Brad Paisley Live! | Walnut Creek Raleigh NC

Brad Paisley

I got the opportunity to photograph country star Brad Paisley.  Now let me start off with saying, "Brad is like country music royalty".  Brad's first release was in 1999 so he coming close to 20 years in the country music and being one of the most popular country acts of all time.  To put into perspective his accomplishments let me just state some facts.  Bad has sold over 11 million albums world wide, won three Grammy Awards, 14 Academy of Country Music Awards, 14 Country Music Association Awards  and two American Music Awards.  Let that sink in for a bit, I know right?!.  He performed in Raleigh NC at the Walnut Creek Amptheater to a crowd of almost 13,000 people.  The weather was perfect and the crowd was ready for some Brad Paisley.  

The lights dimmed and even before Brad came out on stage the crowd was screaming at the top of their lungs with sheer excitement and he was not even on stage yet!  Brad came out and it was just pure excitement coming from the crowd.  The guitar started playing and Brad went into his first song.  I was in the pit with the crowd and used my 70-200mm lens to get a good perspective on him while letting the fans enjoy being up close and personal.  Brad said hello to the crowd and asked how everyone was, the crowd of course screamed back letting him know they were excited to see him.  He changed out his guitar a few times during his set and played flawless as far as I could tell.  His voice sound great, I did not hear any off key moments and the band kept the energy high.  He had some fans that were standing on stage with him in the back that got a more up close and personal experience with him.  I actually have a picture of my friend Brittani up on stage, as you can see she was very star struck and wicked excited. :)

My friend Brittani and QDR 94.7 promotions director.

Brad walked out and shook hands with fans and really embraced them and he genuanly wanted people to have a good time with him.  He sang some of his most popular songs and you could hear the crowd singing them back.  Brad Paisley put on a top notch show with great lighting and showed the fans he still has it as one of the leading country music stars of all time.