Kenny Chesney

Kenny Chesney and LeAnn Rimes: Two Country Music Superstars!

Kenny Chesney

Round up a group of friends and come enjoy a night of live music performed by two country music superstars! Kenny Chesney’s highly anticipated “Poets & Pirates Tour,” with special guest GRAMMY Award-winning singer/songwriter LeAnn Rimes, promises to be one of the summer’s biggest tours, playing 34 cities across America, including 14 stadiums. Chesney will be bringing one of the largest productions ever into Austin, including 55 trucks, 28 buses and 5000 amps of sound!

He is the three-in-a row and reigning Academy of Country Music and three-time and current Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year, and attributes the success of his albums and tours to the laid back attitude of his music. “I try to make these shows be the kinda thing people can build a summer around- all the memories, the friends, the good times” he says. Chesney has the ability to be so completely in the moment, alive and connected to his audience and that is a big part of what distinguishes the only artist who sold over a million concert tickets every year for the past six summers- and whose Flip Flop Summer 2007 Tour was the 2nd biggest tour last year behind Police’s Reunion Tour. “It always blows me away when people tell me they don’t plan their summer trips until they know when your show is coming through,” he admits shyly. “I mean, I know there were those acts I felt like that about growing up…you know, it wasn’t summer if you didn’t see ’em; you had to be there with your friends or else you missed the show that was gonna make that summer real. The idea that it’s me and my guys, well it still blows me away every time someone in a meet and greet line tells me that…”

Chesney has many gifts as a singer, but the one that shines the brightest is his ability to tap into the common vulnerability and honesty that says, “this is who I am…and it’s the best that I have to offer.” Chesney’s new album Just Who I Am: Poets and Pirates, released in September 2007, draws upon his life experiences to connect with the audience in a way that is relatable to everyone. “The more you live, the more you know…and the more you experience, the more you reflect on everything around you,” says Chesney. Within the first week, the album debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 Chart and also had the best weekly sales of any country album since the Dixie Chicks’ Taking the Long Way in May 2006.

LeAnn Rimes

To date, LeAnn Rimes has sold more than 37 million albums, won two GRAMMY Awards, three Academy of Country Music Awards and 12 Billboard Music Awards. Her crossover hit, “How Do I Live,” holds the record for the longest charting song on the Billboard Hot 100 chart at 69 weeks and was the first multi-platinum country single, selling more than three million copies.

Her new album, Family, marks the first time LeAnn has written or co-written every song. “I’m just completely baring my insides,” LeAnn confesses. “People feel like they’ve known me for so long. They’ve grown up with me and I’ve grown up with them. A lot of people believe what they read and what they see on the surface, but there’s so much underneath for me as a human being, not as an artist, and that’s where this is coming from. It’s coming from real life.” She readily admits it’s not easy to lay her soul bare for the whole world, yet there’s also a freedom in becoming that transparent. “It’s hard to be that vulnerable, but it’s exhilarating all at the same time,” she says. “I’m definitely accepting myself for who I am. I’m letting it speak for itself, loving my real emotions and letting who I am come across in my music. It is exhilarating to know that what I’m putting out there is really me as an adult and not me as a kid singing someone else’s songs. I’m not discrediting anything that I’ve done. I’ve had incredible hits written by some great writers, but I finally felt that it all came together on this record.”

LeAnn’s new songs run the gamut from the autobiographical title track to the light-hearted up tempo “Nothin’ Better to Do,” the album’s first single. With the GRAMMY nominated “Nothin’ Better to Do,” Rimes became the first artist to have a song on Billboard’s Country, Adult Contemporary and Dance charts simultaneously. “There are songs on the record that are flirtatious and fun like ‘Nothin’ Better To Do,’” she says of the sassy number. “I was born in Mississippi, but grew up in Texas. We wanted to write kind of this song from this alter ego. What would have happened if I would have never left small town Mississippi where there’s nothing better to do than to cause trouble?”

Curtis Grimes will open the show after winning the coveted spot on Kenny Chesney’s Next Big Star Competition. Grimes edged out Joral Segura for the opening spot. Grimes, whose originals recall early George Strait, has an earnest quality and straightforward romantic sense that hits the same bullseye for the fans who see themselves in Chesney’s songs about coming of age, falling in love and finding one’s way.

Be sure to be at the Frank Erwin Center on May 1 and start your summer off right with Kenny Chesney and LeAnn Rimes in what is sure to be one of the most talked about tours of the summer!