At least Paisley's guitar work still blazes

"We're going to play everything you want to hear," Brad Paisley informed the audience Saturday night at the Susquehanna Bank Center. For the next hour and three-quarters, he made good on his promise. While he played a handful of songs from his new album, American Saturday Night, the bulk of the show was devoted to a selection of familiar favorites, their staging and accompanying graphics unchanged from previous August shows in the same arena.

Paisley has made himself one of country's biggest stars by working both sides of the aisle, turning out waggish pop hits while writing sentimental, even maudlin, ballads at the same time. As he explained in "I'm Still a Guy," from his 2007 album 5th Gear, he's a man's man who's not afraid to show his sensitive side: "I'll pour out my heart, hold your hand in the car, write a love song that makes you cry. Then turn right around, knock some jerk to the ground, 'cause he copped a feel as you walked by."

On the new album, though, Paisley seems to have forgotten how to integrate the two sides. The high-speed bluegrass romp "Catch All the Fish" proclaimed a man's right to stay out as long as they're biting, and "Then" is a tender ballad about long-term love. But the former came off more crass than clever, while the latter (a No. 1 hit, by the by) was pure syrup. "The Pants," for which Paisley dismissed his seven-piece band and grabbed an acoustic guitar, attempted to split the difference, wittily deflating a man's sense of domestic superiority. But it turns out Paisley's version of female empowerment mainly involves withholding marital relations, a form of assertion that went out with Aristophanes.

Based on the redundancy in his stage show, not to mention the release of three albums in as many years (counting last year's mostly instrumental Play), Paisley seems to be draining his inspirational well dry. He's certainly not sweating the lyrics the way he used to. American Saturday Night's title track is a collection of hackneyed good-time imagery that wouldn't look out of place in a beer commercial.

At least the drought hasn't spread to his playing. A blazing guitarist who mixes restraint with flash, Paisley dazzled with his short but punchy solos, as well as an instrumental accompanied by crude Flash animation done by the singer himself - itself a well-established tradition in his shows. Call him uninspired, but don't call him uninvolved.