The countdown is on for Brad Paisley. It’s 21 days until he co-hosts the 44th annual Country Music Association Awards. And it’s 12 days until the release of his two-disc Hits Alive album.

The track list was unveiled Tuesday, and it includes 25 performances total — 21 different songs, some of them appearing in both studio and in-concert versions. And “Online” appears twice; it’s at the close of the studio disc and an “Online” reprise is the finale of the live disc.

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Brad Paisley photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

When Brad Paisley recorded his Time Well Wasted album, he stocked it with some of his typical witty social commentary, with some love songs and with a couple of gospel-toned pieces. It sold two million copies and won Album of the Year from both the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music.

But in the town of Plainview, Texas, Brad’s title isn’t going over so well these days. Time Well Wasted was featured as the theme of the 2010 Plainview High School yearbook, accompanied by melting clocks, inspired by the work of late painter Salvador Dali. Teachers who took the clocks at face value were insulted that students would demean the hours they spent trying to give them an education.

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Brad Paisley photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

One trick psychologists employ to make their clients recognize their personal progress is to have them look back a year — or five or 10 — to compare where they were emotionally against where they are now. Looking back is a technique that Brad Paisley has used to craft such hits as “Welcome To The Future,” “Letter To Me” and “Then,” and when he puts it to work in evaluating his career, it yields an amazing contrast.

Back in 1999, when Brad released his first single and album, he travelled in a van, sometimes driving himself to the gig with his band members and the equipment all piled in the vehicle. Once they got to the venue, it was as if nobody knew — or cared — who he was.

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Brad Paisley photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

Every person is a summation of life’s experiences, everything that’s happened in his or her past. Brad Paisley has made a living by connecting the dots between the past and the present through much of his career — most notably on his current “Welcome To The Future.”

That song ties technology, global politics and racial advances in one well-written portrait of contemporary America, but it’s hardly the only time he’s tackled the subject. His first hit, “Who Needs Pictures,” used photographs of a past relationship to portray a broken heart; “Letter To Me” made a connection between the adult Brad and the teenage version; and his ballad “Then” — currently nominated for the Country Music Association’s Song of the Year — puts the early years of his marriage in context with its current state.

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Jason Aldean photo courtesy of Broken Bow Records.

Jason Aldean has taken quite a ride on his “Big Green Tractor,” planting the song at No. 1 for an impressive four weeks in a row.

With its sweet sentiment and winsome melody, it’s the first single to stay at the top that long since Brad Paisley’s “Letter To Me” occupied the No. 1 slot for four weeks in February 2008.

“This is crazy,” Jason says. Continue Reading

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