Play It Louder

By Shane Harrison

Play is a big gamble—a largely instrumental album from one of country’s most reliable hit makers. You can just hear the Nashville suits gnashing their teeth, asking, “Where are the hits?” They might be here, but only among the four vocal tracks. Play is at its best, though, when Telecaster master Paisley is tearing it up on his twangy six-string. On album opener “Huckleberry Jam,” Paisley’s guitar rolls and tumbles like an Olympic gymnast, trading licks with the pedal steel and banjo. Play is pretty (“Kim”), finger-popping (the cocktail jazzy “Les Is More”) and goofy fun. “Turf’s Up” sends country to the beach, as Paisley channels both the living (surf-guitar god Dick Dale) and the dead (country-guitar titan Chet Atkins). When guest six-string slingers James Burton, Vince Gill, John Jorgensen, Albert Lee, Redd Volkaert and Steve Wariner join Paisley for a romp through “Cluster Pluck”—silly title notwithstanding—it’s a Telecaster lover’s fever dream.