This Is Country Music Debuts At #1

Brad Paisley’s new studio album, This Is Country Music, debuts at #1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart with more than 152,000 albums sold according to Nielsen SoundScan, marking the chart’s best first-week sales of 2011. This is Paisley’s sixth consecutive studio album to debut as the nation’s country best-seller. This Is Country Music also debuts at #2 on Billboard’s Top 200 Albums chart. Paisley’s second single, “Old Alabama,” from This Is Country Music is atop both the Billboard and Country Aircheck airplay charts this week giving Paisley his 19th #1 single.  This Is Country Music is garnering critical praise from an array of media including USA Today, who raves that “If you're going to call an album This Is Country Music (**** out of four), you not only set a high standard for yourself, but you better not give anybody a reason to disagree. Paisley delivers with an album that's both steeped in the past and looking for ways to grow.”  Entertainment Weekly cheers that “the whole record plays like a best-of sampler — not just for Paisley, but for the history of the art form.” Rolling Stone shares, “the greatest country artist of his generation keeps it fresh, funny and guitar-heroic.”  The Tennessean notes that “the collection, accessible and thematically cohesive, is the boldest effort of any country artist so far this year.” Billboard.com declares, “vocally, Paisley has never sounded better, and the ace guitar player struts his stuff throughout, skillfully complementing the mood and timbre of each tune.”  This Is Country Music is a 15-track collection, with 12 co-written by Paisley, and produced by Frank Rogers. His first studio album since American Saturday Night (July of 2009) includes guest performances by Carrie Underwood (the duet, “Remind Me”), Don Henley (“Love Her Like She’s Leavin’”), Blake Shelton (“Don’t Drink the Water”), Marty Stuart, Sheryl Crow, and Carl Jackson (“Life’s Railway to Heaven”) and Clint Eastwood (the instrumental, “Eastwood”).  Fans can purchase This Is Country Music at Target (Target.com/ThisIsCountryMusic), iTunes (http://bit.ly/gC00iy) and all other music retailers.  Reigning CMA Entertainer of the Year and Grand Ole Opry member Brad Paisley is a consummate singer, songwriter, guitarist and entertainer, which has earned him three GRAMMYs, 14 Country Music Association Awards and 14 Academy of Country Music Awards, including five consecutive Male Vocalist awards. He has 19 #1 singles and has released nine critically acclaimed studio albums. Paisley’s innovative and entertaining H20 World Tour played to over 879,000 fans in 2010 and placed #1 country tour for attendance by Pollstar. His 2011 tour, H2O II: Wetter & Wilder, will kick-off June 3 at the Farm Bureau Live at Virginia Beach in Virginia Beach, Virginia.