Kenny Chesney’s current single, “Better Boat,” is navigating up the country singles chart. Today, let’s take a look at some of the ways the songwriters built this song to be a Chesney hit.
Great songs don’t happen by accident- they’re a series of wise choices. And the songwriters (Travis Meadows and Liz Rose) made some great choices when building “Better Boat.” Now, I wasn’t in the room with them, so I can only speculate at the thought process behind the end results. But as a professional songwriter myself, I can take an experienced and educated guess.
If you want to write hits, too… read on!
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1. Stick to the brand.
Overall, this song is built to fit Kenny’s brand of country. Kenny is like the tide- time and again, he returns to the ocean. So a song with a title like “Better Boat” certainly fits that bill.
Chesney is also tends toward introspection every now and then. If you’ve listened to his beach albums especially, you get that feeling in several of his songs. Some artists don’t tend to go there, but Kenny will.
2. Fill a G.A.P.
We all know how much Kenny likes “beach songs.” But at this point, he’s done so many…. like… a LOT of them. So how do you bring something different? Well, you get it into his brand (as mentioned above) by the theme of a better boat. Then you open it up by making it a metaphor for dealing with life and growing as a person.
Maybe the Chesney of 10 years ago wouldn’t have released this. But as a mature superstar, he’s going to these more thoughtful themes. He’s doing more introspection, as also mentioned above. Mixing these two things: a boat-song-not-about-the-beach and introspection, puts “Better Boat” into a gap in Kenny’s catalog that isn’t over-served. It gives him (and the listener) a little different slice of the familiar pie.
3. Hit me in the feels.
This doesn’t go where you’d think a country song with “Boat” in the title would go. It’s not a good-time-boats-and-beaches song. It’s very emotional. It’s honest, raw, bittersweet, and ultimately hopeful.
It doesn’t spell everything out. What put the singer in this emotional place? What demons haunt him? What “ain’t workin'” and what’s “still hurtin’?” While it leaves out many details, the song does a great job of painting enough of a picture that we don’t feel lost. It contains enough imagery to anchor us. It presents the moment wonderfully, while leaving the backstory open. It’s a really hard thing to do, but I think they did it well.
The song makes you FEEL. It’s not a “heady” song. It’s not an intellectual thing, and it’s not a toe tapper. The writers know that if you’re gonna write a ballad, you sure better bring the EMOTION. It doesn’t mean you can’t also bring imagery, but you sure better bring the feels. What’s in this song for the listener? It moves them. And if they’re dealing with something like the singer is, it lets them know they’re not alone.
4. Break every rule (for a superstar).
First of all, this song is a ballad. That’s one strike “against” it. The production is also strikingly sparse. It’s just acoustic guitars (courtesy of Mac McAnally). Of course, that kind of simple production worked out okay for “The House That Built Me,” but it’s still a risky move. It really sticks out on country radio, and country radio doesn’t usually like that. It takes both a killer song and a powerful artist to make that risk a worthy gamble.
These days, most country singers seem to reach into the pop world for a female guest spot (Florida Georgia Line’s “Meant To Be feat. Bebe Rexha,” Keith Urban’s “Coming Home feat. Julia Michaels,” and… Chesney’s own “Setting The World On Fire feat. P!nk”) . However, Chesney brings Mindy Smith, an Americana darling, on board. She’s great, but she’s not a name that’s going to bring over a ton of pop listeners.
And this song isn’t a fun positive uptempo. It’s not shallow (boat pun intended). That’s not the mark of the usual radio hit. Again, Chesney is bringing his superstar muscle to bear on this one. Most artists simply couldn’t get away with this type of song. But Chesney has earned it by years of bringing radio hit after radio hit.
What’s the lesson here? If you’re going to break the rules, realize that you’re hurting your changes of getting a cut. And know that you better be writing something AMAZING that also happens to fit right where an artist is or is going in his or her career. Travis and Liz wrote the heck out of it, that’s for sure. But there are probably only a couple of major artists that could cut this song, and only one who could make it a hit. Just so happens they got it to him. And I’m glad they did.
Okay, those are four areas in which Travis Meadows and Liz Rose built “Better Boat” to be a surprising hit song. Of course, those aren’t the only elements that make the song a hit, but they’re four important ones. If YOU want to discover even more of the elements of building a hit song, I have an awesome opportunity for you.
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God Bless and Enjoy the Journey,
Brent
Brent Baxter is a hit songwriter with cuts by Alan Jackson, Randy Travis, Lady Antebellum, Joe Nichols, Gord Bamford, Ruthie Collins, Ray Stevens, and more. He’s written a top 5 hit in the US, a #1 in Canada & a top 10 in Texas… so far. He also hosts a top-rated songwriting and music business podcast called, “The C.L.I.M.B.” which can be found on iTunes or your favorite podcast app.
i’m so glad you chose this song to analyze. Travis Meadows is a beast of a writer. Also glad when his songs get cut. I think another way this song breaks the rules is that hardly any of the lyrics point to the title. there is only one other line that has any reference to water or ocean. but it still works !!! if I had tried to write this song I would’ve been talking about waves and storm clouds and tides and sails. but they don’t need any of that and it still works ! Bravo
A very forgettable song, IMHO. Just not a strong enough melody to keep my attention, and so I never really got the message of the lyrics. To me “this is an album cut”… if there is such a thing anymore. On the plus side, I would listen this on the radio in my car and not turn it off. And that is better than 90% of the rest of the songs on the country stations.
In all fairness, the song is performed much better live by Travis Meadows. Much more soul.