ABC/Image Group LAKenny Chesney’s new album, Songs for the Saints, is coming July 27.
Having just launched his Trip Around the Sun trek a couple weekends ago, the new project reflects what’s been going on in the world since Kenny took a break from touring last summer.
“So much has happened since I went off the road in 2016,” Kenny explains. “And all of it, in one way or another, has ended up on this record. It’s special to me because of what it says — to me, and for me — about life, the world around us, how fragile it all can be and about somehow still finding the best parts of you, and moving towards them.”
The eight-time Entertainer of the Year says Songs for the Saints is about “the places that save you” — and for him, one of those was massively affected by a natural disaster last year.
“I was at a turning point in my life on so many levels,” he confesses, “and then Hurricane Irma hit the Virgin Islands. But this album isn’t about St. John, so much as it’s about what happened to St. John and all those islands you didn’t see on the news. To just see the devastation and what that does to people is one thing, but then there’s this courage and resilience people find…”
Kenny had a hand in writing five of the album’s dozen tracks.
“This is not a literal record, but it is an album about the refuges we all have, how temporary life is and the way we navigate to better places, dig in and face the destruction,” he goes on. “And sometimes, we learn to own our wild hearts in the process.”
The lead single from Songs for the Saints, “Get Along,” just broke into the top 15.
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