It’s always interesting to see what an artist comes up with after you’ve discovered him. In each discography, I look at two touchstone albums — the one that marks my first exposure to the artist and the first one that I heard right along with everybody else.

American Saturday Night was my intro disc for Brad Paisley, and (as intro albums often do) it remains my favorite of his records. But once I’d spent the time and money to catch up on everything else he’d recorded, would his first new album live up to expectations?

I’ll admit, when I first heard the title of Paisley’s newest album, This is Country Music, and his intention to back off from the expansiveness of American Saturday Night, I was a bit worried. Would this album lean more toward the sort of country music I still find tiresome, rather than the clever, winning Brad Paisley music I love so much?

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