Review: Chesney and McGraw, "Brothers of the Sun," at the Linc

By David R. Stampone FOR THE INQUIRER Another year, another sold-out mid-June Kenny Chesney concert at Lincoln Financial Field — it’s pretty much been a Delaware Valley tradition since 2007. True, in 2010, the pop-country superstar from Tennessee eased off regular seasonal stadium touring, but he did send out his concert movie Summer in 3D to make the rounds, complete with footage from his June 2009 date with Philly at the Linc. Saturday found the 44-year-old singer back in the football stadium with familiar trappings — Chesney beginning his two-hour-plus show from midfield, launched over the crowd on a chair suspended by cables leading him to the stage from above while singing and waving capping another multiple-act bill with some all-hands-on-deck, rock-song covering, and autograph-signing — but there were differences. ... The most important departure was sharing the bill in a near-double-headliner format with fellow behatted big-timer Tim McGraw on their “Brothers of the Sun” tour. McGraw — taller, leaner, and surprisingly tanner than the famously fit and beach-oriented Chesney — preceded his tour mate’s nighttime spectacle with more than 20 songs spanning his career, including the new tunes “Mexicoma” and the already popular set-closing “Truck Yeah.” The show began hours earlier with Jake Owen, still working his breakthrough third album of last August, Barefoot Blue Jean Night, who got things rolling at half past 4 with a set of standard contemporary country fare. The next act, however, shuffled things up. Vermont’s Grace Potter and the Nocturnals thundered through a rock-based performance that nonetheless featured power-ballad moments, mostly drawing from front woman Potter and Co.’s fourth studio album, The Lion The Beast The Beat, just released Tuesday. (Grace Potter and the Nocturnals played a sold-out headlining show Sunday at Wilmington’s World Cafe Live at the Queen.) Potter later joined Chesney for their “You and Tequila” duet, on his previous album Hemingway’s Whiskey, but also featured on his 15th effort, Welcome to the Fishbowl — to come out Tuesday — in a live take from last summer. (Wednesday’s free Chesney show in Wildwood will be shot by Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme, who filmed the Talking Heads’ 1984 Stop Making Sense and three recent Neil Young documentaries, and “livestreamed” at www.YouTube.com/KennyChesneyVEVO.) There was no surprise appearance by Eagles coach Andy Reid presenting a football helmet to Chesney, as there was last year, but the athletic crooner thanked the team for use of their workout facilities earlier in the day (and the stadium). In the encore set, McGraw reappeared after high-fiving his way through the crowd to do his hit duet with Chesney, “Feel Like a Rock Star,” also on Welcome to the Fishbowl. After the stars traded vocals on Chesney’s “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy” and McGraw’s early single “Indian Outlaw,” the evening wrapped with an extended version of Jackson Browne’s “Running on Empty.”