We Told You First

Kenny Chesney is Houston bound for free Final Four concert

Kenny Chensey knows that all signs are pointing at him performing in Houston forthe free Big Dance Concert Series.
Right back at you, Kenny Chesney.
Kings of Leon is already confirmed as the April 2 free Big Dance concert atDiscovery Green.
Courtesy photo

UPDATE: Officials confirmed Thursday night what CultureMap reported first: Kenny Chesney will be the headliner at The Big Dance Concert Series on April 3.

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No shoes, no shirt, no problems with creating a mega Final Four concert event.

Are you ready for a free Kenny Chesney concert in Discovery Green the Sunday of Final Four weekend?

Several sources have told CultureMap that the Big Dance Concert Series will showcase a major country music star in the free show Sunday night, April 3 from Discovery Green. The plan is to show this star's performance from Houston as part of the The Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards telecast, which will be broadcast that night from Las Vegas by CBS, the same network that carries the Final Four. The ACM Awards telecast will cut to Houston — no doubt noting, it's the site of the April 4 championship game — and throw it to this major star.

And all signs point to that star being Kenny Chesney — the man behind such hit albums as No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problems, When the Sun Goes Down and Hemingway's Whiskey. Chesney sings "Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven," but this spring, everybody wants to get to Houston. Including apparently, Chesney.

Follow along with the CultureMap sleuthing that led right to Kenny.

When reliable sources told us that the April 3 Big Dance act would be a major country star with an ACM Awards tie, it quickly became a process of elimination — with a sharp eye kept on scheduling.

You can cross out anyone who's playing the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo this year. A return so soon wouldn't generate the kind of buzz in the community the NCAA is focused on building with the free concert series. College basketball's ruler and its partners aim to make the excitement around the Big Dance Concert Series almost match the buildup for the games themselves — essentially creating the Final Four's version of the Super Bowl halftime show, only more spread out and accessible to any fan.

So you can dismiss Rodeo goers Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum, Martina McBride, Miranda Lambert, Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts, Jason Aldean and others. Sorry, but do-overs will just not do.

The second part of the equation centers on the Academy of Country Music Awards themselves. The Final Four concert country star must carry plenty of relevance in the awards show. Otherwise, the synergy doesn't work. You can't throw it over to someone in Houston who's not up for some major ACMs.

This puts the focus on stars like Taylor Swift, Toby Keith and Chesney. Miranda Lambert, Toby Keith, Jason Aldean, Brad Paisley and Keith Urban would be in the mix as well if you argue that a big enough star might necessitate a rethinking of the no-Rodeo repeats argument.

Only, you don't have to even get that far.

Because guess which acts have already been announced as performers at the ACM Awards, announced as acts that will be singing "from the stage" in Las Vegas? Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, Jason Aldean, Brad Paisley, Miranda Lambert and Toby Keith.

Only one name is missing. Kenny Chesney.

The same Chesney who is up for five Academy of Country Music Awards, second only to Lambert.

The same Chesney whose picture is prominently featured on the ACM Awards website.

The same Chesney with the drop-dead handsome cowboy looks and the crossover appeal (ex-husband of A-list actress Renee Zellweger, Katy's own) that fits in with the already-announced April 2 Big Dance Concert Series headliner Kings of Leon (the Big Dance is working on booking a major pop act headliner for April 1).

There's strangely no word on Chesney being in Las Vegas April 3. Because all signs point to him being in Houston instead, entertaining an overflow crowd at Discovery Green and the CBS audience.

What region of the country is Chesney already scheduled to be in around Final Four weekend? He's playing Tulsa April 2, a quick hop to the Bayou City.

Several sources confirm that final negotiations for both the country and pop portions of The Big Dance Concert Series are taking longer than expected and say an official announcement will likely not be made until next week.

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Movie Review

Cookie Queens goes behind the scenes of Girl Scout Cookie season

Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions

Girl Scouts in Cookie Queens.

Few people are strong enough to resist the lure of Girl Scout cookie season every year, with the cookies’ limited availability and unique flavors a strong incentive to indulge. But only the girls and their families who have sold the cookies know the joys and stresses of trying to get people to buy them, a process that is detailed in the new documentary, Cookie Queens.

The film by documentarian Alysa Nahmias uses the stories of four different girls to represent the nationwide ritual for the Girl Scouts. They include 12-year-old Olive in Charlotte, North Carolina, a longtime top seller; 8-year-old Shannon Elizabeth in El Paso, Texas, who wants to earn the reward of going to camp; 5-year-old Ara in San Diego, California, whose goal is modest compared to most other girls; and 9-year-old Nikki in Chino, California, who has to compete with her older sisters in the cookie-selling bonanza.

The girls represent a cross-section of both ages and backgrounds, with some girls coming from wealthy families and some girls dealing with more limited means. And how much money your family has makes a big difference, as not only does someone richer have more freedom with their time and supplies, but all scouts are required to reimburse the organization for every box they take in, regardless of whether they’re able to sell it or not.

That caveat makes the journeys of the four featured girls feel wildly different. It’s clear from the start that Olive and Nikki’s families don’t give a second thought to the personal economics of selling cookies, with each girl taking in thousands of boxes at the beginning of the six-week selling season. With both Olive and Nikki rightfully confident that they’ll have no problem offloading their supply, their stories turn to how selling is personally affecting them, with each trying to reconcile the fun of doing it with the pressure they feel from their family members.

Shannon Elizabeth’s story is more harrowing, as her parents feel a strong desire to help her accomplish her lofty goal, but worry that the cost might literally be too high for the family as a whole. More than once, the parents are shown fretting that they won’t have the money to pay back what they owe should they fall significantly short in their sales. Their selling approach, which includes walking through an empty swap meet and standing outside a chain restaurant at night, only adds to their stress.

The most fun story to watch is that of Ara, whose innocence is matched by her confidence. Her parents teach her how much money they’ll owe with her small goal of 55 boxes, but right away she takes on more responsibility than expected. She’s shown making sales pitches and tallying the total number of boxes she’s sold with little-to-no help from either her mom or dad. With her high voice, glasses, and a monitor on her arm to manage her diabetes, she becomes the cute and sympathetic part of the film.

There are times that the film starts to feel more than a little manipulative, however. While many of the moments documented come off as organic, some of them seem like Nahmias is actively guiding the participants in order to get a better story. This is especially evident with Shannon Elizabeth and her family, whose early struggles turn into a miraculous feel-good story by the end, a turnaround that seems implausible at best. Everything with them might have been aboveboard, but Nahmias and her team edit the family’s journey in a way that pushes a bit too hard for emotion.

Cookie Queens, which was produced by a company owned by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, helps to give insight into the business of selling Girl Scout cookies for those who’ve only been on the purchasing end of the transaction. The dedication of each girl toward selling their allotted supply proves fun and interesting, even if the filmmaker tries to gild the lily on occasion.

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Cookie Queens is now playing in theaters,

movies girl scout cookie film

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