Hear Kenny Chesney’s Wistful New ‘Pirate Song’ [LISTEN]
While Kenny Chesney is no stranger to using beach life and the ocean as his muse, the country superstar turns introspective on his latest track, "Pirate Song," which is the newest taste of his forthcoming album, Songs for the Saints. Chesney has previously shared the single "Get Along," which quickly climbed to the Top 5 in country radio, as well as the album's title track.
"Pirate Song" is a dreamy look at island life that lets Chesney's imagination run wild as he dreams of the idyllic parts of pirate life. "I wish I was a pirate out there under my own flag / Running for no reason and no reason to turn back," he sings. "Salt and rum on my tongue, sails tattered and torn / Laughing in the devil's face, riding out a storm."
Chesney explains that the song is meant to express a desire for freedom -- one that anyone with daily responsibilities can understand. "Anyone who's got a job, a schedule, a list of responsibilities and people to answer to understands that yearning to be free," he shares in a press release. "This song is about being unplugged, off the grid, sailing where the boat takes you and letting your cares drift away."
Unlike many of Chesney's hits that center around island escapism, however, there's a sadness to "Pirate Song," and a nearly hymn-like reverence for the beauty of a lifestyle that exists only in his imagination. Chesney goes on to explain that the track is a love song to "everything the islands have ever been: freedom, time slowing down, calm and at sea." In the wake of Hurricane Irma, which devastated the Virgin Islands -- including St. John, where the country star owns a home -- that love is tinged with sadness, but Chesney points out that the song, and his album, is much more focused on the beauty of people coming together to recover than it is on destruction and devastation.
"Even when friends and people I knew were coming through my house after the storms came through, I knew the essence of what those islands are couldn't be extinguished inside them," he adds.
All proceeds from the new album will benefit victims of Hurricane Irma. Chesney has also established his Love for Love City Foundation to help provide relief efforts, and has also helped rescue animals from the affected areas. Songs for the Saints will be released on July 27.
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