Play: The Guitar Album
Play: The Guitar Album is the seventh studio album by American country music artist Brad Paisley. It was released on November 4, 2008 (see 2008 in country music). Like all of his previous albums, "Play" was released on Arista Nashville and produced by Frank Rogers. The album is largely instrumental in nature, except for five vocal tracks. One of these tracks, "Start a Band" (a duet with Keith Urban), has been released as a single and has become Paisley's ninth consecutive Number One country hit, and his thirteenth overall. The album cover photograph was taken  at Bristow Run Elementary School in Bristow, Virginia. Content. "Play" is largely an album of instrumentals, though Paisley sings five duets with other vocalists, including B.B. King, Buck Owens, and Keith Urban. King and Urban both play guitar on their respective duet tracks. Another track, "Cluster Pluck", features James Burton, Vince Gill, Albert Lee, John Jorgenson, Brent Mason, Redd Volkaert and Steve Wariner. The Buck Owens duet is a song which Owens co-wrote. It is not strictly a country music record, featuring jazz guitar and a song described by Paisley as "very heavy metal." The final track, "Waitin' on  a Woman", was first included on Paisley's 2005 album "Time Well Wasted", and was later re-recorded as a bonus track to 2007's "5th Gear", from which it was released as a single. The version featured here includes guest vocals from Andy Griffith, and is the version used in the song's music video. "Start a Band", the only single from the album, was released in September 2008. It is a collaboration with Keith Urban, who sings duet vocals and plays second lead guitar on it, and it reached Number One on the "Billboard" country singles charts in  January 2009. At the 51st Grammy Awards, "Cluster Pluck" won the Grammy for Best Country Instrumental Performance, which was awarded to all of the guitarists featured. Reception. The album so far has a score of 70 out of 100 from Metacritic based on "generally favorable reviews". Chris Neal of "Country Weekly" magazine gave "Play" four stars out of five, calling it "as indispensable as any album Brad has recorded to date—not to mention one of his best", also noting the "sharp melodies and constantly shifting musical terrain". "Play" received three-and-a-half stars out of five from Allmusic  critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine, who referred to most songs as "fall[ing] within the realm of the expected", but cited others as "pure '80s shred[…]revealing a side he's previously camouflaged." Erlewine also said that, like Paisley's other albums, "Play" was "among the most adventurous and best country music of this decade." Ken Tucker of "Billboard" called the album "both outstanding and diverse" and made note of the Buck Owens duet, which he referred to as "bring[ing] an old friend back to life with the utmost respect." Whitney Pastorek, reviewing the album for "Entertainment Weekly", gave the album a  B− rating. She referred to the duets as "a welcome respite from all the noodling", but said that as a whole, the album was "an indulgence he's earned but doesn't quite pull off." In his Consumer Guide, Robert Christgau picked out one song from the album, "Waitin' on a Woman", as a "choice cut" (), calling it "a good song on an album that isn't worth your time or money". Personnel. Toy Band on "Huckleberry Jam" Group vocals on "Cluster Pluck"