Kenny Chesney is launching a new music label

Kenny Chesney is launching a new label, HEY NOW Records.

The “No Shoes Nation” country music singer is partnering with manager Clint Higham of Morris Higham Management, longtime Warner Music Nashville chief John “Espo” Esposito and veteran label executive Kris Lamb, who previously held leadership roles at Big Machine Label Group and Lyric Street Records.

“When Clint, Espo and Kris came to me with the idea of creating our own team, I was curious,” Chesney said in a press release. “A label like this can be all-in, lets-make-stuff-happen — and I have always been about making things happen.”

The boutique label takes its name from Chesney’s boat in the Caribbean, memorialized in his song “Happy On The Hey Now.”

Lamb will oversee day-to-day operations and drive the overall vision at HEY NOW Records while Higham and Esposito will serve as founding partners alongside Chesney, who is the label’s flagship artist.

The Nashville-based team plans to stay lean with a small roster, allowing them to react quickly and find new ways to introduce talent.

“In today’s flooded marketplace, Espo, Kris Lamb and I looked at this moment and saw an opportunity to super-serve a handful of talented developing and established artists by using that same perspective,” Higham said.

Lamb, who has contributed to more than 80 No. 1 hits over his career, added that the new venture aims to rethink how artists are developed.

“Having the chance to create something from the ground up means the options are wide open,” he said. “This is more than a dream; this is a gateway to creating an entirely new form and reality of artist development.”

Bryan West is a music reporter at The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow him on Instagram, TikTok and X as @BryanWestTV.