What a Way to Live is the fifth studio album released by American country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 artist Mark Chesnutt

Mark Chesnutt

Mark Nelson Chesnutt is an American country music singer. Chesnutt recorded and released his first album, Doing My Country Thing, in the late-1980s on private independent record label, Axbar Records, with the vinyl album version now a collector's item...

. His first album for Decca Records

Decca Records

Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....

, it earned RIAA gold certification in the United States for sales of 500,000 copies. The tracks "She Dreams", "Goin' Through the Big D", "Gonna Get a Life", and "Down in Tennessee" were all released as singles, peaking at #6, #2, #1, and #23, respectively, on the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...

 charts. "She Dreams" was co-written and originally recorded by Tim Mensy

Tim Mensy

Timmie Menzies is an American country music artist known as Tim Mensy. Initially, he was a member of the band Bandana, in which he charted several singles on the Hot Country Songs charts in the 1980s...

 on his 1992 album This Ol' Heart, from which it was released as a single, peaking at #74 on the country charts that year. Mark duets with Waylon Jennings

Waylon Jennings

Waylon Arnold Jennings was an American country music singer, songwriter, and musician. Jennings began playing at eight. He began performing at twelve, on KVOW radio. Jennings formed a band The Texas Longhorns. Jennings worked as a D.J on KVOW, KDAV and KLLL...

 on the track "Rainy Day Woman" which Jennings first recorded on his 1974 album The Ramblin' Man

The Ramblin' Man

The Ramblin' Man is an album by Waylon Jennings, released on RCA Victor in 1974. With a slightly more commercial sound than some of his previous records, it remained true to Jennings' outlaw country image...

.

Track listing

1. "What a Way to Live" (Willie Nelson
   Willie Nelson
   Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...
   
   , Hank Craig) - 2:40
2. "Live a Little" (Roger Springer
   Roger Springer
   Roger Springer is an American country music artist. Springer's only single as a solo artist, "The Right One Left," was released in 1992 on MCA Nashville and peaked at #69 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart.In 1998, Springer formed the country music trio Springer! with Shara...
   
   , Tony Martin
   Tony Martin (songwriter)
   Tony Martin is a country music songwriter who has had twelve Number One hits as a songwriter. Among his compositions are "Third Rock from the Sun" by Joe Diffie and "Just to See You Smile" by Tim McGraw....
   
   ) - 2:46
3. "She Dreams
   She Dreams
   "She Dreams" is the title of a song co-written by Tim Mensy and Gary Harrison. It was originally recorded by Mensy on his 1993 album This Ol' Heart, from which it was released as the third and final single. It was also the final single release of his career...
   
   " (Tim Mensy
   Tim Mensy
   Timmie Menzies is an American country music artist known as Tim Mensy. Initially, he was a member of the band Bandana, in which he charted several singles on the Hot Country Songs charts in the 1980s...
   
   , Gary Harrison) - 3:43
4. "Goin' Through the Big D
   Goin' Through the Big D
   "Goin' Through the Big D" is the title of a song written by producer Mark Wright, John Wright and Ronnie Rogers. It was recorded by American country music artist Mark Chesnutt and was released in October 1994 as the second single from his 1994 album, What a Way to Live. It peaked at number 2 on...
   
   " (Mark Wright, Ronnie Rogers
   Ronnie Rogers
   Randall "Ronnie" Rogers is an American country music singer and songwriter. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Rogers charted eight singles on the Billboard country charts, including the top 40 hits "Gonna Take My Angel Out Tonight" and "My Love Belongs to You." He recorded for the Lifesong, Epic...
   
   , John Wright) - 2:34
5. "Down in Tennessee
   Down in Tennessee
   "Down in Tennessee" is the title of a song written by Wayland Holyfield and recorded by American country music artist John Anderson. It was released in November 1985 as the second single from the album Tokyo, Oklahoma...
   
   " (Wayland Holyfield
   Wayland Holyfield
   Wayland D. Holyfield, , is a prominent American songwriter and leader in the songwriting community.-Early life:Wayland Holyfield was born in Mallettown, Arkansas. He was educated in Arkansas public schools and attended Hendrix College at Conway, Arkansas before graduating from the University of...
   
   ) - 3:21
6. "Gonna Get a Life
   Gonna Get a Life
   "Gonna Get a Life" is the title of a song written by Jim Lauderdale and Frank Dycus. It was recorded by American country music singer Mark Chesnutt. It was released in February 1995 as the second single from his 1994 album What a Way to Live. The song became Chesnutt's sixth U.S...
   
   " (Frank Dycus, Jim Lauderdale
   Jim Lauderdale
   Jim Lauderdale is a musician & singer-songwriter who performs bluegrass and country music. He has recorded since 1986 and has released nineteen studio albums. Artists who have recorded his material include George Strait and Patty Loveless.-Biography:...
   
   ) - 3:43
7. "It's Almost Like You're Here" (Charles Quillen, John Priestley, Jonathan Clift) - 3:34
8. "Rainy Day Woman
   Rainy Day Woman
   "Rainy Day Woman" is a single written and recorded by American country music artist Waylon Jennings. Released in 1975, it was the second single from the album The Ramblin' Man. The song reached #2 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart....
   
   " (Waylon Jennings
   Waylon Jennings
   Waylon Arnold Jennings was an American country music singer, songwriter, and musician. Jennings began playing at eight. He began performing at twelve, on KVOW radio. Jennings formed a band The Texas Longhorns. Jennings worked as a D.J on KVOW, KDAV and KLLL...
   
   ) - 3:51
   • Duet with Waylon Jennings
     Waylon Jennings
     Waylon Arnold Jennings was an American country music singer, songwriter, and musician. Jennings began playing at eight. He began performing at twelve, on KVOW radio. Jennings formed a band The Texas Longhorns. Jennings worked as a D.J on KVOW, KDAV and KLLL...
     
     
9. "This Side of the Door" (Mensy, Shawn Camp) - 3:23
10. "Half of Everything (And All of My Heart)" (David Lon, Glenn Gordon, Chesnutt) - 3:50

Musicians

• Brent Rowan – electric guitar
  Electric guitar
  An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
  
  
• Tim Broussard - Squeezebox
  Squeezebox
  The term Squeezebox is a colloquial expression referring to any musical instrument of the general class of hand-held bellows-driven free reed aerophones such as the accordion and the concertina...
  
  
• Glen Duncan - fiddle
  Fiddle
  The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
  
  , mandolin
  Mandolin
  A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
  
  
• Pat Flynn – acoustic guitar
  Steel-string acoustic guitar
  A steel-string acoustic guitar is a modern form of guitar descended from the classical guitar, but strung with steel strings for a brighter, louder sound...
  
  
• Paul Franklin
  Paul Franklin (musician)
  Paul Franklin is an American multi-instrumentalist, known mainly for his work as a steel guitarist. He began his career in the 1970s as a member of Barbara Mandrell's road band; in addition he toured with Mel Tillis and Jerry Reed. He has since become a prolific session musician in Nashville,...
  
   – steel guitar
  Steel guitar
  Steel guitar is a type of guitar or the method of playing the instrument. Developed in Hawaii in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a steel guitar is usually positioned horizontally; strings are plucked with one hand, while the other hand changes the pitch of one or more strings with the use...
  
  
• Owen Hale – drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
  
  
• Rob Hajacos – fiddle
• Roy Huskey, Jr.
  Roy Huskey, Jr.
  Roy Milton Huskey was a prominent American upright bass player in country music from Nashville, Tennessee. Huskey performed alongside musicians such as Chet Atkins, Garth Brooks, Johnny Cash, Vince Gill, George Jones, Steve Earle, Doc Watson and many others...
  
   - upright bass
• Paul Leim – drums
• B. James Lowry - acoustic guitar
  Acoustic guitar
  An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
  
  
• Tim Mensy - acoustic guitar
• Steve Nathan – keyboards
  Keyboard instrument
  A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
  
  
• Russ Pahl - steel guitar
• Matt Rollings
  Matt Rollings
  Matt Rollings is an American composer, musician and record producer. He plays piano, organ, and keyboards.Known mainly for playing in Lyle Lovett's Large Band, he has worked with many artists, not all country...
  
   – keyboards
• Biff Watson – acoustic guitar
• Bob Wray – bass guitar

Background Vocals: Curtis "Mr. Harmony" Young, John Wesley Ryles

John Wesley Ryles

John Wesley Ryles is an American country music artist. He made his debut in 1968 with the single "Kay", a Top Ten hit on the Billboard Hot Country Singles charts, and the title track to his debut album for Columbia Records.Ryles later recorded one album, Reconsider Me, for the Plantation label,...

, Bergen White, Jana King, Lisa Silver, Dennis Wilson, Cindy Walker, Tom Flora, Chris Harris, Matt Kaminski, Ann Wright, Kim Rogers.