GILFORD, N.H. – Sometimes you just know. For Kenny Chesney, whose permission-to-live anthem “Carry On” is quickly becoming the song of the summer, the fistful of postcards that filled out the lyrics to “Silver Sands Marina” was more than just a song that captured a random perfect moment that defines the kind of magic people seek, but can never seem to find.
 
“It is such a well-written song,” Chesney says. “You can smell the fall in the air, the lake and that solitude. Everyone’s so busy rushing, you miss most of the small details – and everything that happens around them. But in ‘Silver Sands Marina,’ not only do the details hold the song in place, they remind you that the magic happens in the simplest, realest places: you just have to be open to letting it happen.”
 
“Silver Sands Marina” offers a silky midtempo that matches the momentum of an unlikely connection in an off-season, off-the-beaten-path place as an afternoon turns into a long night, an early morning flight and a memory that will last a lifetime. It’s the rain all afternoon, 20-dollar blinds, pink painted walls, wet sand, bicycles propped up, a sky that’s red, orange and blue and a mug stolen as a talisman of the encounter.
 
“These kinds of moments you couldn’t make happen, that’s the magic,” Chesney explains of the title track’s spark. “And the two people in the song, who fall into the experience so completely, they know it’s perfect as it’s happening, that this sort of thing doesn’t come along very often. But even more, they’re smart enough to let it be what it is.”
 
With a history of finding greatness as an album is mostly finished, “Silver Sands Marina” continues the East Tennessee songwriter-superstar’s relentless pursuit of songs unlike any other. Always striving to stay true to himself and what he believes, the man the LA Times called “the people’s superstar” never stops writing or listening for songs that speak to where he is in his life.
  
Beyond recognizing the power of advising people, “If it feels good, do it/If it doesn’t then don’t” in “Carry On,” Chesney seeks to remind people to pay attention to the little things, to notice the world around them so they don’t miss something validating, life-changing or feeling as alive as humanly possible.
 
“When the guitars come in, along with the voices, you can sense the way the connection has built, even though it’s only for those 24 hours,” Chesney offers. “When the arrangement falls away, how much that moment got inside becomes concrete. This wasn’t hooking up; it wasn’t two strangers not looking back. These are people who connected on a soul level – and no matter how much time passes, this moment will always be vivid and alive.
 
“That’s the great thing about songs: they hold life like nothing else. As I was listening to the songs on this record, I realized ‘Silver Sands Marina’ defines the album. Beyond the story of these two people, this small, lakeside motel that’s existed for generations, it shows the reality that the things that matter actually exist beyond time or place; they’re timeless and always.”
 
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