Having made the decision BORN, his first new album in over four years, would be a project that would offer a complete sense of who he is and what his music is made of, Kenny Chesney wanted his final grat track to be something that reached beyond the here and now to embrace those people who’ve left us. “Wherever You Are Tonight,” a piano-grounded ballad, is a philosophical consideration of where people go after they pass, but also suggests that while we can’t see them, it doesn’t mean they’ve actually left us.
“The thing about this song that struck me,” Chesney said, “is that idea people we love never truly leave us. We can’t see them, or know where they go after they pass on, but everything we shared remains... who we are because of them, that doesn’t change. But this song suggests that beyond the grief, the pain and the memories, wherever the people we love are, they’re not so far away.
“There’s a line in the lyric: ‘You’re not gone, just out of sight/ You’re here with me, wherever you are tonight...’ And that might be, since we don’t know what happens next. Maybe you can be in two places at once; you can be in heaven and on my right shoulder. Who’s to say? But for all the people who’ve passed on, I love the idea that they’re still here.”
Written by GRAMMY-winner Mike Reid, best known for Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me” and three-time Songwriter of the Year Gary Burr, both in the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, “Wherever You Are Tonight” is a song not of sadness, but also celebration. Mining Chesney’s at times ruminating on life deep dive song sense, the four minute song is delivered as a late night conversation that reflects on the power of life-changing friendships.
After two verses of piano, strings drift in like mist and an electric guitar cuts through. But the star of this heartfelt song is Chesney’s warm, slightly porous tenor; strong enough to shoulder the emotions, but also vulnerable and hopeful enough to hold a space for what requires faith.
As BORN’s May 22 release draws closer, the eight-time Entertainer of the Year and only country artist in Billboard’s Top 10 Touring Artists of the Last 25 Years for the last 15 years wants to provide a complete picture for what No Shoes Nation can expect. Already cited as one of spring’s most anticipated albums in any genre by Esquire and one of Holler’s “Country Albums to Look Forward To,” Nashville Lifestyles offers BORN “continues his reign as master of the bigger picture... themes of gratitude, nostalgia, optimism, and resilience, the album celebrates the wild act of just living.”
“There’s so much on BORN,” Chesney explains. “And I know some people like different pieces of the music for different reason. It was important to me for people to have a sense of everything that’s here, so while five songs early feels like an awful lot, I think it’s a pretty good sense of what these 15 songs taken as a whole represent. I can’t wait for No Shoes Nation to show me what their favorites are.”
With the Sun Goes Down 2024 Tour kicking off at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium on April 20, the BORN tour edition is also available for pre-order through a link provided to ticket buyers and premium fan club members. Containing three live tracks, it adds the pulse of No Shoes Nation to a collection of songs designed to offer a look at shrugging off the things that pull you down and celebrating the euphoria of being in the moment with people you connect with.
