Country superstar Kenny Chesney [ tickets ], who last fall said he’d be playing only a handful of one-off shows in 2010, has unveiled plans for a couple of spring and summer Vegas engagements.

The Joint, located at Las Vegas’ Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, will host Chesney for a pair of two-night stands: May 14 & 15 and July 2 & 3.

“The beauty of The Joint is that not only is it a great rock-and-roll room, but they’ll let us get up there and play … and play … and play,” Chesney said in a prepared statement. “We have so much fun, because we can throw in all kinds of stuff we don’t get to play in our regular show, and the audiences are diverse enough that no matter what we throw at them, they know the songs!

“That’s what’s so great about a gig where the capacity is 4,000, especially at The Joint,” Chesney continued. “It’s the best of both worlds: you get the energy of a club, but it’s still enough of a stage that you’ve got room to run around and have fun. Because when we do these smaller, less structured shows, we like to let loose without tripping over each other or getting tangled in someone’s chord.”

Tickets for the Vegas shows–prices for which start at $150 plus applicable service fees, according to a press release–will be available Saturday (1/30) at noon PT via the Hard Rock Box Office, as well as online at Ticketmaster.com and by phone at 800.745.3000. (LiveDaily is an operating unit of Ticketmaster Entertainment, which also owns Ticketmaster.)

Last September, Chesney–who had been touring every summer almost non-stop since 2004, and whose most recent roadtrips were massive stadium affairs–told Entertainment Weekly that he was planning to take a break this year. The singer said that he would continue to record and play some sporadic concerts, but that a large-scale stadium tour wouldn’t take place.

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