American Saturday Night is the eighth studio album by American country music artist Brad Paisley. It was released on June 30, 2009, by Arista Nashville. Like all of his previous studio albums, it is produced by Frank Rogers.[2] The first single, "Then," has become his fourteenth Number One on the Hot Country Songs chart. iTunes released songs from the album weekly as part of the countdown to the album's release. "Water" was released on June 9, 2009, followed by the title track on June 16 and "Everybody's Here" on June 23. The second radio single is "Welcome to the Future." The title track was released as the third single on November 16, 2009. As of the chart dated January 8, 2011, the album has sold 714,812 copies in the US.[3] It earned a 2009 Academy of Country Music Awards nomination for "Album of the Year". In 2012, MSN.com listed American Saturday Night as one of the 21 Essential 21st-Century Albums.[4]
In an interview with USA Today, Paisley said he took a more direct approach with this album: "I'm not so worried about making the songwriters in town sit and take notice, as I am wanting people to feel like I really meant what I said on this record."[5]
The album was lauded by critics. According to Metacritic, the album holds a score of 78 out of 100 based on 13 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[15] Chris William of Entertainment Weekly wrote, "Paisley discs usually include instrumentals, comedy sketches, and gospel. Here, he drops that lovable detritus, going for constant home runs."[8]The Dallas Morning News also gave it an A− and said it "blends everything that's great about Paisley without overdoing the positives."[16]Country Weekly also gave it four stars out of five and called it "another sterling entry in an increasingly imposing body of work."[17] Roughstock gave it a favorable review and called it "the work of an artist fully in command of both himself and his audience and it’s a record that is likely to become the most successful and popular release of his career."[18]The Washington Post also gave it a favorable review and said of Paisley, "As on most of the album's other songs, his delivery is honest and true, free of mawkishness, full of feeling and fine-tuned to its emotional core."[19]The New York Times gave it a positive review and said that "Mr. Paisley's songs are better when they're more abstract. The title track celebrates America as a mongrel nation, but it mostly expresses that thought through our playtime consumption: Dutch beer, Canadian bacon, Brazilian leather. A very big thought is being missed here."[20]BBC Music also gave it a favorable review and called it "a terrific and subtly clever album, a(nother) spirited and worthwhile challenge by Paisley to the prejudices of both sides of country's enduring schism."[21]The Boston Globe also gave it a favorable review and called it "a smartly produced album that, while adhering to the blueprint for commercial-radio country music, successfully lassos a loose party vibe."[22]
It was #1 on Time magazine's list of The Top Ten Albums of 2009. Rhapsody (online music service) ranked the album #12 on its "Country’s Best Albums of the Decade" list and #13 on its list of "The 25 Best Albums of 2009".[23][24]
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