Kenny Chesney Celebrates 10 Years Of No Shoes Radio With Epic Flora-Bama Show

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Kenny Chesney celebrates 10 years of No Shoes Radio on SiriusXM at Flora-Bama Lounge. Photo: Allister Ann

Kenny Chesney took over the Dome at the Flora-Bama Lounge on Saturday (April 18) to celebrate 10 years of his No Shoes Radio channel on SiriusXM with thousands of die-hard fans, who spilled all the way out into the streets outside the beloved bar.

With a summer residency set at Sphere in Vegas, the Flora-Bama show was a moment where Chesney could have fun with the music and veer from the set list, playing favorites including “The Good Stuff,” “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems,” as well as a version of George Strait’s “Carried Away,” and also dial up the sing-alongs and positive energy with the rarely-played “Guitars and Tiki Bars,” Chris Stapleton’s “Never Wanted Nothing More” and “Save It For A Rainy Day.”

Megan Moroney surprises good friend Kenny Chesney at packed FloraBama show. Photo: Allister Ann

In the midst of “When The Sun Goes Down,” Megan Moroney rolled onstage in a grey No Shoes Nation “corset,” and picked up the chorus. After telling the live audience and everyone listening on SiriusXM Channel 59 the story of their friendship, mutual admiration and adventures, they swooped into Moroney’s “You Had To Be There.” Announcing she had just joined the band, the pair also shared the smoky “You & Tequila.” That intimacy had defined earlier performances of “Island Boy,” sent out to Boat Captain Ben in Maine, a surging “When I See This Bar” dedicated to FloraBama pirate/poet Jimmy Lewis, and a jubilant “Three Little Birds” for good friend Ziggy Marley and the entire Marley family that led into the tropical “Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven.” “American Kids,” closed the 90 minutes, delivering the loudest cheers and rush of what a great band can do.

“Some days, the songs are just bigger than you are, and they take you where they and the people want to be,” says Chesney of the special show. “It was so alive, so free and we were all so glad to be together playing, being with the people, that energy took over everything. Whether it was up tempo or thoughtful, talking or laughing, it reminds me why music is the most powerful force to bring us together.

“I’ve lived a lot of life on No Shoes Radio,” he continues. “I am so grateful to SiriusXM for taking what we do and amplifying it all over the world. A whole lot has happened over the last ten years, and because of them, we’ve been able to live it with everyone who loves these songs.”

Lorie Hollabaugh
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