If Kenny Chesney actually wore sleeves, he would be wearing his heart on one of them.
My heart broke for all those people that I had lived with and loved with.
A huge part of my adult life was and still is spent down there.
Courtesy of Kenny Chesney
But last September, he wasnt contemplating margaritas or the roar of the crowd.
I was constantly on the phone, he recalls.
I was glued to the Weather Channel.
Courtesy of Kenny Chesney
I was in the middle of such elevated anxiety.
So he turned to music to exorcise his stress.
This is a strange record for me because Ive never made a record in the moment.
COURTESY OF LOVE FOR LOVE CITY FUND
I just started to create.
The next day I wrote Love for Love City, and I just kept going.
It was a form of therapy for me.
JILL TRUNNELL
(The album was also mixed at Buffetts studio in Key West after Hurricane Maria.
I wanted these songs to soak up all the oceans energy, says Chesney.)
I was addicted to it.
That voice accompanied me through a lot of cold beers and watching sunsets with friends.
This was straight out of his heart.
It took a couple of songs for me to realize how serious he was about that.
Ultimately, the inclusion of Get Along proved fortuitous: It just became Chesneys 30th No.
Chesney had left his longtime home at Sony and signed with Warner Music Nashville in January.
But Warner was happy to accommodate its newest signee.
When I reminded him of that, he said, Oh my God, that was you?
I had no idea.
We just had so much fun listening to music for two days.
Chesney is not only giving away the proceeds fromSongs for the Saints.
As soon as FEMA would let me land, he says, I went down there.
There was a two-month window where all we did was fly medical supplies down and fly people back.
That was the cycle we were on for a long time.
Those trips informedSongs for the Saints.
It fed me in a way that Id never felt before, says Chesney.
I came back and I went into the studio with a different perspective.
These people I knew and loved were coming to my house [in Nashville].
That was the thing that had the biggest impact on me.
I could not believe how many keyboards and guitars and ukuleles [there were].
I mean, the human spirit.
Everybodys soul needs to heal.
Thats where music comes in.
