Following in the footsteps of acts like U2 and the Rolling Stones, the decade's top concert draw will release a 3-D movie next spring.

"I've been trying for years to have the audience closer to me and to have me be closer to them," Chesney says. "With this production, they can't get any closer."

For Kenny Chesney: Summer in 3-D, more than 20 cameras followed him at summer's stadium concerts in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Seattle, San Francisco and Foxborough, Mass. The film will be released via the Hot Ticket, a Sony Pictures alternative-content division that distributes concerts, theater and sporting events.

Rory Bruer, Sony's head of distribution, says he expects Summer in 3-D to play on at least 750 screens in April. "Kenny's not going to be touring next year," he says. "This is going to be a chance for (fans) to spend some time with Kenny, and I think they're going to enjoy having front-row seats."

The film will feature more than Chesney's stage show. Before his June concert at Pittsburgh's Heinz Field, for example, Chesney took the 3-D cameras to a houseboat on the Ohio River. "We did a 35-minute show with all the tailgaters, right on the water. Unless you're down there, nobody gets to see that."

While Chesney won't mount a full-fledged tour in 2010, he has announced headlining festival appearances at the Bayou Country Superfest in Baton Rouge in May and BamaJam in Enterprise, Ala., in June. A few more could follow.

"I'm still going to do eight to 10 shows," Chesney says. He'll spend the year concentrating on the movie, a new album and his No Shoes Radio online station, as well as his personal life. "I've been giving to one thing for so long, and that's just not OK with me anymore."

He'll perform for the first time since wrapping his 2009 tour at Wednesday's Country Music Association Awards (ABC, 8 p.m. ET/PT), singing his latest single, I'm Alive, with Dave Matthews.

He also could win a record-setting fifth entertainer-of-the-year award. He's tied with Garth Brooks with four wins, but admits he likes the idea of having the record to himself.

"The pressure on me is how I do a better show," Chesney says. "But who wouldn't want to have their name in the history books like that?"

In a summer of a dozen stadiums, thirty-nine arenas and a handful of bars, Kenny Chesney understands loud, big and extended. Anyone who saw the 4-time and current Country Music Association and 4-consecutive Academy of Country Music Entertainer of the Year on this summer’s Corona Extra presented Sun City Carnival Tour saw him at his most blazing, so when noted PBS series “Austin City Limits” came calling, Chesney relished the possibility of a more intimate kind of performance.....

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“You know, it is about the songs,” allows the high energy songwriter. “When you’re playing to 50,000 people, you don’t want the energy to lag, but there’s also that idea that the ballads are the songs that really touch people… and I hate that we can’t go to that quieter place in the show as much. Beyond the thrill of being asked to do the one show that I grew up on, I knew ‘Austin City Limits’ is a place where those more thoughtful songs are really understood.”....

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To that end, Chesney brought along his good friend and fellow CMA Vocal Event nominee – for the #1 single “Down The Road” –Mac McAnally along for the performance on the ........University...... of ....Texas...... campus. In addition to their duet, McAnally also sang on his “Back Where I Come From,” a signature piece in Chesney’s live show.....

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“When you think about Mac, you think about the very best of what songwriting can be,” Chesney explains. “He has such a warm voice… and such a wonderful soul. To be able to share a stage with him, especially for something like this, is one of the best parts about what making music for a living.”....

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There will be plenty of “the hits,” for certain. But also look for Chesney to tell the story and play the never before performed “Somewhere In The Sun,” written mere blocks away because of a show that was cancelled due to ice. For a man who’s used to the tropics, a snow day in Austin, Texas is a reason to seek solace in song – and it will be part of the very special one hour edition....

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Cited by The Chicago Tribune’s lead critic and award-winning author of Wilco: Learning How To Die Greg Kit as the man who “has redefined mainstream country for the first decade of the 21^st century,” Chesney – who launched the internet No Shoes Radio this summer, currently has his newest single “I’m Alive” a duet with Dave Matthews, climbing the charts. There is no doubt that Chesney is always looking for new and different ways to bring his music to life – whether it’s the Keg in the Closet college shows, NFL Stadiums in Boston, Seattle, Pittsburgh or Detroit or PBS’ “Austin City Limits.”....

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“Different places mean different ways to play these songs,” Chesney says. “And I have to admit: I love them all. I’m just glad we got to capture this moment in Austin earlier in the year.”

     New York, NY: With the Orange Beach, Alabama sign on of Kenny Chesney's No Shoes Radio (www.noshoesradio.com) creating such a frenzy that all the listeners managed to freeze the server, the response to Kenny Chesney's soundtrack to his life, his world, his musical reality has been unrelenting. Having broadcast his launch night concert, the 4-consecutive ....Academy.. of ..Country Music.... and 4-time and current Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year has been looking for another show special to broadcast to the 100s of 1000s of people tuning in each week.

     In New York City to kick-off his participation in the Hard Rock Café's Ambassadors of Rock program - one which saw Nine Inch Nails in Singapore, Black Eyed Peas in Japan, The Killers in Buenos Aires and the two day Hard Rock Calling in London featuring Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Dave Matthews Band, the Pretenders, Ben Harper, Fleet Foxes and Gaslight Anthem - Chesney will play a decidedly scaled back set at the Hard Rock's Times Square location. Given both the intimacy of the night and the scaled back nature of the arrangements, the man on track to sell over a million tickets for his 8th summer in a row loved the juxtaposition - and decided to beam it out across the internet.

     “Part of the idea of the station is to bring people deeper into this music,” Chesney explains, “to give them more or a sense beyond the records and the big shows. We play stuff from my iPod, demos, things they'd never hear otherwise… and for but a very few hundred people, this Hard Rock show would certainly be one of those moments: something we'd all talk about how cool it was for years, knowing almost nobody got to hear it. Now, they can.”

     In addition to Chesney's entire performance, No Shoes Radio will also broadcast former tourmate/duet partner Uncle Kracker's entire set as well. And it all kicks off at 6 pm Eastern when Jon Anthony and Mark - “Tambo” - Tamburino start playing music, calling the walk-up play-by-play and do impromptu interviews from the Hard Rock.

     “It's like being there,” Chesney says, “only you don't have to leave wherever you are! Set your browser, kick back or get back to work and join in all the action. As the year's closing down, this is gonna be a pretty cool contrast to how big some of the shows have been - and we're gonna have a couple surprises. So for anyone who's ever wanted to get into one of those tiny invite-only shows, this is your chance.”

     With only the late-added college town ..Bloomington.., ..IL.. ..US.. Cellular Coliseum play Sept. 17 and the year-ending Lucas Oil Stadium show in ..Indianapolis.. on Sept 19, the Ambassadors of Rock show in ..Times Square.. is the perfect pause before the final charge. In a year of a record-shattering stadium plays, it's bringing the music back down to the music that grounds the Luttrell, Tennessean for the year.