Music Monday: Kenny Chesney surprises me

Last Thursday, some business partners took my office to the Kenny Chesney concert here in Des Moines.  In the weeks and days leading up to the show, I was not at all excited.  With as busy as I've been, I was a little irritated to be giving up one of my few free evenings and, to be honest, I just wasn't that excited about Kenny or either of his openers, Jake Owen and Chase Rice.

It's not that I dislike any of them.  I just haven't really kept up with country music in recent years. In the 90s and early 2000s, I listened to quite a bit of it.  Obviously, I heard plenty Kenny Chesney hits during that time, but I've heard nothing that he recorded in the last decade.

I'm happy to report I ended up enjoying the show a lot more than anticipated.

Top: Me with most of my co-workers and the business partners who treated us to the show. Bottom: Kenny works the stage.

I missed all of Chase Rice's set, but caught most of Jake Owen's.  No one told me how pretty he was.  And he has a decent voice and some fun songs as well.

There's a reason Kenny Chesney has won Entertainer of the Year in the past. He knows how to work a crowd and a stage.  It's a good thing he played a lot of those old hits during the show so I could sing along.  This song, in particular, has always been one of my favorite tunes of his. Probably because I'm a sap who loves a song that tells a good story.

Have you ever gone to a concert not expecting to enjoy it and left feeling differently?