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City & State or ZIP Tonight, this weekend, May 5th...
City & State or ZIP
City & State or ZIP Tonight, this weekend, May 5th...
City & State or ZIP
Kenny's compass
It doesn't take long to figure out that these songs are all over the map


The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/17/2006

POLL AFTER POLL tells us that Americans are really bad at geography. Maybe if we make it fun, we could painlessly increase our collective geographical knowledge. Let's try the Kenny Chesney Method, and point out the many locations mentioned in the country superstar's songs.

GLEN ROSE/Associated Press
Kenny Chesney
 
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Highway 1 and San Francisco — "I Can't Go There" takes a bicoastal approach, mentioning the coastal Florida road and Northern California's city by the bay.

Los Angeles — The protagonist of "Sherry's Living in Paradise" ditched the City of Angels for an unspecified seaside paradise (you get the feeling it must be in the Caribbean).

Austin, Texas — The guy dreaming of "Somewhere in the Sun" is sitting in Austin and complaining about snow. Buffalo might have made us feel sorrier for the guy. What about the place he's dreaming of? That would be Jost Van Dyke, a British Virgin Island.

Mexico — "Beer in Mexico" isn't very specific about location. Neither is "Tequila Loves Me," which informs us that "forgettin's cheap in Mexico."

Cleveland — In "Anything But Mine," a beach-centric vacation romance ends and the narrator must make his way back to Cleveland. But which Cleveland? Ohio or Tennessee? Or maybe even Georgia or Texas. In fact, more than half of the states in the nation have a Cleveland.

Luttrell and Knoxville, Tenn. — He was born in the latter and grew up in the former (Luttrell is also the hometown of late country guitar legend Chet Atkins).

Panama City — In drunken fratboy classic "Keg in the Closet," Chesney sings of "spring breaks down in Panama." He never says the word "city," but you know he doesn't mean the Central American country with the canal.

Gorda Sound — There are actually two bodies of water that Chesney could be talking about in "French Kissin' Life." The North Sound and the South Sound are on either side of the easternmost peninsula of the British Virgin Island of Virgin Gorda.

Cinnamon Bay — As mentioned in "Old Blue Chair," this body of water washes up on the U.S. Virgin Island of St. John, where Chesney owns a home.

Boston — Another Caribbean transplant, the girl in "She's From Boston" works in a jewelry store by the harbor.

Maine — The "Island Boy" leaves the northern New England state for a place a "stone's throw from St. Croix." St. Croix is one of the three major U.S. Virgin Islands (along with St. Thomas and St. John).

THE 411: Kenny Chesney. With Dierks Bentley. 7:30 p.m. Aug. 19-21. $54.50-$64.50. Philips Arena, 1 Philips Drive N.W., Atlanta. 404-878-3000, 404-249-6400, www.philipsarena.com.

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