The new single from RJ Chesney, a fine singer-songwriter based in Mississippi, is heartfelt, open and honest. Suzanne was written by Chesney’s friend and fellow-songwriter Kyle McNeill and Chesney first heard McNeill play it at just 19 years old. “I am very proud of this version,” Chesney says. “Kyle is one of the most underappreciated singer songwriters from Southern California. I’ve covered the song live for years, and I finally got a chance in April to go down to Jackson, Mississippi and shoot a little 3½-minute film with director Jaclyn Bethany and a crew of seven women. It’s a gorgeous piece of art in my opinion.” Indeed, the accompanying visual is more than just a typical music video; it’s a beautifully-shot cinematic vision, directed by Jaclyn Bethany with cinematography from Mary McDade, and its own narrative unfolds like a short film.
In this new recording, Chesney took the original singer-songwriter version and made it his own, adding a full band arrangement. Gentle rhythms come from Jason Hiller’s bass and Deacon Marrquin’s drums, while Zachary Ross’s electric guitar and piano from J.T. Thomas allow the melody to grow behind Chesney’s acoustic and his weary, storytelling voice. The result is sensitive, introspective and quietly beautiful.
Suzanne is the third single and first video taken from the forthcoming album A Southern Man, which is due for release on 25th September 2026. Born in in Macon, Georgia, before moving to Biloxi, Mississippi, aged nine, Chesney is steeped in the musical influences and culture of America’s South. In this new collections, he tackles this directly: “I realised I wasn’t writing about one person,” Chesney says. “I was writing about Southern men; the beauty in them, the damage that’s been handed down, the people who choose kindness, and the ones who never escape their wounds.” It’s a deeply personal piece of work, an intimate portrait of self-discovery, covering loss, trauma, masculinity and forgiveness. This fourth album from Chesney took almost five years to put together, interrupted by the pandemic and a medical condition that nearly cost him his hearing. But the long-awaited result is a well-crafted, reflective collection that is threads hope through the darker moments: “I don’t want people to forget their problems,” Chesney explains. “I want them to believe they can face them.”
