As comfortable as any East Tennessean can be at the beach, Kenny Chesney comes to Maine riding a big wave of career success.

His last two albums, “Everywhere We Go” and “Greatest Hits,” have gone double platinum, with sales of more than 2 million copies each. He’s one of the final five nominees for the Academy of Country Music’s Top Male Vocalist award, along with such perennials as Alan Jackson, Toby Keith, Tim McGraw and Travis Tritt. Hailed as “Country’s Hottest Bachelor” by Country Weekly, Chesney will be featured on the covers of coming issues of Country Music, CMA Close-Up and Country Weekly magazines.

So how does Chesney, 33, keep all this in perspective?

“I’ve got a lot of great guys around me, band guys and friends from East Tennessee,” he explained by cell phone from a tour stop in Jacksonville, Fla. “Having a little bit of home around me helps out a lot. They know more about me than anybody, and they can knock me down really quick.”

Chesney will headline a nearly sold-out concert at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 11, at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland. He’ll head up a strong lineup that also features Sara Evans, Phil Vassar and newcomer Carolyn Dawn Johnson.

“Phil and Sara are doing incredible, and Carolyn Dawn is breaking through and doing well,” Chesney said of his tour mates.

Chesney’s latest release, “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem,” will arrive in stores April 23. It comes three years, the length of some people’s careers in Nashville, after his last studio album. What gave him the guts to take his time in the here-today, gone-tomorrow atmosphere of Music City?

“I felt like this was a really important record,” he explained. “I really needed to make a statement, to make a really personal album. For the first time, I can relate to every song on this album. I just lived a lot in the last three years, and have grown up a little bit, and the album reflects that.”

Chesney expanded on his theory of song selection, adding, “I try to really put myself in the place of the fan out there. What’s it going to take to affect me, to make me feel something? If [a song] doesn’t do that, then I don’t record it.”

On the weekend of the album’s release, Country Music Television will hold a Chesney Music Television Weekend on April 27. It will air his “No Shoes, No Shirt, No

Problem” concert at 3 p.m. A special edition of “Total Release,” at 6 p.m., will capture 72 hours on the road with Chesney. Also “Stranded with Kenny Chesney,” at 5 p.m., will count down the eight videos he would select if stranded on a desert island.

It’s hard to believe that Chesney’s success has happened less than a decade after he graduated from East Tennessee State University with a marketing degree and moved to Nashville. He got a gig at The Turf, a raggedy club on Nashville’s Lower Broad, where he played five or six nights a week for $5 an hour plus tips.

Clay Bradley, then with BMI, spotted him there, and helped him get a publishing deal with Acuff Rose, which in turn led to his record deal with Capricorn.

“When you’re making music in Music City, it’s all OK,” Chesney recalled. “It was one of those things where, looking back, it’s hard to believe you don’t get discouraged or doubt, but in the moment, it all felt like it was happening, because you didn’t know what happening really was.”

The Turf’s gone now, the victim of a tornado, and Chesney is now playing at arenas.

“Things are happening, no doubt about it,” he said.

“We’ve gone to a new level every year over the past eight years. We’ve kept our focus, and kept working hard. The fact that we’re selling out arenas is a dream come true. It’s an awesome feeling.”

Obstructed-view and single tickets remain available at all Ticketmaster outlets or by calling the Civic Center box office at 775-3458 or Ticketmaster at 775-3331.