After three years, several mutations and the realization that Silver Sands Marina was a collection of songs that made good on the promise of what life can be when people truly engage with each other, Kenny Chesney releases his final slice of music before the album arrives on Friday, Sept. 25. Having trusted the creative process, delving deep into songs that break the mold of what’s obvious and happening, the Country Music Hall of Fame inductee landed on melodies that pushed the envelope and songs that remind people how much we can take from our trips around the sun.
“Remember Me That Way” arrives at midnight Sept. 24 across terrestrial radio as Silver Sands Marina’s final tease. A manifest of how we can choose to see even the things that don’t work out in the best possible light, “Remember” takes a look back at what was, weighing the catastrophic against the euphoric to arrive at the decision to hold on to all that was thrilling instead of jagged.
“Long before the relationship goes down in flames or explodes from the pressure, there is so much good,” Chesney allows. “All those great memories that pulled you together, what about them? What about those things that made you more? Should you just throw them away because in the end whatever happened happened?
“That doesn’t feel like a very smart or good thing to do. And when Shane (McAnally) sent me this song, like a lot of the songs on this record, I realized it went deeper, got under the good and said something about life and how we live, or could live. It gave us a lot of power to decide how we’re going to remember something that was so important to us… I loved everything about that, because life isn’t all good or bad, but how we see it.”
Over a meandering melody, Chesney strikes a philosophical tone as he offers that perspective. A conversational lyric that line-by-line reconstructs the final days, the chorus swings up and offers the greater truth of
“Bare feet running from the lightning, bare skin kissing in the swimming pool/
Sleeping under California diamonds, driving down the One in Malibu
Girl I know it ended on a bad one, we don’t gotta be a bitter cliché
We made a lotta damn good memories, I just hope you remember me that way…”
“This album has had a lot of moments like this, those things you can only live – and gain the perspective from. When we were trying to decide on the next song to put out, this felt like something that swept you up in the music, had one of those choruses that gave you the power to really engage in your life and create something good out of something bad. Life isn’t simple, and we all face stuff that’s not easy, but maybe we can find the best life and get to somewhere better knowing how much good we found along the way.”
With the Associated Press calling the East Tennessee songwriter/superstar “one of the most consistent giants in country music for a reason,” they write Silver Sands Marina is “full-throated stadium country, with big hooks and bigger heart. You know, like all the great Chesney records.”
Pre-order, pre-save/pre-add Silver Sands Marina HERE.
Purchase the signed vinyl, CDs and limited vinyl picture discs, or watch Chesney’s in-depth conversations about Silver Sands Marina on TalkShopLive HERE.
