With a career spanning more than 25 years, Kenny Chesney thinks "artists need to keep pushing themselves and the music without losing sight of who they are, or forgetting the people you make music for. [Fan community] No Shoes Nation is a very passionate place without borders; I get inspired every time I see and hear them.
“These are passionate people who work really hard. They make a difference in their community in all kinds of ways, giving back not so people think they’re good, but because that’s who they are and what they do. When they listen to music, they’re all in – and when they hear something they like, you can feel it in how they respond.”
His upcoming album Here And Now, due May 1, is the follow up to Songs for the Saints. It marks his first full project for Warner Music Nashville.
Again co-produced with longtime collaborator Buddy Cannon (Willie Nelson, Alison Krauss, Merle Haggard), with additional production assistance from Ross Copperman, the collection has sparse tracks featuring acoustic instruments, 808s and phased vocals.
“You know, it’s going to have a high fun factor,” Chesney allows. “People work hard, and need music that makes them smile, that kicks them into a happy place. There are also songs here that look at very specific people, that tell one person’s story, but it could be any of us. That’s the mark of a good song: let one person’s specific life say so much about a lot of people’s lives.
“And one of the things I really wanted (for Here and Now) was to bring a lot of my favorite writers together, not to do ‘writing camp,’ but just hang out and talk, remember when it was the stories and laughs that sparked songs, not sitting down to churn out something to cut.”
That creative spontaneity drove last summer’s Chesney/Ross Copperman/Ed Sheeran “Tip Of My Tongue,” written, recorded and released in the flow of the moment. As Chesney maintains, “We are now in a place and time where music isn’t stuck with one specific way to record or release songs to the fans. I will always love 10 or 12 songs that speak to each other, but there’s also an immediacy that lets you stay in the moment, and I love that freedom, too.”
For Chesney, every album he makes is, in one way or another, a dispatch to No Shoes Nation.
“I’d say it’s weird, the way people hear songs, and say, ‘That’s me!’,” the superstar/songwriter from East Tennessee says, “except I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said, ‘That’s me.’ When it started happening, I was honored...and as it went on, I started to realize how important music is in all of our lives. It’s a life raft, a coach cheering for you, a shoulder to cry on, a reason to take stock.
“When I’m listening to songs in the studio, actually putting a record together, I’m thinking about that. I’m thinking about Vibe Room conversations, people I meet moving around, the stories I’m told... the reasons people connect with the songs. I don’t take it lightly, even when the song is supposed to be fun.”
Further elaborating on the creative process, he adds, “It’s funny how you cut a song because you believe in what it says, or think it captures what No Shoes Nation teaches me every day,” says Chesney. “But then the world turns, and suddenly, it truly is right now. And when I looked at these songs, this dozen recorded over the last two or three years, they were Polaroids from the parking lots, back home, the islands, my friends’ lives. Every single one is someone I know, you know or may even be – and right now, our friends are absolutely the most precious thing we have.”
Track Listing:
We Do
Here And Now
Everyone She Knows
Wasted
Knowing You
Heartbreakers
Someone To Fix
Happy Does
Tip of My Tongue
You Don’t Get To
Beautiful World
Guys Named Captain
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