Kenny Chesney starts summer early at AT&T Stadium with No Shoes Nation, Dak Prescott

The first official day of summer isn’t until June 21, but for a few hours Saturday night, country music star Kenny Chesney turned AT&T Stadium into a beachside paradise where everybody loves everybody, football and music are the greatest things in the world and your only worry is where your next sip of rum is coming from.

Chesney’s “Here and Now” tour is finally on the road after being postponed by the pandemic, and he made his enthusiasm known right from the start of his set, as did his fans, who call themselves the “No Shoes Nation.”

“I am truly grateful to be back in Arlington,” Chesney said three songs in. “If it takes us all night we’re going to do our best to love all of you right back all night long.”

Fans were wearing aloha shirts, leis, cowboy hats and cowboy boots. There were lots of margaritas — and multiple beach balls in the pit, of course. At one point I swore I smelled sunscreen. Before the night was over, the No Shoes Nation was treated to 26 songs about living for the summer and living for the here and now. Unlike some of his peers, Chesney’s music has always matured with his age; he’s not afraid to sing about the melancholy one feels when the party ends. With a few exceptions, Saturday night’s show stuck to the party vibes. Aided by a world-class band, featuring players from Austin, Cape Town and right here in Arlington, Chesney left everything onstage.

Chesney sings a lot about being a beach bum, but his stage persona is anything but lazy. Running onstage in his standard uniform of tank top, cowboy hat, jeans and cowboy boots, he didn’t give himself a lot of time to stand still for almost two hours. It took him three songs to slow down enough to talk to the crowd. He made good on his promise to love the audience — much of his time was spent running across the stage, making sure he sang to everyone. By the time the curtain fell, he had sweat through his shirt and looked like he just ran a marathon.

“Forget about whatever your worries are, just love each other,” he implored the audience before introducing “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems,” the 2002 song that officially marked Chesney’s crossover from traditional country to a more country-pop/gulf and western vibe. He also said the same thing before playing “Get Along.” To be a member of the No Shoes Nation is to live a life of no worries, whether you’re in Arlington or Aruba.

Here’s where it’s worth mentioning that Chesney is Jimmy Buffett’s heir apparent in more ways than one. Yes, Chesney name-checks Buffett in “How Forever Feels.” But just as Buffett grew from traditional country to beach rock, so did Chesney. Just as Buffett’s Parrotheads fan base grew, so did the No Shoes Nation. And just as Buffett’s business empire grew, so did Chesney’s.

He’s consistently one of country music’s biggest concert draws. His “Trip Around the Sun” tour took in $114.3 million in 2018. Saturday night’s show featured ads for Chesney’s Blue Chair Bay rum, his freshwater conservation efforts with Barefoot Bay and for Blue Wave boat wash. Chesney’s selling the beach bum, happy-go-lucky lifestyle to his fans. That would be a problem if he didn’t seem to believe it so wholeheartedly. Chesney made AT&T Stadium believe in a world where summers are endless (except when the “Boys of Fall” hit the gridiron), there’s no romantic setback that can’t be cured by the ocean and all you need to succeed in life is to love everybody.

And oh, about those boys of fall. Before he sang that song about his high school football glory days, Chesney took some time to thank the Jerry Jones family for letting him play AT&T Stadium again. As the song was ending, he brought out some special guests: Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, head coach Mike McCarthy and former tight end Jason Witten. The four of them picked out a young Cowboys fan in the front row and signed a Cowboys helmet for him before the song was over. The novelty of the moment was heightened by the night’s first encore song, “Don’t Happen Twice.”

“Who gets to live like we do? We do!” goes the call-and-response slogan on the No Shoes Nation flag. For a few hours Saturday night, AT&T Stadium got to live on island time with Kenny Chesney, and indulge his escapism. Sometimes, that’s all you need.

Kenny Chesney setlist, Arlington, June 4, 2022

1. Beer in Mexico
2. Reality
3. Til It’s Gone
4. Here and Now
5. Summertime
6. We Do
7. Pirate Flag
8. No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems
9. Somewhere With You
10. I Go Back
11. Get Along
12. Anything But Mine
13. Save It for a Rainy Day (with Old Dominion)
14. When the Sun Goes Down
15. There Goes My Life
16. All the Pretty Girls
17. Living in Fast Forward
18. Young
19. Noise
20. American Kids
21. Setting the World on Fire
22. Everything’s Gonna Be Alright (David Lee Murphy cover)
23. How Forever Feels
24. Boys of Fall

Encore

1. Don’t Happen Twice
2. She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy

This story was originally published June 5, 2022 at 2:41 AM.

Jake Harris

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

817-390-7237

Jake Harris is the Service Journalism Editor for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He has spent nearly 10 years working as a digital producer across newsrooms in Texas. He mainly writes about pop culture and local North Texas happenings and occasionally writes concert reviews.