BRAD PAISLEY
This month Stuart Ryan gets to grips with the acoustic style of a Nashville superstar who’s better known for ripping out scary electric licks.
Country superstar Brad Paisley was born on October 28, 1972 in Glen Dale, West Virginia and began learning guitar aged eight. His first performances were in the local church and by his early teens he was writing his own music. Soon he was performing regularly and opening for major acts like Ricky Skaggs and George Jones. Unlike many musicians, his entrance to the business followed a planned trajectory - he studied music business in college and worked as an intern at Atlantic Records before signing a publishing contract with EMI just a week after leaving college. His first album, Who Needs Pictures, was released in 1999 and gave him his first number one country single with the beautiful ballad, We Danced.
Paisley’s high-octane electric style has been covered many times but his skills as an acoustic part writer and accompanist are equal to his electric chops. His acoustic playing can be solid strumming accompaniment or ferocious lead work. For
“Brad worked as an intern at Atlantic Records before signing a deal just a week after leaving college”
this study I’ve focused on his colourful approach to playing through standard chord progressions and this piece examines how he uses chord voicings to create a backdrop to his hit ballads. You can fingerpick this one or use a pick - Brad will often use a plectrum when playing parts like these. The main technique here is ‘chord enrichment’ which means taking standard, ‘obvious’ chords and changing or adding a few notes to them to make more colourful and ‘richer’.
NEXT MONTH Stuart checks out top Nashville musician and writer, Chris Stapleton