Review and Photos of Chesney at Summerfest

by Josh | 07.04.2009 | Posted In: Photos, Show Reviews, Tour

Kenny Chesney performed at Summerfest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Friday night and there are a couple of reviews out with some photos from the show:

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Most of the great music festivals are specialized events. Coachella is a modern rock festival. The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is exactly what the name says. But Summerfest does not play genre favorites.

With one exception: If there were a musical genre called “fun,” that’s where Summerfest would live. Which brings us to Kenny Chesney and his Sun City Carnival Tour on Friday night at the Marcus Amphitheater.

Perhaps nobody in contemporary music has mastered the art of fun more completely than Chesney. This was big-budget, lavishly produced fun with giant-screen beach parties, a big, first-class band (Jim Horn is one of several horn players) and a bulging songbook of hits built around kicking back on the beach.

Continue reading this review here.

Also OnMilwaukee.com has a review:

Kenny Chesney’s fans waited two long years for his return to Summerfest. On Friday night, as the Marcus Amphitheater headliner, the veteran performer didn’t disappoint.

Full of energy from the get-go, Chesney clearly gave definition to his “Entertainer of the Year” status on the Milwaukee stop on his “Sun City Carnival Tour.” Chesney’s following in recent years has brought on a Jimmy Buffet-like party persona, so much so that many of his shows are billed in part with a pre-concert tailgate.

There was no tailgating Friday in Milwaukee, a city in which the tradition has become an art form, but the party was no less enthusiastic.

Chesney, himself, may have said it best when he told the crowd — with a beer in hand: “This is where it’s officially not a concert, but a party!”

Continue reading this review here.

View a photo gallery from the show here.

Did you attend the show? We’d love for you to share your experience on our discussion board!

Sun City Carnival hits Summerfest

by Josh | 07.03.2009 | Posted In: Tickets, Tour

It’s festival time again for Kenny Chesney’s 2009 Sun City Carnival Tour. Chesney will perform tonight at Summerfest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It’s one of the largest music festivals in the country, spanning 11 days with over 700 bands on 11 stages.

Summerfest is the only tour stop for Chesney this holiday weekend. When the tour resumes next Thursday, Kenny will take the Carnival north of the border to Canada where he’ll play Edmonton, Calgary, and Merrit, British Columbia.

See the full 2009 tour lineup here.

Chart Update: “Out Last Night” down to #3

by Josh | 07.02.2009 | Posted In: Albums, Charts, Singles

After spending two weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart, Kenny Chesney’s latest single “Out Last Night” dropped two spots to number three this week.

Taking over the top spot is Dierks Bentley with “Sideways”. Moving into number two is the Zac Brown Band with “Whatever It Is”.

On the album charts, “Greatest Hits II” remains at number four on the Top Country Albums chart and slides from number 13 to 17 on the Billboard 200 all-genre chart.

View Kenny’s full chart history here.

You can preview and download “Out Last Night” below:

Or pick it up at iTunes.

“Out Last Night” Displaced from Top of Chart

by Josh | 06.30.2009 | Posted In: Charts, Singles

Kenny Chesney held the top spot on the Billboard Country Singles Chart for two weeks with his latest single “Out Last Night” but has been displaced by Dierks Bentley’s “Sideways”.

We’ll have a full Chart Update on Thursday.

ABC to air CMA Festival Special

by Josh | 06.29.2009 | Posted In: Special Appearances, Television Appearances

Didn’t attend the CMA Music Festival in Nashville a couple weeks back? Well you’ll be able to watch many of the performances, including some of Kenny Chesney’s act, on an ABC special in August.

“CMA Music Festival: Country’s Night to Rock” will air Monday, August 31st from 8:00-11:00 PM/ET on the ABC Television Network.

Filmed in Nashville June 11-14, the special has been expanded to three hours to showcase more of today’s most exciting Country Music stars. Kenny Chesney, Kid Rock, Lady Antebellum, Brad Paisley, Darius Rucker, Sugarland and Taylor Swift are the first performers to be confirmed, with more artists to be announced soon.

The annual CMA Music Festival is unlike any other, with four days filled with more than one hundred hours of live music, 30 hours of autograph signings by Country Music’s biggest names and up and comers, hundreds of artists and celebrities, and a party list of thousands of avid fans. This is the fifth time ABC will broadcast this special – which invites the whole country to America’s biggest Country Music bash – since the original Fan Fair(R) was launched in 1972. This year an average of 56,000 fans attended each day of CMA Music Festival, its biggest turnout yet.

Review of Saturday’s Chesney Show in Philly

by Josh | 06.29.2009 | Posted In: Show Reviews, Tour

The Philadelphia Inquirer has a review of Kenny Chesney’s concert last Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia: “Chesney caps five country acts”

Kenny Chesney’s stand-alone encore “Don’t Blink” tellingly capped his strong 20-song set Saturday night before a sell-out crowd at Lincoln Financial Field.

After a long program of five acts that began with Lady Antebellum at 4 p.m., the hugely popular country megastar offered 50,000 listeners an observation and a recommendation: Life’s fleeting, so keep your eyes open and take it all in.

That thesis of living now and looking back thoughtfully is a recurring theme in many of Chesney’s well-tooled hit songs – “There Goes My Life,” “I Go Back,” and “Back Where I Come From” played Saturday. Perhaps it is the true source of his appeal, far deeper than his good-timey, beachy-cowboy image as a Nashville version of Jimmy Buffett might suggest.

Continue reading here

Also view the set list from this show here.

Slideshow of Chesney at Jones Beach

by Josh | 06.26.2009 | Posted In: Photos, Tour

LiveDaily has a slideshow of photos from Wednesday night’s Kenny Chesney show at Jones Beach in Wantagh, New York.

Check them out here.

(hat tip to Kay for passing this along)

Review of Thursday’s Show in Virginia Beach

by Josh | 06.26.2009 | Posted In: Show Reviews, Tour

The Virginian Pilot has a review of Thursday night’s Kenny Chesney show at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Virginia Beach, Virginia: “Chesney shows why he’s king of country”

Will there ever be a more exciting show than Thursday night’s Kenny Chesney Sun City Carnival Tour? Probably — when Chesney returns to the Verizon Wireless Virginia Beach Amphitheater.

The biggest moneymaker in the country music business has it all — excellent material, a very good voice, a very good band, and a personality that exudes pure joy.

The most super of the country music superstars can best be described by thumbing through a dictionary of superlatives.

Typical of most shows in the genre, the fans sing along. In Chesney’s case, they seem to do as much vocalizing as their idol, seemingly knowing every word of every song.

Thursday’s show was called the Sun City Carnival. That sounds like a senior citizen boat trip, but most of the audience were in their 20s and 30s, an over-enthusiastic bunch who greeted the star with a thunderous, deafening ovation.

The Sun City Carnival Tour continues Saturday with a show from Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.

Chart Update: “Out Last Night” Remains On Top

by Josh | 06.25.2009 | Posted In: Albums, Charts, Singles

Kenny Chesney’s latest single “Out Last Night” remains at #1 this week on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart. It’s the second week at the top for the hit song.

“Greatest Hits II”, the latest album offering from Chesney that was released on May 19th, sits at #13 again on the Billboard 200 and at #4 on the Top Country Albums chart.

View Kenny’s full chart history here.

You can preview and download “Out Last Night” below:

Or pick it up at iTunes.

Newsday Interview with Chesney on Tonight’s Jones Beach Show

by Josh | 06.24.2009 | Posted In: Interviews, Tour

Tonight’s show at Jones Beach will be the first time that Kenny Chesney has played at the venue. Long Island’s Newsday has an interview with Chesney:

“I’ve never played Jones Beach, and I thought I’d played everywhere,” Chesney said, calling from his Nashville home during a short tour break. “The first time’s always the best, right?”

Q – New York country fans don’t get to see their favorites very often. Why did you decide to come out here this time?

A – When you’re doing the road like I have for so many years – I’ve been on the road for 16 years – we’re trying not to repeat markets and if there’s any places we haven’t played, we want to get to them . . . For me, [New York] is great. But I have a different audience. I have a very eclectic group of people that might not go see somebody else in my genre. I think a lot of people in our audience live by the rule that we live by on the road: We work harder and we play harder.

Check out the rest of this interview here.