Brad Paisley is in a strangely nostalgic mood on 5th Gear, its title both a reference to its status as Paisley's fifth studio album and to the numerous car songs scattered across this album.
Those car songs aren't mere celebrations of magic machinery; they're infused with nostalgia -- he holds to a very teenage interpretation of the power of the car, meaning that the automobile is the embodiment of freedom, and this isn't his only gaze back to adolescence, either.
He's even writing letters back to his 17-year-old self, consoling him that things are gonna turn out OK after all is said and done, which gets to the core of 5th Gear: Paisley is happy about how things have turned out but he still can't help but look back just a little wistfully.
He may be a little melancholy about his teenage wildlife, but he acknowledges that things don't get any better than this in not one, but two songs -- in "It Did," where a storybook romance just grows stronger, and "Better Than This," where he says the only way the party could improve is if there were a 1,000-gallon keg and Merle and Willie provided a live soundtrack.
It's a curious mix of acceptance and regret, but it's appropriate for somebody who is starting to realize that he's settling into his mid-thirties, recognizing that things are changing, sometimes not always in comfortable ways.
Case in point: he snipes at Internet nerds sequestered in their basements, lying about themselves on MySpace, in "Online," an obvious joke that comes just a bit too close to bullying, but he saves himself with his smarts -- not just verbal (obvious they may be, the jokes are cutting) but musical, as he ends it with a marching band that delivers an aural punch line set up by the words.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TicksKelley Lovelace, Tim Owens, Brad Paisley | Brad Paisley | Play | 04:33 | 10 MB | 32 MB |
| 2 | OnlineChristophe Dubois, Kelley Lovelace, Brad Paisley | Brad Paisley | Play | 04:56 | 11 MB | 36 MB |
| 9 mins | 21 MB | |||||
| 9 mins | 68 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roy Agee | Trombone |
| 2 | Bill Anderson | Primary Artist |
| 3 | Whisperin' Bill Anderson | Primary Artist |
| 4 | Tom Baldrica | Tuba |
| 5 | Brady Barnett | Digital Editing |
| 6 | Richard Barrow | Engineer, Overdub Engineer |
| 7 | Casey Beathard | Composer |
| 8 | Jim Beavers | Composer |
| 9 | Ron Black | Banjo |
| 10 | Ron Block | Banjo |
| 11 | Steve Bogard | Composer |
| 12 | Drew Bollman | Assistant |
| 13 | Randy Box | Conductor |
| 14 | Brentwood High School Marching Band | Performer |
| 15 | Chris Brooks | Arranger, Drums |
| 16 | Jim "Moose" Brown | Organ (Hammond), Piano, Wurlitzer |
| 17 | Neal Cappellino | Overdub Engineer |
| 18 | Matt Coles | Assistant |
| 19 | Randle Currie | Guitar (Steel) |
| 20 | Eric Darken | Percussion |
| 21 | Jay Dawson | Arranger, Mellophonium |
| 22 | Jim Dawson | Arranger |
| 23 | Little Jimmy Dickens | Performer, Primary Artist |
| 24 | Christophe Dubois | Audio Production, Composer, Executive Producer |
| 25 | Vince Gill | Primary Artist |
| 26 | Kevin Grantt | Bass (Electric), Bass (Upright) |
| 27 | Marvin Green | Composer |
| 28 | Vicki Hampton | Vocals (Background) |
| 29 | Mike Haynes | Trumpet |
| 30 | Aubrey Haynie | Fiddle, Mandolin |
| 31 | Eliza E. Hewitt | Composer |
| 32 | Wes Hightower | Vocals (Background) |
| 33 | Gary Hooker | Guitar (12 String), Guitar (Baritone), Guitar (Electric) |
| 34 | Mike Johnson | Dobro |
| 35 | George Jones | Performer |
| 36 | Kung Pao Buckaroos | Primary Artist |
| 37 | Tim Lauer | Keyboards |
| 38 | Jason Lehning | Overdub Engineer |
| 39 | Sam Levine | Saxophone |
| 40 | Kenny Lewis | Guitar (Bass) |
| 41 | Hillary Lindsey | Composer |
| 42 | Kelley Lovelace | Composer |
| 43 | Steve Marcantonio | Overdub Engineer |
| 44 | Kendall Marcy | Banjo |
| 45 | Aimee Mayo | Composer |
| 46 | Lee Thomas Miller | Composer |
| 47 | Tyler Moles | Digital Editing |
| 48 | Gordon Mote | Clavinet, Keyboards, Music Box, Piano |
| 49 | David Lee Murphy | Composer |
| 50 | Joe Murphy | Tuba |
| 51 | Joe Murphy | Tuba |
| 52 | New Kung Pao Buckaroos | Primary Artist |
| 53 | Justin Niebank | Mixing |
| 54 | Tim Owens | Composer |
| 55 | Brad Paisley | Composer, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Primary Artist |
| 56 | Dolly Parton | Performer, Primary Artist |
| 57 | Mark Petaccia | Assistant |
| 58 | Frank Rogers | Audio Production, Composer, Producer |
| 59 | Ben Sesar | Composer, Drums |
| 60 | Steve Short | Assistant |
| 61 | Phillip Stein | Production Assistant |
| 62 | Jeff Stevens | Composer |
| 63 | Bryan Sutton | Banjo, Guitar (Acoustic), Mandolin |
| 64 | Carrie Underwood | Primary Artist, Vocals, Vocals (Background) |
| 65 | Kristin Wilkinson | Arranger, Coordination |
| 66 | Hank Williams | Mastering |
| 67 | Justin Williamson | Fiddle, Mandolin |
| 68 | "Loopy Dave" Willis | Digital Editing |
| 69 | Brian David Willis | Digital Editing, Engineer, Overdub Engineer |
| 70 | Trent Willmon | Composer |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |