Soul2Soul II Tour

Soul2Soul II Tour

Tour by Tim McGraw and Faith Hill
Associated album	Fireflies
Start date	April 21, 2006
End date	September 1, 2007
Legs	2
No. of shows	118 in North America
Box office	$30,336,336
Tim McGraw and Faith Hill concert chronology
Tim McGraw tour chronology Soul2Soul Tour (2000) Soul2Soul II Tour (2006–2007) Live Your Voice Tour (2008)

The Soul2Soul II Tour was the second co-headlining concert tour between American country music singers, and husband and wife, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. Beginning as the Soul2Soul II Tour 2006, its shows featured elaborate production values using an open, cross-shaped stage. Performances consisted of a set by Hill and set by McGraw, with the two sharing duets before, during, and after the individual sets. Over the course of the show, the duets traced a thematic development starting at estrangement and ending in emotional closeness.

The tour capitalized on McGraw and Hill's popularity, both as musical artists and as a couple. It played 74 shows in 56 cities, and sold 1.1 million tickets. The tour grossed almost $89 million during 2006. For the year, it was the third-highest grossing tour in North America (behind The Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang Tour and Barbra Streisand's Streisand: The Tour); and the fifth-highest grossing tour in the world for 2006.

Soul2Soul II Tour 2006 became the highest-grossing country music tour of all time, a position it still holds as of December 2007. For its accomplishments, it received Pollstar's top Concert Industry Award, the Major Tour of the Year Award, for 2006.

The tour was then continued the following year, as the rebranded Soul2Soul 2007. Some new songs were added to the set list, but the overall structure and theme of the show remained. Soul2Soul 2007 grossed some $52 million. Together, the McGraw-Hill Soul2Soul tour has the highest gross for any multi-year country music tour ever, $141 million, breaking a mark previously held by Garth Brooks. Over 1.6 million people saw the show over its two years. The tour was the highest grossing tour ever by a country artist until Taylor Swift's "The Red Tour" surpassed it in 2014.

History

2006 tour

The tour's name was a reprise of the couple's very successful 2000 Soul2Soul Tour. It capitalized on the couple's popularity as a couple: The New York Times wrote that, "Faith Hill and Tim McGraw may be the most popular married couple in country music, and maybe in all of pop music." The pair had three albums on the country charts at the time, Hill's Fireflies and McGraw's Live Like You Were Dying and Reflected: Greatest Hits Vol. 2.

Hill and McGraw first announced the Soul2Soul II Tour on January 30, 2006. It quickly became one of the fastest-selling concert events of the year, with additional shows added in 15 cities due to high ticket demand; Ticketmaster labelled it the fastest-selling show of the year. Ticket sales passed the one million mark with the one-millionth fan attending the first of three shows in Los Angeles at the Staples Center. The lucky fan was given a Dodge Charger as a thank you gift from the couple.

The tour began on April 21, 2006 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, and after 73 shows concluded on September 3, 2006 at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Paradise, Nevada.

On May 11, Hill and McGraw announced that the July 5 concert in New Orleans would benefit Gulf Coast hurricane relief efforts. From the beginning, Hill and McGraw have expressed criticism of the government response to Hurricane Katrina and the other Gulf Coast hurricanes. Hill is a native of Mississippi and McGraw is a native of Louisiana. All of the net proceeds of the concert were targeted to Katrina relief efforts in those two states. Tickets for the concert went on sale several days later and within 30 minutes, the 17,000 available seats had sold out. McGraw also played one of his informal "Bread and Water" shows, staged at local clubs after an arena show, with proceeds going to hurricane relief efforts as well.

2007 tour

On February 4, 2007, it was announced that the couple would return to the road in the summer of 2007 with Soul2Soul 2007 due to the success of Soul2Soul II. They aimed to visit U.S. and Canadian cities they could not reach in 2006; the restart a year later was to still mainstain a mostly-summertime schedule, to accommodate their school-age children. On March 14, 2007, Tim McGraw announced on an appearance on Good Morning America that the Soul2Soul 2007 Tour would probably be the last time he and Hill would tour together. On March 16, 2007, the same day tickets went on sale for the performances in Canada, both of the singers' websites announced that additional shows had been added in select Canadian cities due to overwhelming ticket sales and it had been announced that the June 21 show in Saskatoon and the June 22 show in Winnipeg were record breaking sales. The 2007 tour established a new record gross during both its two-day stop in Omaha and single day in St. Paul, Minnesota for a single country show.

In 2007, McGraw and Hill played forty-three shows over a nine-week period, with the Jeep brand as the title sponsor. The tour featured the duo's first-ever performances throughout Canada. The routing also includes shows in Lafayette, Louisiana and Biloxi, Mississippi, that were specifically requested by McGraw and Hill as being close to where they grew up.

At the July 28 show in Lafayette, Louisiana, at the close of Tim McGraw's set, a female fan reached out and grabbed McGraw's nether regions. When Hill and McGraw returned for the encore, during their performance of "It's Only Love", Hill blasted the fan, waving her finger and saying into the microphone: "Somebody needs to teach you some class, my friend! You don't go grabbin' somebody else's, somebody's husband's [privates], you understand me?! That's very disrespectful!" The incident attracted considerable media attention, and Hill subsequently went on The Ellen DeGeneres Show to discuss it.

The stage and the show

The tour featured production values and cost usually associated with large-scale rock tours. A multimillion-dollar, unique in-the-round stage set was used. A circular platform in the center of the arena floor was surrounded by a larger circle beneath it, where the band played; vertical scrims could fall down to enclose this area. Performers could disappear or arise through hidden platforms. Extending in all four directions from the circles were long, wide catwalks with mass-motion video screens embedded within them, with fans seated on both sides and at the ends of the catwalks. Moving the whole 130,000 pound production from city to city took 150 roadies, 22 trucks, and 14 buses.

The show, which lasted from two and a half to two and three-quarters hours, was structured as a set by Faith Hill, followed by a set by Tim McGraw; in general audiences responded more strongly to McGraw's performance, hence Hill was placed in the opening spot. Before, in between, and after the individual sets, the two performed together. Throughout, Hill and McGraw used body language to convey the themes of the show; The New York Times wrote that "both singers have an extraordinary knack for making big gestures seem human-size."

The lyrical themes and the physical staging of the duet songs followed a connected thread throughout the course of the show, starting at one end of the emotional spectrum and ending at the other. The opening duet, the bitter "Like We Never Loved At All", was sung by the two at completely opposite ends of the stage, facing away from each other. For the next duets, after Hill's set, they were near each other, but enclosing in a scrim and still not facing each other, as they sang "Angry All the Time" and "Let's Make Love". In the final group of duets, following McGraw's set, the two began to thematically reconcile, including a rendition of Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry". In the last song of the night, the two sat knee-to-knee opposite each other, around an old-radio-style microphone, for a hushed performance of "I Need You".

Faith Hill in concert in Dallas on the Soul2Soul II Tour, Photo by Sister Sister Photography.

Hill's performance emphasized her varied country, pop, and gospel flavorings, with arrangements that showcased her vocal control over her lower register. McGraw's performance was more oriented towards traditional country, and evinces a stronger stage presence, with his "Live Like You Were Dying" typically getting the biggest audience response. Hill's band played from the start of the show through the second joint appearance, after which McGraw's Dancehall Doctors backing outfit took over for the balance of the show.

The concerts even featured hints of a rock element, from a few of McGraw's arrangements to Hill's guitarist's U2 textures to the Who-like introductory music to the presence of KISS and Blue Öyster Cult in the pre-show music.

In the 2007 shows, the general approach and themes were similar, but a number of set list changes were made. The couple started the shows with a rendition of Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars". New songs in Faith Hill's set included "Wild One", "The Secret of Life", and "Lost". McGraw's set included material that he had not performed in years, including "Indian Outlaw", "Everywhere", and "She's My Kind of Rain". He did omit "Don't Take the Girl", a long-time standby. The 2007 tour saw the addition of opening acts; with their 30-minute performances, the overall evening ran three hours or longer.

Opening acts

No opening acts were used on the 2006 tour.

For the 2007 tour, the opening acts were:

• Lori McKenna (select venues)
• Taylor Swift (select venues)
• Lance Miller (select venues)
• Halfway to Hazard (select venues)

Set list

2006

Hill/McGraw

1. "Like We Never Loved At All"

Hill

2. "Mississippi Girl"
3. "The Way You Love Me"
4. "Sunshine and Summertime'
5. "Fireflies"
6. "This Kiss"
7. "Let Me Let Go"
8. Let's Make Love (with Tim McGraw)
9. "Stealing Kisses" ¹
10. " Bridge Over Troubled Water" ¹ (Simon & Garfunkel cover)
11. "The Lucky One"
12. " Cry"
13. "There Will Come a Day"
14. "Breathe"

Hill/McGraw

15. "Angry All the Time"

McGraw

16. "Real Good Man"
17. "Where the Green Grass Grows"
18. "Just to See You Smile"
19. " Don't Take the Girl"
20. "My Little Girl"
21. "Something Like That"
22. "When the Stars Go Blue" (Ryan Adams cover)
23. "Live Like You Were Dying"
24. "Unbroken"
25. "The Cowboy in Me"
26. "I've Got Friends That Do" ¹
27. "Last Dollar (Fly Away)" ¹
28. "I Like It, I Love It" ¹

Hill/McGraw

29. "Shotgun Rider"
30. "It's Your Love"
31. "No Woman, No Cry" (Bob Marley & the Wailers cover)

Encore:

32. "I Need You"

¹ Performed at select dates

Source:

2007

Hill/McGraw

1. "Chasing Cars" (Snow Patrol cover)

Hill

2. "Wild One
3. "The Lucky One"
4. "The Secret of Life"
5. "Cry"
6. " Sunshine and Summertime"
7. "This Kiss"
8. "Stronger"
9. "Lost"
10. " Red Umbrella"
11. " The Way You Love Me"
12. "The Winner Takes It All
13. "Breathe
14. "Piece of My Heart" (Erma Franklin cover)
15. "Mississippi Girl"

Hill/McGraw

16. "Angry All the Time"
17. "Like We Never Loved At All"

McGraw

18. "The Joker" (Steve Miller Band cover)
19. "Last Dollar (Fly Away)"
20. "Something Like That"
21. "When the Stars Go Blue"
22. "Everywhere"
23. "For a Little While"
24. "She's My Kind of Rain"
25. "Live Like You Were Dying"
26. "Suspicions" (Eddie Rabbit cover)
27. "Real Good Man" ¹
28. "The Ride" ¹
29. "The Cowboy in Me"
30. "Between the River and Me"
31. "Indian Outlaw"
32. "If You're Reading This"

Hill/McGraw

33. "Shotgun Rider"
34. "Let's Make Love"
35. "It's Only Love"

Encore:

36. "I Need You"

¹ Performed at select dates

Additional notes

• At the June 23 New York City concert at Madison Square Garden, Tony Bennett made a surprise guest appearance, and duetted with McGraw on the Hank Williams classic "Cold, Cold Heart".
• At the final concert of the tour, McGraw added some new material from some of his favorite artists – Tom Petty's "Breakdown", "Mama Tried" from Merle Haggard, and "You Look So Good In Love" from George Strait.
• At select dates in 2007, Hill was joined onstage by singer-songwriter Angie Aparo for a duet version of her 2002 hit "Cry." The song was written and originally recorded by Aparo for his 1999 album The American.

Tour dates

Date	City	Country	Venue
Soul2Soul II
April 21, 2006	Columbus	United States	Nationwide Arena
April 22, 2006
April 28. 2006	Rosemont		Allstate Arena
April 29, 2006
April 30, 2006
May 5, 2006	Auburn Hills		The Palace of Auburn Hills
May 6, 2006
May 7, 2006	Grand Rapids		Van Andel Arena
May 12, 2006	Buffalo		HSBC Arena
May 13, 2006	Pittsburgh		Mellon Arena
May 14, 2006	Lexington		Rupp Arena
May 18, 2006	Madison		Kohl Center
May 19, 2006	Saint Paul		Xcel Energy Center
May 20, 2006
May 26, 2006	Birmingham		BJCC Arena
May 27, 2006	Greenville		BI-LO Center
May 28, 2006	Jacksonville		Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena
May 29, 2006
June 2, 2006	Tampa		St. Pete Times Forum
June 3, 2006	Orlando		TD Waterhouse Center
June 4, 2006	Sunrise		BankAtlantic Center
June 6, 2006	North Charleston		North Charleston Coliseum
June 7, 2006	Richmond		Richmond Coliseum
June 9, 2006	Raleigh		RBC Center
June 10, 2006	Charlotte		Charlotte Bobcats Arena
June 12, 2006	Rochester		Blue Cross Arena
June 13, 2006	Albany		Pepsi Arena
June 15, 2006	Philadelphia		Wachovia Center
June 16, 2006
June 17, 2006	Hershey		Giant Center
June 18, 2006
June 21, 2006	University Park		Bryce Jordan Center
June 23, 2006	New York City		Madison Square Garden
June 24, 2006
June 25, 2006	Boston		TD Banknorth Garden
June 26, 2006
June 29, 2006	Washington, D.C.		Verizon Center
July 5, 2006	New Orleans		New Orleans Arena
July 6, 2006	Bossier City		CenturyTel Center
July 8, 2006	Atlanta		Philips Arena
July 9, 2006	Memphis		FedExForum
July 11, 2006	Cincinnati		U.S. Bank Arena
July 12, 2006	Indianapolis		Conseco Fieldhouse
July 14, 2006	St. Louis		Savvis Center
July 15, 2006	Des Moines		Wells Fargo Arena
July 16, 2006	Milwaukee		Bradley Center
July 18, 2006	Kansas City		Kemper Arena
July 21, 2006	Dallas		American Airlines Center
July 22, 2006	Houston		Toyota Center
July 23, 2006	San Antonio		AT&T Center
July 27, 2006	Oklahoma City		Ford Center
July 28, 2006	North Little Rock		Alltel Arena
July 29, 2006	Nashville		Gaylord Entertainment Center
July 30, 2006	Cleveland		Quicken Loans Arena
August 2, 2006	Denver		Pepsi Center
August 4, 2006	Salt Lake City		Delta Center
August 5, 2006
August 6, 2006	Nampa		Idaho Center Arena
August 8, 2006	Portland		Rose Garden Arena
August 9, 2006	Seattle		KeyArena
August 10, 2006
August 12, 2006	Sacramento		ARCO Arena
August 13, 2006	San Jose		HP Pavilion at San Jose
August 14, 2006	Fresno		Save Mart Center
August 17, 2006	Los Angeles	Staples Center
August 18, 2006
August 19, 2006
August 25, 2006	Phoenix	US Airways Center
August 26, 2006
September 1, 2006	Las Vegas	Mandalay Bay Events Center
September 2, 2006
September 3, 2006
Soul2Soul 2007
June 5, 2007	Omaha	United States	Qwest Center Omaha
June 6, 2007
June 8, 2007	Saint Paul		Xcel Energy Center
June 11, 2007	Salt Lake City		EnergySolutions Arena
June 13, 2007	Portland		Rose Garden
June 14, 2007	Tacoma		Tacoma Dome
June 16, 2007	Vancouver	Canada	General Motors Place
June 17, 2007
June 19, 2007	Edmonton		Rexall Place
June 20, 2007
June 21, 2007	Saskatoon		Credit Union Centre
June 22, 2007	Winnipeg		MTS Centre
June 25, 2007	Toronto		Air Canada Centre
June 26, 2007
June 27, 2007	Ottawa		Scotiabank Place
June 29, 2007	Cleveland	United States	Quicken Loans Arena
June 30, 2007	Philadelphia		Wachovia Center
July 5, 2007	Boston		TD Banknorth Garden
July 6, 2007
July 7, 2007	Washington, D.C.		Verizon Center
July 9, 2007	East Rutherford		Continental Airlines Arena
July 11, 2007	Auburn Hills		The Palace of Auburn Hills
July 12, 2007	Grand Rapids		Van Andel Arena
July 13, 2007	Chicago		United Center
July 14, 2007
July 17, 2007	Pittsburgh		Mellon Arena
July 18, 2007	Columbus		Nationwide Arena
July 20, 2007	Greensboro		Greensboro Colisesum
July 21, 2007	Atlanta		Philips Arena
July 22, 2007	Jacksonville		Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena
July 24, 2007	Sunrise		BankAtlantic Center
July 25, 2007	Tampa		St. Pete Times Forum
July 27, 2007	Biloxi		Mississippi Coast Coliseum
July 28, 2007	Lafayette		Cajundome
July 29, 2007	Dallas		American Airlines Center
July 31, 2007	Denver		Pepsi Center
August 2, 2007	San Diego		San Diego Sports Arena
August 3, 2007	Glendale		Jobing.com Arena
August 4, 2007	Las Vegas		MGM Grand Garden Arena
August 6, 2007	Sacramento		ARCO Arena
August 7, 2007	Fresno		Save Mart Center
August 8, 2007	San Jose		HP Pavilion at San Jose
August 10, 2007	Anaheim		Honda Center
August 11, 2007
September 1, 2007	Moncton	Canada	Magnetic Hill

Box office score data

Soul2Soul 2007

Venue	City	Tickets sold / available	Gross revenue
Qwest Center Omaha	Omaha	27,709/ 32,355 (86%)	$2,375,328
Xcel Energy Center	Saint Paul	16,692 (100%)	$1,432,515
EnergySolutions Arena	Salt Lake City	11,289 / 12,049 (94%)	$944,919
Rose Garden	Portland	9,031 / 9,516 (95%)	$810,731
Tacoma Dome	Tacoma	11,655 / 13,752 (85%)	$998,284
GM Place	Vancouver	31,059 (94%)	$2,941,495
Continental Airlines Arena	East Rutherford	15,586 / 17,117 (91%)	$1,411,791
The Palace of Auburn Hills	Auburn Hills	15,736 / 17,247 (91%)	$1,297,244
Van Andel Arena	Grand Rapids	10,198 / 10,198 (100%)	$834,530
United Center	Chicago	27,216 / 36,835 (74%)	$2,272,281
BankAtlantic Center	Sunrise	12,043 (77%)	$832,318
St. Pete Forum	Tampa	11,458 / 15,592 (73%)	$1,034,837
Mississippi Coast Coliseum	Biloxi	10,805 / 10,805 (100%)	$752,960
Cajundome	Lafayette	11,064 / 11,064 (100%)	$953,500
American Airlines Center	Dallas	13,257 / 16,475 (80%)	$1,132,915
Pepsi Center	Denver	13,922 / 15,748 (88%)	$1,192,242
San Diego Sports Arena	San Diego	9,579 / 12,709 (75%)	$816,506
Jobing.com Arena	Glendale	12,848 / 16,624 (77%)	$1,208,958
MGM Grand Garden Arena	Las Vegas	13,736 / 13,736 (100%)	$1,437,338
ARCO Arena	Sacramento	13,299 / 14,437 (92%)	$1,186,941
Save Mart Center	Fresno	10,884 / 14,029 (78%)	$906,730
HP Pavilion at San Jose	San Jose	13,097 / 17,134 (76%)	1,035,760
Honda Center	Anaheim	25,068 / 28,745 (87%)	$2,526,213
Total		342,453 / 395,961 (86%)	$30,336,336

Personnel

Hill

• Guitar: Pat Buchanan, Denny Hemingson and Jerry McPherson
• Bass guitar: Paul Bushnell
• Acoustic guitar: Faith Hill and Bob Minner
• Keyboards: Jimmy Nichols
• Drums: Paul Leim
• Backing vocals: Crystal Taliefero, Perry Coleman, and Wendy Moten

McGraw (The Dancehall Doctors)

• Guitar: Denny Hemingson and Darran Smith
• Acoustic guitar / Resonator Guitar: Bob Minner
• Bass guitar: John Marcus
• Keyboards: Jeff McMahon
• Drums: David Dunkley and Billy Mason

See also

• List of highest grossing concert tours

External links

• Hill's Official Website
• McGraw's Official Website