The Rabbit Station...WXBQ proudly welcomed live in concert at Viking Hall
Kenny Chesney, Sara Evans & Carolyn Dawn Johnson
When tickets went on sale for a live concert with East Tennessee's own Kenny Chesney, the fans lined up at the box office and the show sold out faster than any show ever at Viking Hall. So, a second show was quickly announced and those tickets sold briskly as well. Then, on Saturday and Sunday, March 16th and 17th, the Rabbit and the WXBQ Crew welcomed Kenny Chesney, Sara Evans, and Carolyn Dawn Johnson to two full sold out houses. And, the fans certainly got what they had hoped for. Three great country music stars and three great performances. It was a great country music concert weekend Tri-Cities folks will be talking about for a long, long time.
KENNY CHESNEY'S BIO
Kenny Chesney grew up in the small east Tennessee town of Luttrell, located 15 miles north of Knoxville. His musical dreams developed while attending college at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City. 
After receiving a guitar for Christmas, he began playing four or five hours a day. He joined a bluegrass band and started writing songs. He landed a regular job playing at a Mexican restaurant, local bars and fraternity houses. He graduated in December 1990 with a degree in advertising and moved to Nashville in January 1991.
Chesney’s initial taste of success came with his first album on BNA "All I Need to Know" with hits "Fall in Love" and "Grandpa Told Me So".
Real life stories. Real life songs. That’s what Kenny Chesney is all about. "My inspiration comes from life in general, I keep my ears open. I overhear conversations in restaurants and on the street. I watch a lot of movies and TV, and I love to read. There are so many things out there that can be taken and made into songs---everything has an emotion to it. I just look for things that people can hang on to." Though Kenny has had huge success with lyrically poignant songs including 1998’s smash, "That’s Why I’m Here", it’s not something that he searches for. While hits are important and vital to any artist’s career, Kenny doesn’t spend his time specifically seeking out made-for-radio hits.
Since moving to Nashville, Kenny has built the solid foundation that his career stands on today. He has slowly, but consistently, taken steps to progress his career with each new album. His singles have performed a little better with every one he releases. Each of his albums have steadily outsold its predecessor. His fan base grows with each passing day. That is how you build a career. Early on, other acts making their debuts around the same time as Kenny may have appeared to be on the fast track to stardom with more record sales, but time proved they did not have the staying power that Kenny has created.
Today, Kenny is still here recording albums. Now considered by many to be in country music’s upper echelon or artists, Kenny is standing on the brink of superstardom and doing better than ever. As for a lot of those artists who did so well early on, many have either worn out or gone away completely.
"The saying goes ‘take off like a rocket, fizzle like a rocket,’" says Kenny. "I wanted to take off like a rocket so bad I could taste it, and at the time, I was the most frustrated artist in the world. But now, I’m very thankful for the path that my career has taken. I’ve learned something new at every level and there’s a lot to learn about having a career as an artist. I wouldn’t trade where I’m at right now or where I’m going with anybody in Nashville."
SARA EVANS' BIO
Born in New Franklin, Missouri (pop. 1200), Sara Evans grew up on a tobacco farm and started singing at age four. 
She moved to Nashville when she was 20 where she supported herself as a waitress while she worked on her music. Songwriter Harlan Howard heard her singing on a demo tape and brought her to the attention of RCA Records in 1995. Her 1997 album, "Three Chords And The Truth", earned her an Academy of Country Music Nomination for "Top New Female Vocalist." The video for the title track was nominated for "Country Video of the Year" by the 1998 Music Video Production Association and for "Best New Clip" at the 1997 Billboard Music Video Awards. In addition, Sara was named one of Country America's "Ten To Watch In 1998/Top 10 New Stars Of 1998."
Since her debut, Evans has sung on albums by Vince Gill and Martina McBride, and was the first new country artist chosen by Coca Cola to write and perform a commercial. Sara has also recorded a song for the film Clay Pigeons starring Joaquin Phoenix, Janeane Garofalo and Vince Vaughan and she is the youngest artist to be featured on the just released Tammy Wynette tribute album.
The critical acclaim her debut album received encouraged Sara to continue developing her true voice as an artist on "No Place That Far". She explains: "On "No Place That Far", I decided I was just going to sing how I feel. I'm really glad I did." Her fans are really glad, too.
CAROLYN DAWN JOHNSON'S STORY
"I remember asking my mother when I was young how anyone could live without music," recalls the Canadian-born singer-songwriter Carolyn Dawn Johnson. "Music made me happy, made me cry; Thank you to all three country stars; Kenny Chesney, Sara Evans, and Carolyn Dawn Johnson; for two exciting shows. And, thanks to all the fans who joined the Rabbit and the WXBQ gang for these cool concerts. For more country concert fun..there's only one...24 Carrot Country...96.9 WXBQ!
it soothed me. It did then and it does now. Music still takes me to places nothing else can." It is this perspective on music, combined with Carolyn’s exposed lyrical candor and crystal vocal brilliance that provide the soul and passion behind "Room With A View", her debut album. Carolyn’s career is not only a testament to the power music has had upon her, but it is also an assertion of what goal setting and remaining true to one’s self can bring about.
Raised on a farm in Deadwood, Alberta, Canada, Carolyn’s dreams of music continually colored her emotional landscape. She was surrounded by music from a young age listening to her parent’s Jim Reeves and Don Williams’ records; singing at church functions and school plays, playing piano and continually singing around the house. As she got older, Carolyn found herself drawn to a wide range of artists from Charley Pride and Marty Stuart to Fleetwood Mac, Jann Arden, Abba and Matraca Berg. She would write songs, make her own recordings at home and attend every concert she could. In college she studied non-music courses, but continued to sit-in with hometown bands at night. Finally, the encouragement from local musicians began to make her think, "Maybe I can really do this. Maybe I am good enough."
When she was 20, her "maybe" turned into the first tentative steps toward the musical career she’d dreamed of - but had always feared was out of reach. "I began to see the merit in positive thinking and I did a lot of goal-setting," she says. "I’d ask myself, ‘what are the little steps that can get me where I want to go?’ and then I’d try to do something every single day to achieve a step or two. I’d write things down and make them come true."
Carolyn Dawn Johnson’s incredible work ethic, coupled with natural talent has carried her in a few short years to places she only dared to dream about as a young girl. The release of her first album to the U.S. caps a year in which her success as a songwriter merited a number one hit ("Single White Female" for Chely Wright), a single for Jo Dee Messina ("Down Time") and the highly-coveted Music Row magazine’s "Breakthrough Songwriter of the Year" award for 2000. This spring, the Academy of Country Music honored her with a nomination for Top New Female Vocalist 2000 and the summer has brought even more fun when she steps out on the "Girls’ Night Out" Tour with Reba McEntire and Martina McBride.
Comprised entirely of Carolyn’s writings, "Room With A View" is obviously the work of someone able to bring the highly personal into play while making art. The album clearly is proof that Carolyn is a master at transforming simple stories into richly detailed pictorials. Her songs create an ear-taunting soundtrack of modern day life and love: soaring harmonies, compelling vocals and searing emotional honesty.
"I put everything about me out there," Carolyn says. "That’s the way I live my life. Maybe I show too much, but I didn’t really have a choice when it came to making the record. My favorite things on the record are the really personal parts. Someone said, ‘How do you feel about exposing your innermost self like that?’ and I said, ‘I just don’t think there’s any other way to do it. I don’t think it could have been anything else. That would have been lying to my listeners and lying to myself."