If I had to pick a country artist who defined my teenage years, it was Brad Paisley.
He was the first concert that my friends and I ever drove to on our own after we turned 16.
It was at the West Virginia State Fair in 2005, right around the time Time Well Wasted came out. And it was probably that album, and Brad, that got me back into country music as a teenager more than another other artist. I can’t tell you how many times I listened to his albums on repeat, because everything he released through 5th Gear was solid gold.
I know he doesn’t have as many radio hits these days, and his music kind of took a turn for the weird there for awhile (I mean we can’t talk Brad Paisley without talking about the disaster that was “Accidental Racist”) but back in the first decade of the 2000s, there was nobody in country music bigger than Brad Paisley.
Brad’s got a reputation for his goofy songs like “I’m Gonna Miss Her,” but the guy could do a serious song – or a love song – as good as anybody.
A few weeks ago I decided to dive back into Brad’s early catalog and man, did he have some great stuff in the first half of his career.
Let’s take a look back at some of them:
“We Danced”
“I Wish You’d Stay”
“Who Needs Pictures”
“Two People Fell In Love”
The line “They grab his feet and smack him ’til he cries, he goes home the next afternoon” has always cracked me up.
“He Didn’t Have To Be”
“Me Neither”
“When I Get Where I’m Going”
“Letter To Me”
“Waitin’ On A Woman”
I never realized how true this song was until I met my now-fiancée…and now I spend half my time waiting on a woman (love you honey).
“Alcohol”
Man, what a trip down memory lane.
Old Brad Paisley was so damn good.
