iCast: Kenny Chesney

Kenny Chesney: Summer in 3D
Sun City Stadiums Are A Hot Ticket with a Limited Engagement Movie Theatre Run

    Nashville: Just as Kenny Chesney, the 4-time and reigning Country Music Association and 4-consecutive Academy of Country Music Entertainer of the Year, announced he would not stage a major tour next year comes the announcement he will provide an even more up-close, in-your-face, on-the-stage way to experience the intensity, the mayhem and yes, fun of his full-tilt stadium-sized show! Teaming with Sony Pictures Entertainment highly specialized The Hot Ticket Division, the man who's sold over a million concert tickets each of the past 8 summers is in the midst of editing “Kenny Chesney: Summer in 3D,” putting him in the company of the Rolling Stones and U2.

     “I'd seen U2's movie and was blown away,” Chesney says of the film, which hits theatres in April 2010. “It was like something I'd never seen - and I wondered what would happen if we tried to capture some of what was going on like that… How would it look, because this is more straight up… When we did, everyone who saw the footage agreed, and we started taking this project very seriously.

     “Then when major movie studios were interested in working with us… a company with such specialized expertise as not just Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is crazy, but their Hot Ticket division which understands very specifically the challenges of a 3D movie, well, we went for it.”

     Shot over six nights in five cities - Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Seattle, Boston and Indianapolis -- with 22 3D camera rigs, this is Kenny Chesney closer than anyone's ever been. On the stage, in the halls, on the water and in the air, “Summer in 3D” adds a dimension to the always high energy entertainer's concert connection with his fans that will leave people just as excited as being in a stadium with the music blaring, the fans cheering and the night still young.

     “It's crazy how up close this puts you,” admits the man who's had 19 #1s and has been touring stadiums now for five straight years. “To me on that stage, I feel every single one of my fans - all the way to the very top of those stadiums. But this is like having everyone right there onstage with us, and it's a rush… I had no idea what we do could go to film quite like that.

     “It was an amazing - and at times scary - experience to have cameras that close, in the air, on a blimp… cause they are everywhere. But to see what this film captures: all the energy, the thrill and an even better focus on some of the most rocking nights we've ever had, all I can say is… wow.”

     With three CMA nominations - Entertainer of the Year, Male Vocalist and Vocal Even with Mac McAnally for the #1 “Down the Road” - Chesney performs “I'm Alive” with Dave Matthews on the CMA Awards live telecast Nov. 11 on ABC.

     For further information and to purchase tickets for “Kenny Chesney: Summer in 3D,” visit www.TheHotTicket.net<http://www.TheHotTicket.net>

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Wow, just checked the stats and "I'm Alive" is one of the most popular Kenny songs on our iLike channel for profile adds AND dedications!  Glad you like it!  You can add it to your iLike/Facebook profile or send it as a dedication from here: http://www.ilike.com/artist/Kenny+Chesney.

Also Kenny's Austin City Limits show debuts on PBS TONIGHT.  Check your local listings because it's different in every city.  You can see a preview of the show here: Kenny Chesney "Out Last Night" on Austin City Limits

One love,

KC Team

at CMT.com:

http://www.cmt.com/videos/kenny-chesney/437632/im-alive-with-dave-matthews.jhtml

Have you checked out Kenny's NoShoesRadio.com yet?  We've got plenty of Chesney tunes playing on there including tons of live and rare stuff, and the rest of it is based on Kenny's iPod, playing Sammy Hagar, Bob Marley, Zac Brown, The Band, Bruce Springsteen and tons more.

NoShoesRadio.com streams 24/7 and from time to time we do live broadcasts and Kenny pops in sometimes.

We've got a passport program you can sign up for where you can win prize packs from our sponsors and Kenny.

Hope you dig it.  Cheers,

the NSR team

Hey KC fans-

You can now download "Out Last Night" as well as the rest of Kenny's Greatest Hits II album on iTunes.  If you're shopping for a summer theme song, this one's a pretty good candidate...

Click here to get it, then turn it UP:

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?i=317372294&id=317372285&s=143441&uo=6

Hope to see you all out at the Sun City Carnival tour this summer!

-Kenny's online team

Kenny's Greatest Hits II in stores now! Check it out!

Hey Guys, Kenny's new Greatest Hits II album drops this Tuesday. Here's your chance to help us get the word out. Click on the banner below and you can pick up SWAG for your site.

"Shiftwork" Connects with All-Genre Music Makers

Los Angeles: He's won every award imaginable - 8 Entertainer of the Years between the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association, the American Music Awards all-genre Favorite Artist over Usher, Evanescence, Outkast and Norah Jones, a People's Choice Favorite Male Singer, Album, Single and Male Vocalist of the Year, but Kenny Chesney had never been nominated for a Grammy Award by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences until now. He's nominated for Best Country Vocal Performance, Collaboration for "Shiftwork" with George Strait.

"I'm not gonna say that I gave up or didn't care about it," says Chesney candidly, "because this is an award given by your peers in all genres of music... the people who make it. You get to a point where you realize you can't force it or get them to listen if they're not there, because that's not how this works... and you just have to accept that. But that said, I'm really honored to finally be nominated."

"Shiftwork" was the third single from Chesney's nearly double platinum Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates. The CMA and ACM Album of the Year also contained the 5 week #1 "Don't Blink," the 6 week #1 "Never Wanted Nothing More" and the 2 week #1 "Better As A Memory." Meanwhile Chesney's brand new Lucky Old Sun has already spawned a 2 week #1 with "Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven," featuring the Wailers Band, and the Mac McAnally duet "Down The Road" is scaling the charts.

"I think the trick is to keep it fresh without abandoning who you are," says the singer/songwriter from Luttrell, Tennessee. "The beauty of 'Shiftwork' is that it celebrates the true country music fan - people who work so hard for their money - yet it has that Caribbean feel people expect from me. When you add in George, who's one of my heroes and friends, I just don't think it gets any better, so it's nice to see the people in rap, rock, pop and beyond recognize that, too."

For Chesney, who got his first taste of playing football stadiums as part of the George Strait Country Festival Tours, singing with the man they call King George was a thrill. "I learned so much about songs and singing and just being private in the spotlight from George... He defines, to me, what it means to be a modern country star: to keep a piece of your world for you, but to put your heart in the music. So, being nominated for my first Grammy with him is pretty great."

Having been the leading CMA nominee this year with 7 nods and looking like one of the year's biggest tours in any genre, as well as the only tour that played a significant number of football stadiums across the country this summer - on his way to his 7th year of playing to a million+ fans, Chesney knows it's about making music that moves people. He knows what the songs and artists did to and for him, and he wants to expand that legacy in a way that means something... and a Grammy nomination is another piece of that puzzle.

3x CMA Entertainer of the Year Takes Over Tootsies w the Wailers, Kid Rock

Nashville, TN: After running through their CMA Awards performance at the Sommet Center a couple times, 3-time and current Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year Kenny Chesney and his good friends the Wailers were primed to play. So, with a notion at 1:00 pm, a few phone calls at 2:00 and confirmation by 3:30, Kenny Chesney + the Wailers were set to play the backroom at the iconic Tootsies Orchid Lounge.

"That's the thing about these guys," explains Chesney of the legendary band from Jamaica that helped define reggae music for the world. "They come to play. They are music people, and it's about what happens when people come together to play songs... to share... and be in the moment.

"After we finished rehearsing, it just didn't feel like enough, you know? You get sorta ready to go, and then it's over. I know that was all I could think: this should be done live, out there, so people can see it. When I asked Family Man (Aston Barrett) if they'd be up for playing, he was ready. You know, it's that thing of you get your feet wet..."

It was more than wet, it was downright sweltering in the packed to capacity club - with people lined up twice around the block to try to get in and see two very different musical worlds colliding. But more than a collision, it was more of a pivot and an overlap, with the Wailers coming to the stage for Chesney's two week #1 "Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven" from his ocean-driven Lucky Old Sun, then shifting into the reggae standard "No Woman No Cry."

For Chesney, who'd already played an almost hour set with his road band - including a very special surprise duet with Mac McAnally on "Down The Road," it was the icing on the cake to call the Wailers to the stage of a bar that had been the watering hole for the Opry stars who used to sneak across the ally from the Ryman and struggling songwriter/poets like Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson.

"It was two pieces of pretty amazing history in one place," marveled the man who's made a little history himself as the only act to sell in excess of a million tickets the last 7 years in a row. "You look at the pictures on the walls, and you realize who's been on that stage, sat at the bar, laughed, lied, got drunk, told stories and wrote some songs... and then you look at Fams or even Elan (Atias, their singer) and you think about all the places they've been, and you're just blown away by it all."

It was a moment unlike any other. Thrown together, sloppy, fun and a place where friends celebrated the spirit of music - as Kid Rock joined the ever-expanding band for "Midnight Rider," his own "Cowboy" and David Allen Coe's "You Never Even Called Me By Me Name" alongside the Wailers who like McAnally, also stayed onstage.

"On a night like this, when you can look to your right and see Mac - and turn around and see, well, the Wailers playing on 'Gimme 3 Steps' or 'Dixieland Delight' - it's as awesome as having Bob (Kid Rock) singing 'One Love' with us. You know music when it's just good music... and that's what made this so special."

More Introspective CD Tops Billboard's Top 200

Nashville: As his Calypso-tinged "Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven" ends its multiple week run at the top of the Country Singles chart, Kenny Chesney's deeply personal Lucky Old Sun debuts at #1 on Billboard's all-genre Top 200 Album chart. For a record that is more about soul-diving than good-timing and looking back, Lucky Old Sun - with its collaborations with Willie Nelson, the Wailers, Mac McAnally and Dave Matthews - has struck a chord with fans.

"When you do something that's a little more intimate, that's a little bit less about the party and the good times, you're not sure how people are going to respond," allows the man who has topped the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart 5 times. "But somewhere between going in the studio with Willie to cut 'Lucky Old Sun' and making Moment of Forever with him, I knew this was a record, I needed to make... for a lot of reasons.

"It may not be the most obvious thing that people would expect from me," continues the man who's the 21st century's top North American ticket seller in any genre. "But I think that's one of the many reasons I say I have the best fans in the world: they not only come to party with us, I think they want to know what's going on in my life and they don't see the down parts of my life as all that different from the disappointments they feel in their own lives."

Singled out by The New York Times, Newsweek, USA Today and People as well as an in-depth profile in The Tennessean, the 4-straight Academy of Country Music and 3-time and current Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year took Lucky Old Sun to a more personal place - and the response has been unprecedented. Beyond the kudos, the CMA's leading nominee - he has 7 - has arrived at a more honest place as an artist.

"I think you get to a place where you realize your fans want more from you, want to listen to what's really going on in your life...," Chesney says. "Every night when I go down front with my acoustic guitar and it's just me and them... that's always one of the most intense moments of the show. You can tell they're really listening, and it's like that when we do 'Better as a Memory' or 'There Goes My Life,' too. Quieting things down onstage really showed me I could open up to the fans, that that was something they wanted.

"And with it hitting #1 on the Top 200, it's a nice place to be with something so personal."

Chesney will also be at "The 42nd Annual Country Music Association Awards," telecast live on ABC Nov 12th, where he's to perform "Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven" with the Wailers Band. Beyond his nomination for Entertainer of the Year, he is also up for Album of the Year for Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates, Single and Video of the Year for "Don't Blink, Male Vocalist and a pair of Vocal Event nods for "Shiftwork" with George Strait and "Every Other Weekend" with Reba McEntire.

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