits like âBubba Shot the Jukebox,â âGonna Get a Life,â and âGoing Through the Big D,â but Mark Chesnutt hasnât. With the release of his first new studio album in years, âTradition Lives,â Nash Country Daily sat down with Mark to talk about the new album, his musical heroes and country musicâs evolving ways.
âCountry music has always changed, itâs evolved itâs never going to stop,â Mark tells Nash Country Daily. âItâs always going to keep moving. But the basics of country music are still the same. Itâs just that some people are still doing that and some people ainât. It just so happens that this is the type of music I do best and itâs the type of music I love. It will always change.â
You wonât hear any pop sounding songs on this album, it is straight up country to itâs core. âTradition Lives explains itself,â shares Mark. âItâs traditional country music. Itâs not a protest or a statement or a complaint. We thought it was a great title for an album full of traditional country songsâ which is what Iâve always done.â
The lead single off the album, âOughta Miss Me By Now,â reminded Mark of a certain legendary country singer. âI sat and listened to every single CD and email of songs that was sent to me. âOughta Miss Me by Now,â sounded so good to me and it sounded like something I wanted to sing.
TRADITION LIVES Tracks:
1. Iâve Got A Quarter In My Pocket
2. Is It Still Cheating
3. Lonely Ainât The Only Game In Town
4. Oughta Miss Me By Now
5. Neither Did I
6. So You Canât Hurt Me Anymore
7. You Moved Up In Your World
8. Look At Me Now
9. Losing You All Over Again
10. Never Been To Texas
11. What I Heard
12. Hot
Thatâs basically how I can explain the whole album. Itâs just songs that I felt like I could sing and that I wanted to sing. Songs that I could identify with. It sounded like something George Strait would have done in the 80âs.â
A particular track Mark is proud to have on the album is, âIs It Still Cheatingâ â written by Jamey Johnson, Randy Houser and Jerrod Niemann. Listen as Mark talks about the track he loves:
And while the song âThere Wonât Be Another Now â was never meant to be a tribute to his friend Merle Haggard, after the passing of Merle and songwriter Red Lane, it became one. âItâs always been one of my favorite songs. I told Merle one time I was talking to him that that was one of my favorite songs that heâd ever done. He said, âYeah, thatâs a pretty song. Red Lane wrote that song.â Red had written a lot of his songs. Merle then said âYou should record that someday.â So one night we sat around and did it. We just did that for ourselves just to have. All those years later, after Red passed away last year and Merle passed away this year, we decided to put it on the CD as a tribute.â
Tradition Lives, Markâs first album of all-new material since 2010, was produced by Jimmy Ritchey and is available now. The album includes 12 new tracks. Watch as Mark talks to NCD about his new album:
Photo courtesy MCNM