Cranking out news for the geeks, music buffs and gossip junkies, my way. -Greg

Its official we’ll be heading to Nashville for the 44^th Annual Country Music Awards. I have to say were pretty excited. Over the years we have been to many, many country concerts mostly in Saint Louis, MO. We’ve been to Kenny Chesney in Chicago and this past summer made it to the huge BamaJam Festival in Alabama. There is no doubt that this will be the biggest and greatest event yet for us. Come November 10^th G Machine will be taking notes and pictures on country music’s biggest night of the year. Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood are back to host and a gang of the biggest stars are performing:

• Dierks Bentley
• Kenny Chesney
• Lady Antebellum
• Miranda Lambert
• Brad Paisley
• Reba
• Rascal Flatts
• Blake Shelton
• George Strait
• Taylor Swift
• Sugarland
• Carrie Underwood
• Keith Urban
• Zac Brown Band with Alan Jackson

Check back often for updates as it gets closer to the show. And make sure to check back after the event for a full story on the 2010 CMA’s in Nashville! -Greg

Coming to theaters this April is Kenny Chesney’s “Summer in 3D” . This movie will be shown in 3D about his tour and everything that goes with it. I’m not sure about how much the 3D will add to it, but I sure am looking forward to the movie! Here is a sneak peak.. – Greg 

So the never ending Taylor Swift fad is wrapping the year up with 8, yeah 8 Grammy Nominations. Some of the larger being Record and Song of the Year. It would seem that Taylor is really pounding the music industry and has more than just taken it by storm. Its no secret that I’m a huge anti-Taylor fan, but it looks that there’s a lot more real fans out there than anti-fans. Kenny Chesney has also grabbed a Grammy Nomination this year for his “Down the Road” with Mac McAnally, for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals. Taylor Swift maybe having a great year, but she still ain’t no Kenny Chesney. – Greg

So it seems that my man Kenny Chesney didn’t have a problem with Taylor winning EOY, so I’ll try (I said “try”) not too. Kenny is just showing his great nature and being the good guy. Maybe Taylor really did deserve it, or maybe it was just an extra pity vote or 2000, from the whole Kanye interruption. Still she is a talented song writer and apparently she has a HUGE following, I just think Kenny is on another level entirely and if you have ever been to 1 of his concerts, you know why.  -Greg

 Here is what Kenny and Taylor had to say before and after the award for Entertainer of the Year, from CMT:

Taylor Swift shared Kenny Chesney‘s congratulatory comments immediately after she was named entertainer of the year award at Wednesday’s (Nov. 11) CMA Awardsin Nashville. “He just said, ‘I’m so proud of you and I love you so much,’” she recalled. “We were texting earlier, and we were saying that same thing, like, ‘No matter what happens tonight, I love you so much.’ And it was just like I really, really love Kenny a lot. All the other people in the category with me have taken me out on tour as their opening act. Every one of them — Keith, Brad, George, Kenny — all of them. And so those are people that I’ve looked up to and just held up in my head as these heroes, and they’re always going to that for me.” Swift also said she was holding her breath during the announcement and that winning the night’s top award was “the most crazy, unexpected thing.”

 Knowing I’m a big Kenny Chesney fan I’ve had quite a few people ask me, “What’s the name of the Kenny Chesney song with Dave Matthews?” I didn’t realize I guess how popular Dave Matthews is and he’s actually pretty good too. “I’m Alive” is a very good song and I think the both compliment each other very well for that song. I’ll be joining the rest in looking forward to the performance at the CMA’s. Who am I kidding, I was already looking forward to it! – Greg

Dave Matthews will perform with Kenny Chesney on the 43rd annual CMA Awards, event organizers announced Monday (Oct. 19). It marks Matthews’ first appearance on the show that will include several previously-announced performers, including Jason Aldean, Brooks & Dunn, Billy Currington, Vince Gill and Daughtry, Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Reba McEntire, Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley, Darius Rucker, George Strait, Sugarland, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood and the Zac Brown Band. Chesney co-wrote “I’m Alive” with Dean Dillon and Mark Tamburino. The song was first recorded by Willie Nelson, but Chesney and Matthews recorded their version for Chesney’s Lucky Old Sun album. It also appears on Chesney’s Greatest Hits II and has already climbed to No. 8 on the Billboard country songs chart.

I’m not sure if it’s because I never have so closely watched the end of someone’s tour or if it’s just Kenny, but it seems he is really taken it very serious about letting his fans know he’ll be back and why he is taking 2010 off. It’s really neat to see how much effort he is putting in to letting his fans know how much he cares. I know that I’m pretty disappointed that he’s taking next year off, but he has said several times now that he will still be putting on shows, just not the full blown tour. I know I will still get to see him next year, because I will for sure make it to one of the small venues! Looking forward to the new album Kenny and we’ll be seeing you soon enough! -Greg

Kenny Chesney photo courtesy of Sony BMG Nashville.

September 21, 2009 — Kenny Chesney said goodbye to fans last Saturday on the last night of his Sun City Carnival Tour as he takes some time off to rejuvenate and record another CD, due late spring, 2010.

“It’s hard to believe we’re putting this thing up on blocks,” Kenny said after the sold-out show at Lucas Oil Stadium. “The response from the fans, out in the crowd and the Internet, it makes [me] feel like people understand, and that they know we’re not gone for good, it’s just a breather.

“And I hope people understand, I’ve never been an all or nothing kind of guy,” he stated. “This doesn’t mean there will be no shows or no music. It means I’m not going to be staging a major tour – I’m not going to take two weeks off and be meeting with people to build a stage, to start thinking about how we can do the lights different and what the video’s gonna be.”

Kenny ended his tour surrounded by fans and fellow artists. Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles joined him on his hit “When The Sun Goes Down,” Miranda Lambert came out on “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy,” the Zac Brown Band performed Alabama’s “Dixieland Delight” and Steve Miller’s “Space Cowboy,” and Wailer Drummie Zeb did the reggae classic, “Three Little Birds.”

“This isn’t just a show,” said Kenny, who’s the 4-consecutive Academy of Country Music and 4-time and current Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year. “This is a major production … and it’s not just, ‘Decide what to play, rehearse for a couple weeks and get out there.’ I need a break from that, so I can get back inside from a fresh place – and I’m really looking forward to that, because I don’t know anyone who keeps their foot on the gas like this for 8 years.”

Kenny’s break won’t be all flip flops and island sunning. Next year he’ll be part of the Hard Rock Café’s international Ambassadors of Rock, and currently, his “This Is Our Moment” is the break-out song for ESPN’s college football games this season.

“There are all kinds of things to explore within the music,” Kenny said. “I can’t wait to take the time to see where some of this will take me, and where I might turn up, Because, you know, I now have the time to maybe get into some interesting places. We’ll just have to figure it out.”

Kenny Chesney sent out a letter to all his fans. He talks about this amazing summer, his upcoming album in April, doing shows here and there in 2010, and unfortunately how he won’t be touring his “great big rock & roll tour” next year.. This sucks Kenny.. -Greg

It has been an amazing summer… and I can’t believe it’s almost over. So much has happened – whether it was watching all of you hang in there with us during that horrible storm in Dallas, and coming back the next week to finish what we started, having Key West close down Duval Street for our Keg in the Closet at Sloppy Joe’s, the almost too intense to describe stadium shows in Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, Columbus, San Francisco, Louisville, Seattle, kicking off No Shoes Radio live in Orange Beach, Alabama with everybody going out all over the world via the internet – and sitting here on my bus, it kind
of leaves me speechless.

You know, every year, I think it can’t get any better.

Every year, you guys bring a real passion for this music and enjoy the night with us. Me and the guys talk about that more than you’d ever guess: how great the audiences are, the way you sound singing our songs back to us, the smiles we see from the stage.

Because we see you. We REALLY see you… And none of that is taken lightly.

You guys are the best fans any entertainer could hope to have, You rock us, push us and make us better. I sometimes think you guys truly drive and inspire us to be the most we can.

And that’s just it. You guys deserve the absolutely best and most.

I start working on our next year’s tour almost a year before. It’s about what more, how can, where do… and in all of that, you can find yourself so lost in beating the year before that you miss the moments that make what we – you, me, the band and crew – so special.

Since we hit the road as headliners with the palm trees lit by a full moon in West Palm Beach, Florida in 2002, you guys have been there and been there and been there. And after eight years, it’s time for a little break… to exhale, to think about what next, to create something that’s truly different.

That all takes time. It should never be fit in amongst everything else.

I’ve said we’re like a baseball team: six months on, six months off. But honestly, we work straight through: both on making the music and creating the shows. With a record coming next April and a couple other projects that we’ll be telling you about soon, you’re gonna have more than plenty of me next year – but what you won’t have is a great big rock & roll tour.

Will I show up here and there? Absolutely. But I want to take that moment to really think about what next, to make my record and really get inside it, to create a show that’s something else… because you deserve no less.

It’s why I’m writing this letter…

It’s why I’m willing to have a summer where I don’t get to hear your cheers, hit the parking lot on stadium Saturdays, to listen to you sing these songs that are so much a part of my life back to me.

I’m gonna hate it and miss it, but I know when I hit the stage again, it’s gonna be even better, even more. Because I know you guys. You’re as good as they get, and we’re gonna get even better during the time we’re taking off…

So, this isn’t good-bye, it’s just we’re taking a break. And you’re still gonna see me… way more than you’d probably expect. But I always want you to hear it from me… that way it’s not rumors and speculation, it’s the real of how it is. And right now, the real is: I can’t wait to hit the stage in Bloomington, Illinois and Indianapolis this weekend – and I can’t wait for you to hear the new music.

Until then, I remain your biggest fan in the whole world. Absolutely.

- Kenny