For Immediate Release
21 March 2005
For More Information
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Gentlemen, Start Your Engines  --
Somewhere in the Sun FINALLY Rolls Into Green Bay 3/23
with 16 trucks, 89 Tour Staff, 160 Sound Cabinets  AND 1 Jumbo Stuffed Marlin

    Nashville:  It takes almost 2 miles of speaker cable and nearly a quarter mile of trussing to hang it all up, but when Kenny Chesney's Somewhere in the Sun Tour hits Green Bay, Wisconsin March 23-24 -- following a two-week postponement due to an ankle injury -- it's not how big it is, but it's how much fun it's gonna be that'll matter. And to pull off the high-energy, good-time, party-building shows that the CMA Entertainer of the Year is known for, it's what you don't see that makes it all happen.

    "If you can see the seams, that's what people notice," Chesney says. "I was always one of those guys kinda looking at how it worked. That's why we bring out some amazing people to help us mount these tours. Our  production guy, Ed Wannebo, has toured with everybody: Van Halen during the crazy years, Hall & Oats when they were on fire, David Bowie's Glass Spider Tour, ZZ Top, Stevie Nicks, so he understands wanting it to be RIGHT THERE without leaving a lot of dangling threads for people to notice.

    "I'm not saying I'm any of those people, by the way, but that those folks were always about the show being the thing and not what's going into the show."

    What goes into this year's tour of 89 touring staff includes a culinary staff of 9. Each day, they will cook lunch for 160 and dinner for 140 -- and oversee the various hospitality areas on the tour this year. The catering team alone has their own bus, to give some sense of the scope of the organization.

    "It just gives us consistency," says the man who lives on chicken breasts and egg white omelettes. "It really kicks up that family feeling we have out here.. You know, I really like that notion of camaraderie and a team. The more players you've got rolling with you, the more of that you have."

    In addition to a family vibe, he's also got tonnage! 70,000 pounds of equipment in the air -- including 3 vertical screens, 198 fully-moving lights and 96 rigging points. With 126 remote controlled amplifiers -- giving the best and most individualized for each room's dynamics -- this is Kenny Chesney as you've never heard him.

    "I just want people to have the best concert experience they can possibly have. I'm trying to do the things I'd've thought were cool when I was a kid going to shows," he says with a laugh. "I mean, it might've taken me two extra weeks to get the gear loaded up and headed out to Green Bay -- and I gotta tell you Houston was the worst tease 'cause it just made the waiting THAT MUCH HARDER! -- but I've got an awesome stage, everything sounds great, and I'm ready to start throwing some good times at some pretty great people. They were patient with me, and we're gonna give it back to them."

    With Be As You Are returning to #1 on Billboard's Country Album Chart and "Anything From Mine"-from his nearly quadruple-platinum CMA Album of the Year When The Sun Goes Down -- #3 on Billboard's Singles chart, it's all systems go for country's leading man.

    "Hey," he says laughing. "There are those who might say we're taking this beach thing a little far, bringing our own towels and a 230 pound stuffed marlin. I just think it adds to the consistency of that good time we're always talking about."

 

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