Thursday, April 26, 2018

Band Review: Charles Esten

I don't love country music. I don't hate it, but I don't love it. Still, I am doing a week of country music for the daily songs, and it seemed like a good time to get to two of my reviews that have been in the queue for a long time. One of them was Charles Esten.

I still think of him as Chip. I knew him from Who's Line is it Anyway?, which led to me recognizing him in 13 Days and an episode of Married With Children, but I primarily knew him as an improviser. However, what opened the door to him getting invitations to Whose Line was a long run in a musical, and he can sing. I was glad when he got cast in Nashville, which seemed like a good thing for his career.

The show began airing in 2012. In 2016, having written several songs and trying to decide what to do about releasing them, Esten committed to releasing one new song #everysinglefriday for a year. He did it. I knew eventually I was going to want to check them out.

Charles Esten is a country singer.

I don't know if he has gotten a lot of push back on getting started as an actor, or performing songs on a show,  but he is undeniably an actual, accomplished country singer.

At one point I was reminded of an old Saturday Night Live sketch, "Who's More Grizzled?" (guest Robert Duvall by a landslide), but Esten does - as the songs call for them - sound grizzled and twangy and even whiskey-soaked.

It is not terrible, but it is still not my favorite. He seems happy, though, and he seems like a good person, so I am just going to be happy for him.

May he never lose his wife, job, truck, and dog.

https://www.charlesesten.com/

https://www.facebook.com/officialcharlesesten/

https://twitter.com/charlesesten

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