Kenny Chesney Scores 9th All-Genre Number One With ‘Here and Now’

This chart topper includes an intriguing bit of trivia ...

Kenny Chesney Scores 9th All-Genre Number One With ‘Here and Now’
Kenny Chesney; Cover art courtesy of Warner Music Nashville

Kenny Chesney celebrates his ninth time on top of the all-genre album chart this week, posting Here and Now at Number One on the Billboard 200. That might not seem terribly surprising, but the numbers behind it reveal a remarkable feat.

Selling 233,841 copies in its first week on the market, Chesney’s Here and Now shows his fans scooping up albums at basically the same rate the were almost 20 years ago. As a case in point, his No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems album topped the same chart 18 years prior, selling about 235,000 copies. For an industry deep into its shift away from physical music and toward digital streaming, that’s an intriguing stat.

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I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard a song and thought “that’s me.” Through the years, I started to realize how important music is in all of our lives. It’s a life raft, a coach cheering for you, a shoulder to cry on, a reason to take stock. When I’m listening to songs in the studio, actually putting a record together, I’m thinking about that. I’m thinking about Vibe Room conversations, people I meet moving around, the stories I’m told… the reasons people connect with the songs. @noshoesnation, there’s a lot of life in this record. A lot of my life and a lot of yours. I hope you hear it and think “that’s me.” The new album #hereandnow is out now. Link in bio to listen.

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“I say it every day: There is no group of people like No Shoes Nation,” Chesney says in an official release. “The heart. The soul. The passion. They are always there, and they are always loud, proud and inside the music in the same way I was growing up! It matters to them, the same way it matters to me.”

The chart topping achievement also arrives as Chesney’s “Here and Now” single climbs the radio charts, now inside the Top 10 of Billboard’s Country Airplay chart. Meanwhile, the superstar also dropped a new video for the heart pounding “We Do” as well.

“This No. 1 is so gratifying,” he goes on. “It says so much about the players and the songwriters, everyone working in a creative capacity in Nashville, as well as all the people working to get this music into the hands of the people who love and want it.

“No Shoes Nation has always come from the music and for the songs. That’s what makes everything rock so hard and mean so much. Trying to keep finding and writing songs that speak to them sets the bar pretty high; but without the fans, maybe there would’ve been no ‘American Kids,’ ‘You & Tequila’ or ‘Here And Now.’”

Chesney’s good news is only tempered by the fact he had to postpone early dates of his stadium-rocking Chillaxification 2020 tour, but that time is hopefully coming to an end soon. Featuring Florida Georgia Line and Michael Franti & Spearhead, the tour is now set to kick off May 30 at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.