ALWAYSBACK

7564 - BRAD PAISLEY - Moonshine in the Trunk (2014)

BRAD PAISLEY
''MOONSHINE IN THE TRUNK''
AUGUST 25 2014
51:20

1 Crushin' It
Kelley Lovelace / Lee Thomas Miller / Brad Pasley 3:40
2 River Bank
Kelley Lovelace / Brad Paisley 3:00
3 Perfect Storm
Lee Thomas Miller / Brad Paisley 3:55
4 High Life
Kelley Lovelace / Lee Thomas Miller / Brad Pasley 3:44
5 Moonshine in the Trunk
Brent Anderson / Chris Dubois / Brad Paisley 3:59
6 Shattered Glass
Brad Paisley 3:45
7 Limes
Kelley Lovelace / Lee Thomas Miller / Brad Pasley 3:56
8 You Shouldn't Have To
Kelley Lovelace / Tim Owens / Brad Paisley 3:54
9 4WP
Brent Anderson / Chris Dubois / Brad Paisley 3:27
10 Cover Girl
Brent Anderson / Chris Dubois / Brad Paisley 3:11
11 Gone Green
Kenny Lewis 3:16
12 JFK 1962
Brad Paisley 0:54
13 American Flag on the Moon
Brad Paisley 3:47
14 Country Nation
Chris Dubois / Kelley Lovelace / Brad Paisley 3:48
15 Me and Jesus
Tom T. Hall 3:21

CREDITS

REVIEW
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Ambition got the better of Brad Paisley on 2013's Wheelhouse, coaxing him into the briar patch that was "Accidental Racist" -- an ill-conceived cross-cultural duet with LLCool J which generated a flurry of headlines that camouflaged how the album straight-up flopped on country radio. Wheelhouse was Paisley's first record since Play not to go gold, and even that is misleading because that 2008 effort was an instrumental album and those never sell in large numbers; subtract that from his stats and the 2013 record achieves the ignoble status of his first-ever album not to reach gold and, perhaps more importantly, his first not to generate a number one single. Paisley slyly alludes to this slump, singing "I guess I've been in a dry spell, but that's about to change" on "Crushin' It," the opening track of his 2014 album Moonshine in the Trunk, a phrasing that suggests his dip in sales lasted longer than a year -- which, in a way, it has. His sales started decreasing around the time of the open-hearted, far-ranging American Saturday Night, so perhaps it's no surprise that he's attempting to turn back the clock on Moonshine in the Trunk, stripping back all his experimentations and declining every detour so he winds up with a record that could function as a de facto sequel to 2007's 5th Gear. Moonshine in the Trunk is all gleaming steel, hard edges, sleek rhythms, and power ballads, state-of-the-art modern country that doesn't dare make a big deal of any of Paisley's eccentricities outside of his squealing guitar. Restless guy that he is, Paisley doesn't quite abandon every one of his quirks: specifically, he plays around with rhythm, setting "Crushin' It" to a thumping disco beat, pushing "River Bank" along to a stuttering syncopation, and underscoring "Limes" to an electronic loop. These dance-friendly beats go down smoothly because the emphasis is on the twang of the Telecaster and Paisley's drawl, signatures as prominent as his sense of humor which also surfaces on Moonshine in the Trunk -- quite genially on "Going Green," a wry tale of a redneck choosing to sacrifice for the sake of the environment, and quite nastily on "High Life," where a bunch of white trash sue their way toward millions. No matter how much he rhapsodizes about the logos across the caps in this great "Country Nation," these two novelties suggest where Paisley's sympathies lie: he's too smart, too worldly to pander to his base, so he'll take sly jabs and disguise his wide-eyed futurism within the nostalgia of "American Flag on the Moon." Most of all, he's savvy enough to know when to play it safe, which he does throughout Moonshine in the Trunk, turning out high-octane, highly enjoyable songs about trucks, water, speed, and making out with girls who don't realize they're beautiful enough to be a model. This is, for want of a better word, his wheelhouse, and while he may not be leaving his comfort zone here, Moonshine in the Trunk proves his strengths remain mighty potent.

BIOGRAPHY
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Arguably the preeminent male country artist to emerge in the 2000s, Brad Paisley cannily blended the past with the present, paying constant tribute to his forefathers -- when he reached the top of the charts, he still found space for Little Jimmy Dickens and George Jones in his videos -- but pushing the music forward into the new millennium, expanding its sonic and thematic possibilities. This sense of adventure could be heard on 2009's American Saturday Night, a big-hearted and eclectic record that won crossover acclaim, but by the time of its release, Paisley was already a country superstar and no stranger to the top of the charts. American Saturday Night was his fifth number one album on the Billboard Country charts -- the streak started with his third album, 2003's Mud on the Tires; his first five albums all went platinum, as well -- and he had 13 number one country singles, including such modern country staples as "I'm Gonna Miss Her (The Fishin' Song)," "Mud on the Tires," "The World," "She's Everything," "Ticks," "Online," "Letter to Me," and "I'm Still a Guy" -- a varied collection of songs that showcased his wry humor, hard-earned sentimentality, and prowess as a guitarist. As he entered into his second decade as a recording artist, the hits kept coming -- 2011's This Is Country Music and 2013's Wheelhouse both entered the Billboard 200 at number two -- as the onetime Young Turk slowly but surely started the transition into becoming an elder statesman himself.

Born in Glen Dale, West Virginia on October 28, 1972, Brad Paisley began playing guitar at the age of eight when his grandfather gave him a Silvertone Danelectro. Within two years, Paisley gave his first public performance at a local church, and around that time he started getting guitar lessons from Clarence "Hank" Goddard. The student and pupil joined forces with a couple of Goddard's pals to form Brad Paisley & the C-Notes; around this time, the budding guitarist also began writing his own songs. His first real break arrived when his junior high school principal invited Paisley to play at the local Rotary Club, where Tom Miller, the program director of WWVA, one of the major country radio stations in the market, heard him. Miller extended an invitation to the young guitarist to play on the station's Saturday night show Jamboree USA and his initial appearance was so well-received he was asked to become a regular on the broadcast. Over the next eight years, Paisley appeared on weekly on Jamboree USA, opening for such stars as Little Jimmy Dickens, Roy Clark, Ricky Skaggs, and the Judds. He stayed at Jamboree USA as he graduated high school and enrolled at West Liberty State College, where he spent two years before earning a full scholarship at Belmont University in Nashville. Relocating to the Music City in 1993, Paisley attended Belmont on a full ASCAP sponsorship. While at the university, he majored in music business an interned at ASCAP and Atlantic Records and made plenty of connections, including fellow songwriter Kelley Lovelace and Frank Rogers, who'd wind up producing several Paisley records.

Upon graduation, Paisley signed a songwriting deal with EMI Music and he began placing songs on records by hit acts, highlighted by David Kersh's "Another You," which went to number three on the country charts in 1997. This tune, along with others, led to a contract with Arista Records in 1998 and the label released his first single, "Who Needs Picture," in February 1999. Four months later came a full-length debut filled with original compositions (all but one co-written). Also called Who Needs Pictures, the album took off that fall when the Lovelace co-written "He Didn't Have to Be" became Paisley's first number one hit. "Me Neither," the third single, went to 18 but its successor, "We Danced," topped the charts, starting a streak of Top Ten singles that ran uninterrupted until 2011. As he began recording his second album, Paisley worked with other artists -- notably, he collaborated with Chely Wright on her 2001 album Never Love You Enough; she also became his lover briefly -- while continuing to promote his debut, constant activity that paid off in Paisley being inducted into the Grand Ole Opry on February 17, 2001; at the age of 28, he was the youngest musician ever given the honor. Part II, his aptly named second album, came out May 29, 2001 and it confirmed his status as a rising country star. Debuting at three on the Billboard Country Album charts, Part II spawned four Top Ten singles -- "Two People Fell in Love," "Wrapped Around," "I'm Gonna Miss Her (The Fishin' Song)," and "I Wish You'd Stay" -- with "I'm Gonna Miss Her" reaching number one.

Released in the summer of 2003, Mud on the Tires was Paisley's breakthrough, debuting at number one on the Billboard Country charts and eight on the Top 200 and generating another four Top Ten singles: the cheeky novelty "Celebrity," "Little Moments," the mournful Alison Krauss duet "Whiskey Lullaby" (which went platinum), and "Mud on the Tires" (the latter going to number one). Mud on the Tires eventually went double platinum, as did its 2005 sequel, Time Well Wasted, whose four singles -- "Alcohol," the Dolly Parton duet "When I Get Where I'm Going," "The World," and "She's Everything" -- all went into the Top Ten, with all but the first reaching number one. With the sales came awards: Time Well Wasted won Best Album honors from both the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association in 2006, the same year Paisley earned four Grammy nominations. As the guitarist worked on his fifth studio album, he contributed two original songs to Pixar's summer 2006 film Cars and he released the seasonal Christmas in October 2006; it reached eight on the U.S. Billboard Top Country Albums chart. 5th Gear arrived in the summer of 2007 and it was an instant smash, debuting at three on the Top 200 (and number one on Billboard Country Albums) with its four singles -- "Ticks," "Online," "Letter to Me," and "I'm Still a Guy" -- all reaching number one. An expanded reissue of 5th Gear brought a fifth number one single called "Waitin' on a Woman" in 2008, which meant Paisley now held the record for most consecutive number one country hits in the SoundScan era. Also in 2008, Paisley won his first Grammy Award for "Throttleneck," which was named the Best Country Instrumental Performance; he would once again win that award in 2009 for "Cluster Puck" and he'd also take home Best Male Country Vocal performance that year for "Letter to Me."

Sitting comfortably at the top of the charts with plenty of accolades to his name, Paisley started to take some risks in 2008, beginning with the release of the almost all-instrumental Play. Buttressed with a couple of vocal performances, including the Keith Urban duet "Start a Band" that gave Brad another number one single, Play debuted well -- number one on the Country charts, nine on the Top 200 -- but not only was it his first album to not go platinum, it didn't go gold. That situation was rectified by his 2009 studio album American Saturday Night, a musically and thematically ambitious record that earned him his best reviews in the non-country press while giving him another big hit. The album debuted at number one on the country charts upon its June release (it came in at two on the Top 200) and it gave him another four big hits: "Then" and "Water," which both went to number one, and "Welcome to the Future" and "American Saturday Night," which both went to number two. For the 2010 holiday season, he released Hits Alive -- a double-disc package divided into one live set and one collection of hits -- and then returned with his seventh collection of new songs, This Is Country Music, in May 2011. "Old Alabama," the second single pulled from This Is Country Music, became Paisley's 19th number one single, followed quickly by his 20th number one, the Carrie Underwood duet "Remind Me," but there were signs of a chart slowdown when "Camouflage" became his first single in 11 years to not reach the Top Ten (it topped out at 15); similarly, This Is Country Music and American Saturday Night both stalled at gold where their predecessors had gone platinum.

As he toured This Is Country Music, Paisley also busied himself in a variety of show biz cameos, including popping up on the Cars 2 soundtrack and guesting on South Park. He also published a music-focused memoir called Diary of a Player, which was co-written by music journalist David Wild. After the tour came to a conclusion, he set out to work on his ninth album, Wheelhouse. An ambitious, genre-hopping album, the record was preceded by the "Southern Comfort Zone" single in the fall of 2012 and "Beat This Summer," which appeared a month prior to Wheelhouse's April 2013 release. Wheelhouse debuted well -- once again, he took the number one slot on Billboard's Country Albums chart and number two on the Top 200 -- but it soon got swallowed up in a media controversy concerning its album track "Accidental Racist." A duet with rapper LL Cool J, the song attempted to tackle the lasting legacy of racism but earned attention for its clumsy lyrics from Paisley and LL Cool J. Paisley conducted interviews that eloquently explained the intentions behind the song but the damage had been done: his next single, "I Can't Change the World," barely cracked the U.S. Country Top 40 and its successor, "The Mona Lisa," did marginally better, peaking at 24, while the album itself failed to go gold.

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