Part II

1	Two Feet of Topsoil
2	I'm Gonna Miss Her
3	Part Two
4	Wrapped Around
5	Two People Fell in Love
6	Come on Over Tonight
7	You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive
8	I Wish You'd Stay
9	All You Really Need Is Love
10	Munster Rag (Instrumental)
11	You Have That Effect on Me
12	Too Country
13	The Old Rugged Cross

Barnes & Noble

All the elements that made Brad Paisley's 1999 debut, Who Needs Pictures, so refreshing and encouraging are in place on Part II. That is to say, the band is tight and honky-tonk/dance hall rooted; the songs offer a nice balance of good-humored barn-burners and shuffles, complemented by topical ballads and engaging love songs; and Paisley's husky voice is as warm and engaging as his guitar playing is fiery and flawless. Paisley pokes some good-natured fun at men's skewed priorities in the mock-tearjerker "I'm Gonna Miss Her," in which the guy's girl makes the mistake of demanding he choose between her and fishing. On a thoughtful note, there's the stirring "Two People Fell in Love," which traces a family's lineage -- from heroes to horrors -- back to its progenitors' love affair. A somber cover song, "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive," honors Merle Travis's classic "Dark as a Dungeon" in its evocation of the futility and frustration of coal miners' dead-end lives. The album closes on a powerful note, with Paisley's live, solo acoustic rendition of the gospel standard "The Old Rugged Cross," recorded live at the Grand Ole Opry. It's a nice touch, and like everything else on Part II, it feels right. David McGee

All Music Guide

Like many sophomore efforts called Part II, Brad Paisley's second album is indeed a continuation of the debut, but the singer/songwriter and guitarist hardly sounds like he's repeating himself the second time around. Instead, it sounds as if he's digging in deeper as both a writer and performer, which for the most part means that he's digging deeper into classic country, specifically the Bakersfield and honky tonk of the '60s and '70s. Ironically, one of the exceptions to the rule is the title track, a slow heartbreak ballad that sounds crafted with the radio in mind (even more ironically, it didn't turn into a hit), but apart from this song and a couple other left turns, like the too bombastic power ballad "I Wish You'd Stay," Paisley manages to make Part II sound simultaneously classic and contemporary. This is as true on lean, lively, guitar-heavy tunes like "Two Feet of Topsoil" and the rampaging instrumental "Munster Rag" as it is on the lazy, jazzy "You Have That Effect on Me," the haunting, folky "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive," and his spare reading of the gospel standard "The Old Rugged Cross." And it's not just that Paisley is faithful to the sound and feel of classic country; he's a sucker for classic country corn, which surfaces as humor -- "All You Really Need Is Love," where all the hidden costs of a wedding are ticked off, or "I'm Gonna Miss Her," where he's enjoying a day fishing so his old girlfriend is slipping his mind -- and sentiment, as on the unapologetically sappy "Too Country," where George Jones, Buck Owens, and Bill Anderson are all hauled out to celebrate country clichés. It's this embrace of Nashville schtick that separates Paisley from other neo-traditionalists -- he values the music and he values the pageantry in equal measure, and he's excellent at both, as this thoroughly entertaining second album proves. Stephen Thomas Erlewine