Here And Now

Album: Here and Now (2020)
Charted: 38
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • "Here and Now" is a rocking, uplifting cut in which Kenny Chesney muses on living in the moment.

    Everybody's waitin', but they're waiting for what?
    Better get to livin', 'cause all we've got is
    Here and now


    The song doubles down on the singer's regular message of savoring life. According to a press release, the track "weighs how we live against what we want."
  • The song was born out of Chesney's desire to reconnect with some of his songwriter buddies, Craig Wiseman, David Garcia and David Lee Murphy. The four drank beer, told stories, and wrote songs for the pure joy of it. Inspired, Wiseman, Garcia and Murphy penned "Here And Now" on returning to their Malibu house after one of the sessions.
  • Chesney said the song "kind of blew my mind" when he first heard it. He said it bought to mind his 2013 No Shoes Nation tour, "The rush of it absolutely being the best place, best moment in the entire world. There's no rush like it."

    The singer added what really got to him was the way the song talks about enjoying the "here and now" rather than putting it off as we're so busy with stuff. "Only thing is, that's exactly how you miss everything that matters," he said.
  • Kenny Chesney gives fans an idea of how it feels to perform to a crowd of screaming fans in the music video, with help from director Shaun Silva. The clip utilizes extreme sports footage projected onto the backdrop to enhance the excitement.

    "There's a rush of adrenaline when you're doing one of these sports that's beyond measure," the singer told CMT. "It's the way it feels for us, waiting for the Kabuki to drop. I wanted to give people a sense of how that feels, that crazy wild sense of being totally alive, because I think that's what we're all seeking."
  • Kenny Chesney admitted it's not always easy to live out the song's message of living in the moment. "I struggle with that every day of my life, I truly do," he said. "It's really tough for me to be present and to be in the moment and try to live my life in that space."

    Chesney added that the tune serves as a reminder to him to keep focused on the "here and now."
  • Here and Now debuted at #1 on the US albums chart. The 233,000 album equivalents in its first seven days marked the biggest sales week for a country LP since Carrie Underwood's Cry Pretty in 2018.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Carol Kaye

Carol KayeSongwriter Interviews

A top session musician, Carol played on hundreds of hits by The Beach Boys, The Monkees, Frank Sinatra and many others.

Corey Hart

Corey HartSongwriter Interviews

The Canadian superstar talks about his sudden rise to fame, and tells the stories behind his hits "Sunglasses At Night," "Boy In The Box" and "Never Surrender."

Lita Ford

Lita FordSongwriter Interviews

Lita talks about how they wrote songs in The Runaways, and how she feels about her biggest hit being written by somebody else.

Rosanne Cash

Rosanne CashSongwriter Interviews

Rosanne talks about the journey that inspired her songs on her album The River & the Thread, including a stop at the Tallahatchie Bridge.

Kevin Godley

Kevin GodleySongwriter Interviews

Kevin Godley talks about directing classic videos for The Police, U2 and Duran Duran, and discusses song and videos he made with 10cc and Godley & Creme.

Stand By Me: The Perfect Song-Movie Combination

Stand By Me: The Perfect Song-Movie CombinationSong Writing

In 1986, a Stephen King novella was made into a movie, with a classic song serving as title, soundtrack and tone.