Photos: Brad Paisley charms the Abbotsford Entertainment Centre

This story originally appeared in the Fraser Valley Current's sister publication, the Georgia Straight.

Brad Paisley returned to the Abbotsford Entertainment Centre for the first time since COVID shut the world down back in 2020. A lot has changed since then, but Paisley expressed his gratitude for being able to gather again and let music unite us. His current Truck Still Works tour across Canada opened here with guest artists Meghan Patrick and Jackson Dean.

Patrick is a former Canadian female country artist of the year and Dean is a fairly new artist with a couple of big singles on country radio and a voice that reminds one of Chris Stapleton or HARDY.

Both were well-received but this crowd was here for Paisley, and he didn't disappoint.

Paisley cranked out hit after hit with his charm, unending sense of humour, and some of the best guitar pickin' you'll ever hear. It's not surprising that almost every track had a guitar solo in it. Some of his biggest hits have accompanying videos that just add to the fun like "I'm Gonna Miss Her", about choosing between fishing and a relationship, or "Celebrities", which had its own caricature 'Brad' with an over-sized foam head that toured the stage wearing an Abbotsford Canucks jersey. He even presented a young lady, also named Paisley, with the guitar off his back after signing a quick autograph. Paisley made another memorable evening so much fun that you didn't mind that you had lost your voice the next morning.