Entertainer of the Year or Album of the Year? How about the Academy of Country Music Award’s Entertainer of the Year? The guy who has sold more concert tickets than U2 by 200,000 tickets in 2005? Still stumped?

One more hint: The same guy had a brief marriage to Renee Zelleweger in the spring of 2005. Got it now? Well, I am talking about 37-year-old country music sensation Kenny Chesney. On Nov. 23, Kenny performed during the highest traffic sweeps week on ABC with his primetime concert special, “Kenny Chesney: Somewhere in the Sun.”

For a solid hour, Chesney rocked a sold-out Heinz Field crowd in Pittsburgh with top-charting hit after top-charting hit. Sad thing is, I bet you can’t name more than two of his songs. It’s not your fau< the country music scene hasn't hit the Northeast like it has the rest of the country. Chesney, however, is trying to change that. Performing in cities such as Pittsburgh, Washington D.C. and Boston, and having his Pittsburgh concert aired on prime-time television, Chesney is attempting to crack the seemingly unbreakable barrier between Northeastern cities and country music. For country music, concert specials are the best way to convey what direction the genre is going and to belittle the stereotypes that non-listeners derive about the misconstrued style of music. It's not all honky-tonk. It's not all about fiddles and banjos. Just ask Chesney, whose band consists neither of banjos nor fiddles and plays hits such as "No Shoes, No Shirts, No Worries," in which the lyrics depict a man relaxing under the Caribbean sun. Chesney appeared on stage at around 8 p.m. to a gargantuan roar from the 64,000 in attendance. Tailgating since noon, these fans dedicated their whole day to this avid Boston Red Sox fan from Luttrell, Tenn. Chesney juxtaposed his high-energy set with the behind-the-scenes-camaraderie he has with his fans. After each commercial break, segments were shown to reveal Chesney's good-natured character, through antics such as tailgating with the fans before the show or mingling with the natives in the Bahamas. "My audience is smart. They are real people who lead whole lives - want to party on the weekend, feel free, but also feel that deep love, raise a family," Chesney said in an interview during the show. "I know that, because I know them, because I am them ultimately." Nevertheless, the music industry isn't trying to reach audiences through revealing the caring and kindness of musicians; it's all about what and who is marketable. Ashlee Simpson doesn't need to sing one note in tune to sell records and fill up venues. And 50 Cent doesn't have to rap about anything relevant to the world or even rap well to top the charts. For country singers, hitting the top of the charts has been a constant struggle. Most country stars aren't as lucky as Chesney to reach audiences east of the Appalachians. But the genre is still looking to change that, and Chesney's special may have helped the strategy. As color commentator Pepper Brooks says in the comedy hit Dodgeball, "It's a bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off for 'em." m