I've lived like a lot of guys listening to my music live... And I think that's why people buy my records, because they can related to the guy singing those songs. They feel like the songs are about their lives because they're about my life--and I'm not that different from them, even now. Kenny Chesney, the pride of Lutrell, Tennessee, is actually quite a bit different. With back-to-back double platinum records for Everywhere We Go and Greatest Hits, multiple week chart-toppers and career definers with I Lost It, How Forever Feels, Don't Happen Twice, She Think My Tractor's Sexy and Fall In Love, the launch of his first true major headlining tour, he's the Everyguy who proves that dreams can come true. No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems finds Kenny Chesney again holding a mirror up to himself--and all the folks back where he comes from. If the 12 songs contained herein are a little older, a little wiser and a little more aware, they still capture the unbridled joy of being young, life lived for the pure feeling of it and the unburnished emotions of people who prefer to experience rather than analyze what's happening to them. From the opening notes of Young, a song that celebrates the thrill of all the things you can do before you know what you can't--tempered by the acceptance that comes with the wisdom of being grown, No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems is a record that looks at the phases of youth coming into their own. Whether it's the haunted yearning of the Conway-esque I Remember, the tortured understanding of Bruce Springsteen's conflict of faithlessness and jagged hearts One Step Up, the make-it-happen-in-spite-of-what-you-can't feel-good anthem Big Star or the tropicali attitude adjustment that informs the title track, Chesney understands the phases and stages of growing up, the thrill of football and falling in love, the pain of loss and regrets. I think I was strong enough to put more of myself in these songs...because it's scary to put yourself out there like this, the man deemed Country's hottest Bachelor by Country Weekly confesses. To show people your doubts, your hurts, and even your mistakes, to be willing to show people that part of yourself, the part that's so human and raw and aching--well, it's the hardest thing about this. But if you truly have the audience I believe I do, then you owe them that. After all, I can't imagine giving them less than the truth--and since the last album, I lived a lot of life and learned a lot of lessons. It's all here, if you listen.  (less)

legendary Irish ensemble. Recorded in the spring of this year at Nashville s Sound Emporium, DOWN THE OLD PLANK ROAD was, according to Moloney, a tremendously gratifying experience. It seemed like everyone in Nashville wanted to lend a hand and we ended up with enough material for a pair of albums. We re very excited about the second volume which will be released early next year and which so far features guest artists Emmylou Harris, Patty Loveless, Allison Moorer, John Prine, Joe Ely, Jerry Douglas and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. In addition, Moloney is grateful for the wonderful support of Nashville producer Steve Buckingham for his talent coordination on DOWN THE OLD PLANK ROAD. DOWN THE OLD PLANK ROAD blends authentic Celtic instrumentation, composition and arrangements. The album includes tracks with deep roots in Irish/American music such as the standout renditions by Vince Gill of Dark As A Dungeon, Lyle Lovett s Don t Let Your Deal Go Down and Molly Bawn as performed by Alison Krauss. Moloney first heard Dark As A Dungeon in Ireland in the 40s, and Molly Bawn is an old Irish ballad that later made its way onto the American folk scene under the title Polly Vaughan and featuring a different melody. Earl Scruggs signature banjo playing can be heard on Sally Goodin while Bela Fleck performs a medley of Irish reels with The Chieftains and joins forces with John Hiatt, Tim O Brien and Jeff White on the title track. Ricky Skaggs performs Cindy, while vocalists Patty Griffin and Martina McBride can be heard, respectively, on Whole Heap Of Little Horses and I ll Be All Smiles Tonight. The album s rousing finale, Give the Fiddler a Dram, features solos from most of the assembled musical cast. You can hear the musical links in the melodies and trace it in the lyrics, remarks Moloney. The similarities between the Irish version of a song and its American variation are most times plain as day. Even when the material is particular to one country or the other, the foundation is still there. We wanted to bring it all back together again and make something new.  (less)