Too Cold at Home Chesnutt released his major-label debut
Too Cold at Home in 1990. It accounted for five chart singles on the
Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now
Hot Country Songs) charts. The first was "
Too Cold at Home", written by Bobby Harden of
The Harden Trio.
Gavin Report, and
Cashbox. The second single was "
Brother Jukebox", which was written by
Paul Craft, originally released as a single by
Don Everly of
The Everly Brothers in 1977, Chesnutt's rendition of the song became his first number-one single on Hot Country Songs in 1991, Contributing musicians to
Too Cold at Home included
Richard Bennett,
David Briggs,
Mark O'Connor,
Hargus "Pig" Robbins,
Matt Rollings,
Brent Rowan, and
Glenn Worf. Wright produced the album and provided background vocals on some tracks. He also wrote or co-wrote five of its ten tracks including both "Blame It on Texas" and "Your Love Is a Miracle". Also included on the album was Chesnutt's rendition of "
Friends in Low Places", which was released as a single in late 1990 by
Garth Brooks.
Too Cold at Home was met with generally positive critical and commercial reception.
Alanna Nash of
Entertainment Weekly praised Chesnutt's singing voice and
honky-tonk style, but felt that the album had too many cover songs.
Brian Mansfield of
AllMusic compared the album's sound to
Western swing and
George Jones. In addition, the
Country Music Association nominated him for the 1991 Horizon Award (now known as Best New Artist). became Chesnutt's second number-one single on
Billboard in 1992. The other three singles all made top ten on
Billboard. The latter was originally recorded by
Reba McEntire, while the closing track "Who Will the Next Fool Be?" was originally recorded by
Charlie Rich. Chesnutt noted in a 1992 news article in
The Tennessean that he was pleased to have recorded a duet with Jones, whom he considered a musical idol. He also noted that "Bubba Shot the Jukebox" (written by
Dennis Linde) had been serviced "as a joke" by Nashville song promoters and was not taken seriously by other artists, but he felt that the song had potential. Mansfield wrote in AllMusic that the album "heralded the emergence of a Texas voice that contained both the knack for humor... and the depth for heartache". Nash praised the song variety, highlighting the singles and "It's Not Over" in particular, but felt that Chesnutt's voice was "a little too laid back".
Almost Goodbye Chestnutt's third album for MCA was
Almost Goodbye. Released in 1993, it produced 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 cover of
Don Gibson's 1972 single "
Woman, Sensuous Woman", was less successful on the charts. Nash felt that the album was "class-A honky-tonk, ballad, and Texas swing, delivered by a guy whose instincts are usually as sure as his pitch", but criticized the lyrics of the closing track "The Will". Also in 1993, Chesnutt won two awards from the Country Music Association: the Horizon Award, and Vocal Event of the Year for George Jones' 1992 single "
I Don't Need Your Rockin' Chair", which featured Chesnutt as one of several guest vocalists and was awarded to all participants on the song. Following the success of
Almost Goodbye, Chesnutt embarked on his first headlining tours in 1994, a move which Chesnutt later said inspired him to focus more on songwriting due to the minimal profitability from touring.
What a Way to Live in 2010.|alt=Country music singer Mark Chesnutt singing and strumming a guitar. In 1994, MCA revived the Nashville branch of
Decca Records and moved Chesnutt to it. His first Decca album,
What a Way to Live, came out that year. The album included four singles: "
She Dreams", "
Goin' Through the Big D", "
Gonna Get a Life", and "
Down in Tennessee". while "Down in Tennessee" was previously a single for
John Anderson in 1985. "Gonna Get a Life" was the most successful of the singles, reaching the top of the
Billboard country charts in 1995. Chesnutt said that he chose to record the Jennings cover at the suggestion of his managers while listening to Jennings' albums on his tour bus, and that Wright was responsible for making arrangements for Jennings to appear on the song.
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic was less favorable, stating that the album "is dogged by inconsistent material, but Chesnutt's fine singing manages to save most of the weaker material from being a bore."
What a Way to Live earned a gold certification from the RIAA in 1995 for shipments of 500,000 copies. Chesnutt noted that the album was completed more quickly than his previous ones: while the others took an average of two months to complete due to him having to schedule recording sessions around tour dates, he was able to complete
Wings in only ten consecutive days. He also took most of April and May 1995 off from touring, and resumed in June on a tour that also featured
Brooks & Dunn. The first single was a cover of
Todd Snider's "
Trouble", which Chesnutt took to Top 20 of Hot Country Songs in 1995. Decca issued a
Greatest Hits package in 1996. Four years after its release,
Greatest Hits became Chesnutt's fourth and final platinum album. Two more singles followed in 1998: "
I Might Even Quit Lovin' You" and "Wherever You Are". Thom Owens wrote in AllMusic that the album was "strong, thoroughly enjoyable modern country."
''I Don't Want to Miss a Thing'' ", originally recorded by the rock band
Aerosmith (pictured here in 2007).|alt=Rock band Aerosmith performing on stage In late 1998, Chesnutt recorded a cover version of
Aerosmith's "
I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" at the suggestion of Wright, who had heard the song on his car radio. Because the two thought that the song had potential as a single, Decca withdrew promotion of "Wherever You Are" in favor of the cover, which resulted in "Wherever You Are" becoming his first single not to make top 40 on the country music charts. The corresponding album, also titled ''
I Don't Want to Miss a Thing, went on to account for only one other single in "This Heartache Never Sleeps". which reached top 20 on the country music charts. An uncredited review from People'' magazine praised Chesnutt's singing voice and the "good and varied songs".
Lost in the Feeling In January 1999, MCA Nashville dissolved the Decca Nashville division. While most of the artists were dropped, Chesnutt was one of only three to move back to MCA, alongside
Lee Ann Womack and
Gary Allan. MCA released his album
Lost in the Feeling in October 2000. The album included covers of two songs co-written and originally recorded by
Shawn Camp on his 1993
self-titled debut album, which was also produced by Wright: "
Fallin' Never Felt So Good" and "
Confessin' My Love". Also covered on the album were the
title track, previously a single for
Conway Twitty in 1983, and
Gene Watson's 1975 single "
Love in the Hot Afternoon". "Fallin' Never Felt So Good" and "Lost in the Feeling" were both issued as singles, but neither made Top 40 of the country music charts. Maria Konicki Dinoia of AllMusic also showed favor toward the cover songs while comparing Chesnutt's voice to that of
Merle Haggard.
Lost in the Feeling was commercially unsuccessful, Despite not being on a label at the time, he sang duet vocals on
Tracy Byrd's early-2001 single "
A Good Way to Get on My Bad Side", from Byrd's album
Ten Rounds.
Billy Joe Walker Jr. produced the album, and contributing musicians included
Aubrey Haynie,
Brent Mason, and
Dan Dugmore. Both William Ruhlmann of AllMusic and Peter Cooper of
The Tennessean criticized the album for weak songwriting, while John Lupton of
Country Standard Time felt that the album was "about average for him, but...it's an average that's usually a cut above." Chesnutt later stated that he quickly left Columbia Records because executives had pressured him into recording more modern-sounding
country pop instead of his traditional style, a concern that he had also had during his latter years at MCA.
Jimmy Ritchey was the album's producer, and one of several contributing songwriters along with Chesnutt,
Jerry Salley,
Dean Miller,
Jason Sellers, and
Kevin Fowler. The album accounted for three singles: "The Lord Loves the Drinkin' Man", "I'm a Saint", and "A Hard Secret to Keep". Robert Loy of
Country Standard Time considered the disc a
concept album, noting the unifying theme of alcohol consumption in most of the songs. Chesnutt toured small venues in 2004 and 2005 in support of the album. Its
title track was previously a pop hit for
The Marshall Tucker Band, and many of the other songs on the album were covers as well, including
Charley Pride's "
A Shoulder to Cry On" and
Hank Williams's "
Lost Highway". Barry Gilbert of the
St. Louis Post-Dispatch rated the album "B", praising Chesnutt's singing voice and the contrast of the title track with the other cover songs.
''Rollin' with the Flow and Outlaw'' Chesnutt signed to
Lofton Creek Records in 2007. His only disc for the label was ''
Rollin' with the Flow'', the
title track of which was a number-one single on the country charts for
Charlie Rich in 1977. Chesnutt's version reached number 25 on the same chart in late 2007-early 2008, and "She Never Got Me Over You" made the charts as well. Writing for
Roughstock, Matt Bjorke said that it was "the kind of record that traditionalist country fans dream about. It has something for all those fans", highlighting Chesnutt's vocal delivery on the title track in particular. In 2010, Chesnutt announced the release of his next studio album,
Outlaw. The album includes covers of songs by
outlaw country artists, including
Waylon Jennings,
Willie Nelson,
Hank Williams Jr.,
Kris Kristofferson,
Billy Joe Shaver,
David Allan Coe, and
Jerry Jeff Walker. According to Chesnutt, he was presented the idea by record producer
Pete Anderson, best known for his work with
Dwight Yoakam, when Saguaro Road Records was seeking an artist to perform a covers album. The two recorded the album at Anderson's studio in
Burbank, California, in only two days. To support the album, he toured with
Tracy Lawrence and
Richie McDonald (of
Lonestar) on the Country Rat Pack Tour. Thom Jurek referred to the album as "a no-frills, solid, lean, mean, rocking, emotionally sincere tribute to the outlaw generation, which is, in many ways, an extension of Chesnutt's own persona."
Live From The Big D, Greatest Hits II, and Tradition Lives Chesnutt formed his own label, Nada Dinero, in 2012. His first release through this label was a live album called
Live from the Big D, recorded in
Dallas, Texas. This was followed by a second Greatest Hits package in 2015. The album accounted for one single, "When the Lights Go Out (Tracie's Song)". Chesnutt continued to tour throughout the 2010s. In 2013,
George Jones invited Chesnutt to be his opener on the last show of his farewell tour at
Bridgestone Arena in
Nashville, Tennessee. However, Jones died before the show could take place, so Chesnutt and other artists held a tribute show in Jones's honor instead. His next studio album,
Tradition Lives, came out in 2016. Erlewine noted the "simple, spare, and easy" production of the album, and thought that it was similar in sound to Chesnutt's earlier albums. ==Additional contributions==