For his fourth album for the Decca label, and his seventh overall, Mark Chesnutt delivered a stone-country album, chock full of great songs. His previous studio album, Wings, had been a commercial disappointment, and his first not to sell at least gold. This time out, after a greatest hits set that yielded a #1 and another top 10, the Texas crooner gave us a reminder why he rose to the top of his game as the premiere traditional spokesman (sorry, Sammy Kershaw) during the 90s country boom. Co-producer Mark Wright has a great track record for mixing traditional with contemporary, and though red-hot Tony Brown made magic with George Strait, Reba McEntire, and Vince Gill, his helm on Mark Chesnutt and Trisha Yearwood’s albums never yielded the sum of their parts. After Wings, Chesnutt wisely put Mark Bright back in the producer’s chair for this release.
While it had only been 3 years since his hey-day, the winds of country music had changed considerably since then. The undeniable strength of the title track pushed it into the top 5 and another single cracked the top 20. Still, 2 other singles failed to become hits, and the album stalled at #25 on the Country Albums chart.
Opening things with the forgettable ‘Goodbye Heartache’, a fast paced number with a western swing feel, Chesnutt gives the impression that we’re in for much of the same from his previous releases. Not to say it’s a bad song, it’s just not among his best, and not a telling snapshot to the album overall, which I’ve always thought the opening song should be.
The album’s lead single, ‘Thank God For Believers’ is simply a great song about a woman holding onto and believing in her sometimes wandering man, and he’s saying he’s damn grateful for it. With its waltzing speed and pure country backdrop, it’s also a nice piece of ear candy, and one I play frequently. Just barely missing the top spot in late 1997, it landed at a #2 peak on the Country Singles chart.
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