Brad Paisley Paints Top of Chart

Brad Paisley's 2009 CD, American Saturday Night, photo courtesy of Arista Nashville.

July 9, 2009 — Brad Paisley is having a brush with No. 1 — literally. He sold more than 129,000 copies of his new American Saturday Night album, and that’s enough to launch it straight to the top of the Billboard country album chart. And the artwork on the cover of the CD was hand-painted by Brad himself.

The front of the disc features Brad against a backdrop of reds, yellow and greens, all part of a massive painting. The backside of the album shows Brad using black paint to create the outlines of the buildings in the mural, and the inside photos document the art in various stages of completion.

The disc is being treated by many critics as a masterpiece. As for the art, it’s not exactly in a museum.

"It's in my garage, folded up on a wheelbarrow," he told Dial-Global. "I had a little guitar that I had at a thing, and I came home and I was in a hurry, and I pulled in the garage and I took the guitar out of the car 'cause I was leaving again, and I just stuck it in the wheelbarrow ... We pulled in back from this event, [Kimberly] said, 'That is so [typical] ... Look at you. You have a wheelbarrow, a painting and a guitar — I wish I had a photo of that 'cause that is absolutely you in a nutshell in every way ... just crammed in the corner of the garage!'"

With his American Saturday Night album riding high, the American Saturday Night Tour rolls into Clarkston, Mich., on Friday with Dierks Bentley and Jimmy Wayne. The next day, Brad and Dierks visit Fort Laramie, Ohio, on a jam-packed lineup that also features Craig Morgan, Diamond Rio, Luke Bryan and Adam Gregory.