This weekend, country music megastar Kenny Chesney will perform his first and only show of 2014. But it won’t be at an arena, amphitheater or stadium, like most of his concerts. Instead, he’ll be performing at the Flora-Bama Lounge & Package, an iconic roadhouse planted, as its name suggests, right on the Florida-Alabama line. The beach surrounding the Flora-Bama will be overrun with 40,000+ Chesney fans, who gobbled up all of the tickets to the event within minutes of their release.
But as special as this one-night event will be for music fans on the gulf coast, it’s also become abundantly clear that it will be just as special for Chesney himself.
On Tuesday, Chesney released a new song titled “Flora-Bama,” which will appear on his upcoming album, “The Big Revival” due out in September. He will be shooting a music video for the song during the concert, and CMT will also be filming the event for an hour-long televised special. And Chesney’s team has prepared a massive social media push to go along with it all.
Chesney even wrote a heartfelt letter to John McInnis III, the CEO of the Flora-Bama, thanking him and the State of Alabama for all of the work that has gone into putting on the event. He also discussed why this area of the country means so much to him.
The full letter, which was shared with Yellowhammer by several south Alabama elected officials, can be read below:
From: Kenny Chesney
Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2014 8:26 AM
To: John McInnis III
Subject: Thank youJohn,
I just wanted to take a moment to say how excited I am about this coming weekend. I realize a lot of work, stress, and anxiety has gone into this event and that a lot of people have gone above and beyond to help pull this off. I’m not sure of all the names and I sure hope to meet everyone this weekend to personally thank everyone, but would you please forward this email to everyone who has been involved from the State of Alabama, State of Florida, Baldwin County, Alabama, Escambia County, Florida, Gulf Shores, Alabama, Orange Beach, Alabama, Peridido Key and Pensacola. I really appreciate all the tireless efforts everyone has put into what I hope is gonna be a great musical experience for everyone. We could not have done this without the support, mental energy, and hard work of so many people.
I chose this area to do my only concert of 2014 and our CMT documentary because I truly love it. It’s a part of my soul, the friendships I’ve made, the music I’ve made and I really believe the area represents a lot of my audience in No Shoes Nation. I’ve been all over the world and you have one of the most special places anywhere. Your area has some of the softest, whitest, sand in the world and also some of the best people who simply love life and music. I also chose the Flora-Bama because the area and the bar has had a long history of supporting free spirits, musicians and songwriters for years both local and national. It’s been a place for writers to play their music for people who really appreciate the songs and the craft of songwriting. I love that about the Flora-Bama and I love that about the long history of people who have lived a lot of life with those songwriters and their songs.
Again, I just wanted to reach out to thank you and everyone involved for your love and support. As I said, I truly love the area and want to do anything I can to tell the world and everyone in No Shoe Nation why I love it. We are going to produce a full 1 hour CMT special on the Flora-Bama, the event, and the area. I want people to know how beautiful, soulful, creative, and fun this place is and what makes it special. In the special I’m going to make sure I tell people why I chose this area of Orange Beach, Gulf Shores, Perdido Key, and Pensacola to do this event. We are also gonna do a big social media campaign about the event and thanking the area.
Also, we just released the song Flora-Bama that is gonna live in the culture of this bar and in the area for generations to come and while we are there, we are going to shoot a great music video for the song also. We are going to work really hard to make the video and the CMT special represent the bar, the people, and the area in the best way possible. I cant wait to dive into all this, cause the song, the special, and the video is truly coming from the heart and from a place that really makes me happy because I believe it’s going to make a lot of people happy and smile. Cheers to that.
Again, thanks to you, everyone at the Flora-Bama, and to everyone from the State of Alabama and the State of Florida for the help in producing this documentary and for going above and beyond to get ready for Hurricane No Shoes Nation!! haha
Cheers,
Kenny Chesney
August 13, 2014
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