Kenny Chesney Has Been Quietly Making an Album for the Past 18 Months
Kenny Chesney may have spent 2019 playing shows to more than 1.3 million people, but the superstar reveals he's also been taking his time working on a new album. Over the past 18 months, Chesney has quietly been crafting songs that represent where he is in his career.
"One of the hardest things about being this far into a career isn’t keeping up with what other people are doing," Chesney says, "but telling your own truth in a way that’s not repeating yourself, that’s not just doing what you know works. I know there are certain things I respond to: songs that rock you hard, lyrics that twist without being too clever, ballads that open up your soul and make you think."
Chesney says that rather than simply collecting and recording a batch of songs because it was "time," he spent much of the writing process deliberating and tapping into the "spirit" of No Shoes Nation, the name for his throngs of fans.
"They have more heart, more passion, more love of life – and if I can be true to them, then I feel like we got it," he says.
He's recorded songs from coast to coast, in Malibu, Nashville, Key West, and even while on tour. But while Chesney and company have been hard at work ushering the next phase of his musical output, they're not rushing the process. As of now, there's no album title, release date or track list. But the country star says getting to record songs "in the moment" over nearly two years has been a very gratifying process.
Chesney's last album, 2018's Songs for the Saints, tapped into a more "spiritual" side of the superstar, taking a laid-back, healing approach to the album's themes. He continues that album's momentum through much of 2020 with the aptly titled Chillaxification Tour featuring Florida Georgia Line and Old Dominion.
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