Summer in 3D

It had to be done....

It didn't matter that it was a weeknight. It didn't matter that I've had a back spasm from a pulled muscle all week. It didn't matter that I have seen more live Kenny Chesney shows over the last 15 years or so than I can count.

With Jenni and the Scotts in 2006 ( Mr. Taylor Made is rocking a backstage pass)

As a native East Tennessean and a long-time, loyal fan of The Ches, I had to see Summer in 3D .

Last night, I dashed out of work and prayed to the traffic gods for an easy commute. They didn't listen. But, by the 7:30 showtime at my favorite 'burbs theater, I was seated and spec'ed.

Afterall, Kenny Chesney isn't touring this year, so there will be no themed tailgate, no gathering of mine and Mr. W's besties....

Tailgating with Kim and Dave in Baltimore

... to kick off or close out another summertime with cocktails and a menu inspired by song lyrics.

A basket full of chicken and a big cold jug of sweat tea from last summer's concert pre-party

The movie is the best we - and about 15 other suburban Maryland loyalist (one in a cowboy hat, God Bless him) - could do!

I am not sure if I've ever mentioned it on the blog before, but I am a shameless, shameless Kenny Chesney fan. I have been from his early days... back when only the people in East Tennessee who listen to WIVK radio loved him.

Front row at Fed-Ex field with Jenni in 2005 - we watched a newly married Renee Zellweger dance side stage ALL night

I can say that a particular song isn't so great, that his jeans are too tight, I (and Jenni and Shannon, and Savanna) can mock his sometimes manufactured introspection, but if someone else does...well, it bothers me. So please don't let me hear you go anti-Kenny, or I will have to go all Holly Gleason on you in Kenny's defense. And with a tear in my eye, I will do it because, it's embarrassing the ways Kenny's songs and lyrics decorate my life:

 - I've used Back Where I Come From as the theme to my 10 year high school class reunion, and a black-tie gala showcasing Tennessee that I chaired here in DC

- When Mr. W and I say I Love You, most of the time we say "Sure Do Love You" as in "We sure do love you, thank you" (That's what - as Kenny loyalist will know - Kenny said on his first Greatest Hits album during the live performance of Back Where I Come From in Dallas

- My friend Jenni (pictured above) and I can communicate entirely in Kenny song lyrics - embarassing, but true....It amuses us.

Ravens Stadium show, Summer '08

When Kenny sings the taste of salt on the Carolina shore in the song I Go Back, it takes me back to my high school senior trip to Myrtle Beach.   The line in  Keg in the Closet goes, We skipped class just to pass the time, back in '89, but I always sing, "back in '99" becauase that's the year I graduated from the Univeristy of Tennessee.  I can't hear the line I sank my toes into that East Tennessee mud in the song Baptism without getting a lump in my throat.  The entire  Be As You Are album, even though it's all island songs, makes me recall cold, snowy, depressing days at the Capitol Hill Starbucks where I sat listening to Kenny's stories of warmer, happier places, over and over again; I was so over Washington during that year that I put my resume up on virginislands.com and was ready to trade in my Congressional badge for a cocktail waitress apron just to get out of town. Years later I learned a guy name Mr. W had also came "this close" to moving down Island after medicating to the very same music. We're certain if we hadn't met here, we'd have met in St. John, where we now vacation every year together. 

Living Those Songs somewhere in the Virgin Islands

I could go on and on (and on) with Kenny lyrics that parallel many moments in time for me, but I'll spare you; I'm sure by now you think I'm some cheesey, country cliche with too many straw hats. I know it's only cool to claim U2 music as your personal soundtrack, but...at my core, I'm way more Backwoods than Bono, and I've enjoyed enough culture from the President's Box at The Kennedy Center to embrace my roots without reservation.

Summer in 3D is a really, really good time.  The sapster that I am always tears up at Kenny concerts during certain numbers, and it was no different for this movie. If you've seen a Kenny show before, you will have a seat like you've never had, no matter how close to the stage you've been.

Pat Green as KC's opening act in Washington, DC

Is it backrow at the Bijou Theater with my sorority sisters the night Kenny debuted his first Greatest Hits album? No.   Is it front row at Fed-Ex Field? Not quite.

Still, it's a fantastic show. So, take it from a veteran Kenny concert go'er:

- Grab a bunch of friends (as much as I sure do love Mr. Dubs, I missed having Shannon and Jenni...and I may have texted them the entire time)

-Dress the part - cowboy hats, island wear, Tennessee Vols jersey (the movie shows that no matter where he plays -from San Fran to Boston-  Vol fans are present!)

-In the spirt of the song lyrics, sneak in a bottle of wine and two Dixie (or Solo) cups (Even in stuffy 'burbtown I heard some cans crack when the lights went down...)

But do not wait on Taylor Made to mail you a dvd of Summer in 3D to watch it at home - go see it in 3D, at the movies, where you feel like you can touch Kenny's boot. And if you grew up in Norris, Clinton or Powell, Layfayette or Cheatham County, Tennessee...go see this movie before it leaves theaters on May 2 because someone back where you come from made it big, really big...and that alone is worth the $9!