Kenny Chesney’s Big Revival

Kenny Chesney’s 17th studio album is called “The Big Revival,” and Kenny told Country Countdown USA’s Lon Helton it isn’t an accident: “The title alone really represents the tone of this record, where I am in my life, and a thread that runs through a lot of the songs on this record.  It’s about reclaiming one’s life, hearing that inner voice that maybe picks you off the bottom, and maybe be better than you’ve been.  I feel like I’m at that place in my life creatively  where I do feel a sense of revival.”

A lot of this “sense of revival” comes from taking a year off.  Kenny explained it this way: “It’s easy to get comfortable in what’s worked, and not to change or push yourself.  So I took a year off to push myself to get better, and it allowed me to take the time to find the songs that I couldn’t have found if I was on the road.”

The centerpiece of the album was the first single, “American Kids.”  Kenny told Lon that song came to him in the middle of making the album: “I knew when I heard it that it was something completely different.  There aren’t a lot of songs in any genre that sound like American Kids.  The cadence, the melody, and the fun factor in this song is something I’d never done before.  To be able to say that at this point in my career is really cool to say!  When I heard that line, ‘We’re a little messed up, but we’re all alright,’ I knew it defined a lot of me and my audience.  I promise you that will be a motto of next year’s tour.  It defines No Shoes Nation.”

The same week the album came out, Kenny released the second single: “Til It’s Gone.”  During his conversation with Lon, he said “Til It’s Gone” is the message he wants to say to his fans.  “A lot of these songs are about taking your life, and living your life to the fullest.  The last album I made was very introspective.  But I realized that we had the song cycle that could touch a lot of people.  I was writing a song with David Lee Murphy, and he asked me, ‘What do you want to say to your audience when you return to the road?’  I thought about that, and that’s where the song ‘Til It’s Gone’ came from.  He wrote a song about what I wanted to say.  If you think about me being on stage the first night we go on tour next summer, ‘Til It’s Gone’ is the sentiment I want to say.  My favorite part in that song is ‘One night, one chance, one ticket to the big dance.’  That is me talking to the heart of my audience.   It’s such a unique spot to be on that stage, and have all that weight on you, it’s an unbelievable feeling.  We can be anywhere, but here we are together at the big dance, this night can be special if we’re all on the same page, and that’s what that song’s about, and what I want to say to them.”

The album cover shows a school bus painted in bright colors.  Kenny says he himself painted that bus, and it was all inspired by American Kids: “The art on the album was all based on American Kids.  The free spirit of that song led us to think about what it means.  To me, there was a little bit of a hippie element to it that we tried to weave in the middle of everything.  I did the artwork because I wanted the artwork and the cover to be as different as American Kids.  But I also want people to think ‘What’s in that bus?’  That was the mindset, it was all about being a part of that journey, and taking people on a ride musically and spiritually and hopefully on stage next year.”

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