Las
Vegas (SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT) - When
Kenny Chesney called
Tracy Lawrence out onstage at the Academy of Country Music's Fan Jam, he wasn't the Entertainer of the Year bestowing merit on a fellow country singer, but a kid scrabbling in some of Nashville's seediest honky tonks reconnecting with his roots. But for all his good ole boy humility, the man who's played to over a million fans over each of the past four summers had done something very rare: repeated as the ACM's Entertainer of the Year.
'Not very many people have done this,' said the soft-spoken songwriter with the propensity to capture real life between melody and words. 'And to win it once is big, to do it again is awesome… and it's not just for me, it's for my band. My crew, the truck drivers and caterers, everyone at my label and my management…. Because it takes a lot if people to make a moment like this come together.'
Having performed 'Summertime,' his brand new single and seasonal anthem, from the Beach at Mandalay Bay, earlier in the telecast, it was a relaxed Chesney who was in the house when hostess Reba McEntire called his name. With his The Road & The Radio 2006 Tour getting ready to head into its second leg - complete with 9 football stadiums, the man whose album of the same name debuted at No 1 on Billboard's all-genre Top 200, Chesney is in high gear and taking it to the fans.
'That's the thing about this award,' he acknowledges, 'It sets a standard; it makes you want to live up to the honor - to really keep setting the bar high… Our fans give so much when they come to the shows, you wanna give more than you get - though with our people, it's almost hard to imagine. In a lot of ways, I think they're the Entertainer of the Year as much or more than an artist is.'
The Road & The Radio, which was Chesney's fourth consecutive project to debut at No 1 in any genre, is approaching triple platinum - in part on the momentum of the heart-tugging 'Who You'd Be Today' and the multiple week No 1 'Living In Fast Forward.' Just as importantly, it scratches a much deeper place in the guitarist's soul and life experience.
'All I try to do is tell the truth about the world that I know,' Chesney allowed, 'and if people can see themselves in what you're singing, that's even better. You don't even have to sing all these deep confessional songs anymore. Just find a way to be honest about where you came from… To me, that's where and how it all starts.'
With album sales in excess of 25 million and now a pair of ACM Entertainer of the Year nods, Chesney's forged a broad connection by celebrating the moments and magic that mark life as real people know it and live it. It's a simple thing, and yet it's what makes the island-loving musician so potent.
