Comments on: 100 Greatest Men: #78. Brad Paisley

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Fri, 21 Oct 2011 15:32:42 +0000

[...] Paisley comes in at #78 on Country Universe’s list of country’s 100 Greatest [...]

By: RowdyRed

RowdyRed — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:55:07 +0000

I’ve been a huge fan of his ever since his first album. Even the title cut is non-stereotypical but very firmly “country.” On that subject, I love that Brad does not produce “country vs. city” songs that many current artists are basing their entire (radio) careers on. Nor is he aiming to be a crossover artist. He’s diehard country but he’s one of a kind. There’s still a whole lot of authentic original art coming from him.

I agree with those who added “Oh Yeah, You’re Gone”, “Everybody’s Here” and “American Saturday Night” to the list of essential Brad songs (not necessarily singles). Obviously I’m in his camp big time. I do understand that the gimmick songs are becoming too frequent, but that is a small (imo) complaint given the sort of cliche’d country vs. city shlock others are getting rich and famous with. For me, I’ll take smart, inclusive, positive Brad over any and all of those guys (it’s almost entirely a male thing, that redneck hangup currently poisoning country radio). IMO athere’s still no one challenging his talent on the air today.

By: Scott

Scott — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:07:03 +0000

pretty good placement. I’ve always liked brads muisc, most of it anyway, and still do. “Letter to Me” is genius!

By: Erik North

Erik North — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 03:34:54 +0000

Quote by Paul W. Dennis

It is often difficult to assess the importance of an artist in mid-stream. This is a good guess although I suspect that in retrospect it will be seen as much too low

Perhaps in ten years or so. But there are seventy-seven ahead of Mr. Paisley; and I can think of at least ten or twelve that would easily vie for that #1 slot.

By: MotownMike

MotownMike — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:06:07 +0000

I wonder when Paisley’s career starts to wind down if he’ll pull the Mark Chesnutt/Trisha Yearwood/Patty Loveless thing and release music that isn’t just cut for the mainstream audiences.

By: Paul W Dennis

Paul W Dennis — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 15:21:28 +0000

It is often difficult to assess the importance of an artist in mid-stream. This is a good guess although I suspect that in retrospect it will be seen as much too low

By: Hoggy from Oz

Hoggy from Oz — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 09:54:23 +0000

Ahhhh. My favourite artist. I would have liked it if he was higher up in this chart, but I can understand his newest album dampening his critical popularity, even though I liked it. Personally, I would add “Wrapped Around”, “Alcohol”, “Online”, “Welcome to the Future” and “American Saturday Night” to his essential singles, but I digress, I’m terribly biased. I look forward to the rest of this list :)

By: Karly

Karly — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 05:16:52 +0000

I’ve never been a Brad Paisley fan, but he has had some brilliant singles over the years (“When I Get Where I’m Going,” “Whiskey Lullaby,” “Letter To Me”). Even some of Brad can tackle humorous subjects brilliantly well, or they can fall incredibly flat. There seems to be no middle ground with Brad; his material is either excellent or atrocious. I wish he would go back to being a great singles artist, because otherwise there isn’t much appeal there, for me anyway.

So he’s a great guitar player, a decent (and at times awful) singer with no range or interesting tones to his voice, and now he’s got awful songs to boot. It’s a shame because I think I’d actually like Brad’s music if his strengths hadn’t become weaknesses, and his weaknesses hadn’t become even more annoying, dry and boring. Because of this Brad has moved from a promising, at times great artist, to someone who’s wasted all potential that was once there.

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 04:23:37 +0000

I think Paisley is going to be an underrated artist, looking back. Partly his own fault, due to dumb, gimmicky singles.

He’s still putting out great album cuts, though – off of his last two CDs, “I Do Now”, “Oh Yeah, You’re Gone” are classics (IMO), and songs like “Everybody’s Here” and “A Man Don’t Have To Die” are also great listens. Plus, he’s just had a lot of great songs in general over the years; his version of “Harlan…”, “I Wish You’d Stay”, “Wrapped Around”, etc. may not be essentials, but have a timeless quality to them.

I’ve also come to appreciate his voice more over the years – he has an almost overly conversational tone, but he’s got a few more Chestnut-esque subtleties in his phrasing than I used to notice.

Lastly, he puts on a terrific live show. I’m not sure if there’s a songwriter-singer-guitarist combo alive that stacks up favorably to him right now.

By: Leeann Ward

Leeann Ward — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 03:59:16 +0000

I’m with Bob and Tara.