Kenny Chesney’s ‘Song for the Saints’ Is a Tribute to Battered Islands [Listen]
Within the lyrics of Kenny Chesney's new song "Song for the Saints," you find strength and sadness, resilience and resistance. As the country superstar was creating the album in which the song will soon reside, he was in the fight of his life as he helped his friends in the Caribbean Islands after two devastating hurricanes.
"There’s so much to say, and so much music on this record," Chesney says of "Song for the Saints," which will serve as the title track of his new album. "Knowing where to start was hard and easy, because this is the song that really holds everything together. It’s a tribute to those islands and their unstoppable spirit. Even as people were coming off the islands — some just to not tax the limited resources — so many of my friends were digging in, trying to figure out what needed to be done and getting on to the work of clearing debris, creating habitable space for those staying and reminding all of us how island strong they all are."
Officially released Friday (June 1), the song is another sneak peek at the all-encompassing Song for the Saints album that will hit on the many emotions Chesney found himself going through as he helped the battered island people. "When I arrived on St. John, on a day off after taking a ferry all by myself, I walked down a street in a very special place and heard George Jones floating out a door of a bar," Chesney recalls. "I walked in, sat on a barstool and found people from all over the country who had hearts like mine: dreamers who were free spirits, living a way that made sense to them."
He concludes: "I left that day, went back out on tour, but kept going back, because it was a place I not only fit, but felt like I could disappear. I was a young adult, and I made some of the best friends of my life on those islands – and this is my way of giving back."
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