LOS ANGELES (BNA Records) - There are few artists who blur the lines between genres and formats like the late
Ray Charles - but with his heart in his throat, he created a template for all of modern music to measure themselves against. Though there will only be one Ray Charles, artists from across the stylistic plains are quick to pay homage to the man who gave us definitive renditions of "Georgia," "What'd I Say," "
I Can't Stop Loving You" and "
America The Beautiful" for CBS' "Genius: A Night for Ray Charles" to be broadcast Oct. 22. One of those artists is Kenny Chesney.
"For Ray Charles, there was only one color - not black or white, red or blue, but soul," says the soft-spoken young man from Luttrell, Tennessee. "It didn't matter what he sang, it was all heart, all soul, all him. The rest of us will spend the rest of our lives wondering HOW he did it... and it's such a huge thing, it almost made me not want to do this special, because - really - how DO you sing the songs of Ray Charles?"
In the midst of a break following his highly successful Guitars, Tiki Bars & A Whole Lot of Love Tour - which did close to 1.2 million tickets this year - Chesney will fly to Los Angeles to participate in the "Genius: A Night For Ray Charles," a tribute concert being staged at the Staples Center to coincide with the release of "Unchain My Heart," the Taylor Hackford-directed theatrical bio starring Jamie Foxx. Chesney will perform "You Don't Know Me."
Chesney's closest encounter with the legend was at New York's Beacon Theater for the all-star TNT special celebrating Willie Nelson's 70th birthday. As the 17 million seller told Entertainment Weekly, ''Willie has seen everything. If anybody has a reason to be jaded about music, it's Willie. So here is Ray Charles in front of him singing 'A Song for You,' and Willie is in tears. Ray moved a lot of people.''
Chesney's moved a lot of people, too. The singer/songwriter who's sold nearly 17 million albums - No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems is quadruple platinum and his current When The Sun Goes Down is over triple platinum - is an Everyman superstar who people see their own hopes, dreams and lives reflected back at them from. Nominated for Top Country Album and Top Country Male at the American Music Awards and being tapped for Entertainer, Male Vocalist, Album and a pair of Vocal Event nominations for the 38th Annual Country Music Association Awards, Chesney has spent 14 weeks at No 1 this year alone with "There Goes My Life" and the title track duet with Uncle Kracker.
With an appearance on "Oprah" Oct. 11, the Country Music Association Awards on Nov. 9 and the American Music Awards on Nov. 14th, Chesney may be off the road, but he's anything but off the radar. And with this "Genius: A Night for Ray Charles" performance, Chesney will be rubbing elbows and making music with an array of musical forces from Stevie Wonder to Alicia Keyes, Norah Jones to Usher.
"That's the whole point of Ray Charles, really," says Chesney with a broad smile. "No matter who you are, you were humbled by his gift. Nobody on that stage would dare put themselves in his category, yet everybody absolutely was moved in a way they weren't by anybody else. That's a pretty cool deal in itself."
