Here’s a look at the the different lists Kenny appears on:

Top Artists

In this all-genre category, Kenny Chesney was the fourth highest placing country artist, coming in at #28 (he was #54 in 2010). Adele was the top overall artist, and Taylor Swift (#8), Jason Aldean (#13), and Lady Antebellum (#20) placed ahead of Chesney.

Billboard 200 Albums

Kenny’s latest album Hemingway’s Whiskey came out in late 2010 so it only placed at #75 on last year’s list. But with a full year under its belt, the album comes in at #42 this year.

Top Country Artists

After being at #7 last year, Kenny Chesney dropped one spot to #8 this year. Here’s the top 10 country artists of the year according to Billboard:

1. Taylor Swift
2. Jason Aldean
3. Lady Antebellum
4. Zac Brown Band
5. Blake Shelton
6. The Band Perry
7. Rascal Flatts
8. Kenny Chesney
9. Brad Paisley
10. Luke Bryan

Top Country Songs

Chesney landed three songs on the Billboard Top Country Songs 2011 chart:

• 7. You and Tequila
• 31. Somewhere With You
• 46. Live a Little

The top country song of 2011? “Crazy Girl” by the Eli Young Band.

Top Country Albums

In the final list we take a look at, Kenny places #10 on the Top Country Albums 2011 chart with Hemingway’s Whiskey. Here’s the top 10:

1. Speak Now – Taylor Swift
2. My Kinda Party – Jason Aldean
3. Nothing Like This – Rascal Flatts
4. Need You Now – Lady Antebellum
5. You Get What You Give – Zac Brown Band
6. Own The Night – Lady Antebellum
7. The Band Perry – The Band Perry
8. The Incredible Machine – Sugarland
9. Get Closer – Keith Urban
10. Hemingway’s Whiskey – Kenny Chesney

You can peruse all of the Billboard end of year charts here.

[Chesney] had just signed a publishing deal with Acuff-Rose, whose offices were across the street from Mercury’s offices, over there on 17th Avenue,” Cannon explains.

“I knew Kenny as a rookie songwriter. He would walk across the street and hang out in our lobby, shooting the breeze with our receptionist. He’d be in there every day, once or twice a day. … I had no idea he was trying to be an artist.

“One day, he came in and asked me if he could see me in my office for a minute. He told me he’d just gotten signed with Capricorn Records, and he said, ‘I would love for you and Norro to produce my first album.’”

Cannon says he knew that couldn’t happen, given Shedd’s restriction.

“So I had to tell him no, which killed me,” he said.

Barry Beckett was then hired as Chesney’s producer and helmed the young artist’s first two albums.

Cannon says it gradually became clear to him that he would have to leave Mercury if he was ever going to get back to his goal of producing.

“So I quit,” he recalled. “I said, ‘I’m outta here. I’m getting nowhere in the direction I want to go.’ I went to Warner/Chappell. They gave me a publishing deal that would give me the ability to financially survive for a couple of years.

“Maybe a month or two months after I quit, I got a phone call from Renee [Bell] over at RCA. She said Kenny [who had by then signed to the RCA Label Group's BNA label] wanted her to ask me and Norro if we’d be interested in producing his next record. … That was about 1995.”

Read the full article here.

“Live a Little” is the third single released from Kenny’s latest album Hemingway’s Whiskey. The other two singles, “The Boys of Fall” and “Somewhere With You” also hit number one.

After writing ‘Live a Little,’ which takes the listener back to carefree summers and yearning for them again, the performer knew there was a perfect place for it in his live show. “When we were done with this song, I knew where it was gonna fit in my show,” says Kenny. “I knew that … this defines our show. This is classic, the two hours, summertime, time of the year when we strap on our guitars and go out there and let them have it. This song is going to fit very well.”

Congrats Kenny!

Darius Rucker is at the top this week with “This,” knocking the Zac Brown Band from the number one slot.

Preview and download the song below through Amazon or get it at iTunes.

“This song will be in our show forever, it’s going to be a staple,” Chesney says. “I’m going to keep reminding people through music that you’ve got to love life, and you’ve got to live it, and you can’t work all the time. And the tempo and the edginess of this song reflects our show to a tee.”

At number one this week is Jason Aldean and Kelly Clarkson with “Don’t You Wanna Stay.”

Preview and download the song below through Amazon or get it at iTunes.

“I think ‘Live A Little’ defines me a lot,” says Chesney. “Everybody that knows me knows I’m a very focused guy, I keep my eye on the ball, I work really hard, and I’m hands on a lot of times to a fault. But you do at some point have to set it down no matter what you do, and I’m still learning that even now.”

“This song will be in our show forever, it’s going to be a staple. I’m going to keep reminding people through music that you’ve got to love life, and you’ve got to live it, and you can’t work all the time. And the tempo and the edginess of this song reflects our show to a tee.”

Coming in at number one this week is Blake Shelton with “Who Are You When I’m Not Looking.”

Preview and download the song below through Amazon or get it at iTunes.

According to Billboard, Chesney’s 53 weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts are a record for the most of any country artist this millennium.

“Somewhere With You” and “The Boys of Fall” are the fourth set of two straight multiweek number one singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart for Chesney.

“Somewhere With You” is Chesney’s 21st number one single, combining Billboard and MediaBase chart history, and it, along with “The Boys of Fall” reached gold certification faster than any pair of songs from a single album in Chesney’s career.

Preview and download “Somewhere With You” from Amazon below, or get it at iTunes.

The second single to be released from Hemingway’s Whiskey, “Somewhere With You” became Kenny’s 21st number one when it topped the Billboard Top Country Songs chart last week.

Preview and download “Somewhere With You” from Amazon below, or get it at iTunes.

That makes 21 number one hits for Kenny.

“Melodically, I think this is the most unpredictable melody that I’ve sang in a long time,” says the singer. “And I think just the overall feel and the essence and what the song — the overall message of the song — what it says, so many people can relate to that. They have that person in their life that, ‘Yeah, I’m with this person now, but I still think about this over here.’ This may be a great, committed relationship, or it may just be a date, but still that person is in their head, in their heart, and they’re thinking about it.”

Congrats Kenny!