When country music's biggest stars gather Sunday, April 19 for the 50th Academy of Country Music Awards, several of them will be hoping to get called on stage as winners. Megastar Brad Paisley is on that list, as he's been nominated for Male Vocalist of the Year, facing off against Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley, Luke Bryan, Eric Church and Blake Shelton.
The competition is stiff this year, but Paisley is a proven winner at awards ceremonies like this. The singer already has, among other credentials, three Grammys, 14 CMA awards, nine CMT Flameworthy Video Music awards, and if he wins this year, he'll have 14 ACM awards. His last ACM win — and big-time award victory in general — was for Top Male Vocalist in 2011.
Paisley had a productive year last year, releasing his tenth studio album entitled "Moonshine in the Trunk." The album contained 15 songs, including break-out hits "River Bank," "Perfect Storm" and "Crushin' It," the most recent of them to hit the radio.
Those songs are just the latest in the veteran singer's career, as he's been churning out hits since he got into the business more than a decade ago.
In honor of his nomination this year, here are the top ten Brad Paisley songs, though there are so many it wasn't an easy list to create.
Honorable mentions: "Water," 2009 and "Beat this Summer," 2013. Both jams are tailored for the season of sunshine and fun, one a love song to H20, the other a love song to a woman that nods to the ups and downs of having a great summer.
10. "Ticks," 2007
This catchy track is one of Paisley's early ones and it saw a fair amount of success and popularity. It's one of the many examples of the brilliance of Paisley and his co-writers because it introduced the world to a whole new kind of pick-up line. Paisley sings about having a better idea in mind than the guys who just want to take a girl home. His idea: checking her everywhere for ticks. In the lyrics the writers made that concept smart and sexy and with his crooning, Paisley made it charming. Who else could have come up with and executed a song about using gross bugs as a flirting device? Enough said.
9. "Mud on the Tires," 2003
This was the title track of an album that went number one on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. It's one of Paisley's more traditional songs in the sense that it hits on a stereotypical theme of country music — driving around the country side in a truck — but it's much more clever than any average song about that subject. It's fun and flirtatious and so charming it just might have the power to convince any kind of girl that driving around in mud could be romantic and cute. The joyful tune is also one of Paisley's most known tracks, making it easy to put this on the list of his best.
8. "Waitin' on a Woman," 2005
This song takes a premise of teasing women for their reputation of always being late and makes it warm and endearing by pointing out all the reasons why men should be more than willing to wait for them. It's a bit of a tear-jerker — but those tears are mostly happy ones. What's more, the song won Video of the Year at the 2009 ACM Awards and Male Video of the Year at the CMT Music Awards — for which it was also nominated in the Video of the Year category.
7. "Remind Me," 2011
This duet with female powerhouse Carrie Underwood is a sincere take on a marriage in need of reinvigorating. In a time where cultural factors like social media tools and the easier-and-more-acceptable-than-ever nature of divorce contribute to making marriage vows harder to uphold, this is a poignant look at a couple who realizes what they need to get back to the way things once were: a simple reminder of the love they share. It's a sweet message delivered by two of the best voices in the business. What else needs to be said?
6. "Letter to Me," 2007
In this, one of his many heartstring-tugging songs, Paisley waxes nostalgic for his past and reflects on how mistakes made or decisions that seemed like mistakes and negative experiences were actually good for him. The song imagines doing something we all wish we could — talk to our past selves to warn, prepare or reassure them of what the future holds. It's catchy tune, relatable story and touching lyrics are ingredients that make it one for the books.
5. "Celebrity," 2003
This may not be one of his greatest hits commercially, but it was a steady success, hitting number 3 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and staying in that position for four weeks and elsewhere on the chart for longer. More importantly, it's simply a great example of how attuned Paisley is to some of the absurd parts of American culture. In "Celebrity" he points out all ridiculous things celebrities get away with just because they're famous and takes a subtle jab at the general public for their contribution to making that the case. It's a bold move since he himself is a celebrity, but it makes the song even more amusing. Plus, it's quite catchy.
4. "When I Get Where I'm Going," 2005
One of the things people stereotype country music with having too much of is songs about or dedicated to God. Some certainly can be preachy and cheesy, but one doesn't have to be religious or even believe in God to appreciate this moving song about imagining what comes next after death, so long as one isn't against the idea of a heaven. The lyrics weave a story of all the good things that come with leaving life on Earth and joining heaven, putting a hopeful and warm spin on a scary concept. Additionally, the song happens to be one of Paisley's most successful in terms of awards. In 2006 it won Paisley and collaborator Dolly Parton Vocal Event of the Year and Video of the Year honors at the 41st Annual Academy of Country Music Awards, won Event of the Year at the 40th Annual CMA awards and was nominated for Collaborative Video of the Year and won Most Inspiring Video of the Year at the CMT Awards.
3. "Alcohol," 2005
Speaking of stereotypical country music themes, everybody knows country music stars love singing about booze. But Paisley's ode to that particular choice of poison is no standard drinking song. In a show of pure lyrical genius, Paisley makes alcohol a living, thinking thing and talks about its powers — good and bad — from the perspective of alcohol itself. "Been making the bars lots of big money and helping white people dance" and "I helped Hemmingway write like he did" are just two of the best lines in it — one humorous and one intelligent and pointed. It's tune isn't the catchiest, but if one focuses an ear on the lyrics, it's easy to understand why the song is a gem.
2. "He Didn't Have to Be," 1999
This song, a touching story about a man who wishes to be as good a father to his son as his stepfather was to him, was Paisley's first number one hit, topping the Billboard chart in December of its release year. It was also nominated as Song of the Year in the 2000 CMA awards. Its powerful plot and emotion-evoking tune make it one of his best, though it may also be one his most underrated.
1. "Online," 2007
This song gets the top spot for two reasons. First of all, it is the epitome of one of the things that makes Paisley great: his ability to take a characteristic of the real world and satirize it into lyrical and melodic gold. Paisley, along with co-writers Chris DuBois and Kelley Lovelace, hit on every great-yet-not-so-great thing about the Internet with incredible charm and comedic flair. The second reason is for the sheer success of it. It hit number one on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart, as well as on Canada's country music charts, and the video for it was named Video of the Year at the 2007 Country Music Association Awards.