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Chesney + Mac McAnally Get Grammy Nod for "Down The Road," Mult Wk #1 Is Up for Vocal Collaboration
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Greatest Hits II Available Now
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
12.03.09
Los Angeles: When Kenny Chesney decided to cut Mac McAnally's “Down the Road” for his more contemplative Lucky Old Sun, it was the perfect opportunity to cut a quiet song that had always resonated with the small town East Tennessee boy. Given Chesney's high-intensity live shows and full-tilt good time vibe, those thoughtful songs need to find just the right home in the biggest North American concert ticket seller of this century's recorded work, but once Chesney found the home for this very special song, it didn't take him long to ask his old friend and fellow artist to come and be part of the year's leanest #1 records. And now that song has been recognized with a Grammy nomination for Best Country Vocal Collaboration for the 2010 Grammy Awards.
“Once I knew I'd found a place to do 'Down The Road,' I knew I wanted to capture the essence of what Mac was writing about… because it's a quiet song about the way love grows in small towns,” Chesney explains. “It was less is more; but when you've got Mac McAnally singing with you, what else do you really need? And Mac was gracious enough to come in and be a part of this song on my record.”
Basically one acoustic guitar and the two men's voices, “Down The Road” was a 2 week chart-topper in a world of very revved-up current country. But the song - originally written on a Christmas morning as McAnally was waiting for his children to wake up and open their presents - struck a chord with music lovers everywhere, already earning a Country Music Association nomination for Vocal Event of the Year and serving as one of the centerpieces of Chesney's special one hour edition of PBS' acclaimed series “Austin City Limits.”
“Some things are just magic and you know it,” says the 4-consecutive Academy of Country Music and 4-time Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year. “I knew the first time I heard Mac sing this on his Simple Life record… the same place I heard 'Back Where I Come From.' It gets inside and lets you understood everything about life you don't even realize…
“So it makes sense the Grammy people - who're from all musical genres - would recognize this song and the heart Mac brings. For a little record like this - as big as country radio can be - to spend a couple weeks at the top of the charts, it touched people. So I'm honored to share this with my friend.”
“Down The Road” was the final single from Lucky Old Sun, a more personal project from the man who's sold in excess of a million tickets each of the past 8 years. Sun's Dave Matthews' duet on the Chesney-penned “I'm Alive,” which also appears on Chesney's Greatest Hits II and was originally recorded by Willie Nelson on his Moment of Forever, is currently in the upper reaches of the country charts, proving that true friendship always takes music to a much deeper place.
“I'm blessed by the wonderful friends I've found through music and how generously they've shared their talent, songs and lives with me,” Chesney explains. “When something like a Grammy nomination happens for something that was just an honor, I can only feel humbled - and grateful.”
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