Album review: Brad Paisley ratchets up his Bard-like savvy on ‘Wheelhouse’

Shakespeare put many of his most trenchant observations about the human condition into the mouths of comic characters — jesters and fools — knowing that wisdom is disseminated more effectively with a spoonful of humor.

Country music triple threat Brad Paisley ratchets up his Bard-like savvy on “Wheelhouse,� perhaps his most ambitious album to date, taking on such hot-button topics as spousal abuse, Southern provincialism, racism and social justice alongside characteristically well-crafted mainstream country fare.

Paisley’s vantage points are framed through his still-blossoming stardom, which has taken him far beyond his album’s title. “Southern Comfort Zone� sets the tone right away, as Paisley sings over a throbbing country-rock beat: “I have walked the streets of Rome/I have been to foreign lands/I know what it’s like to talk/And have nobody understand.�

Paisley’s master stroke is to mine empathy — not frustration — from that experience, still embracing his core values while quietly extending others the same courtesy. And he packages it all in an arena-ready singalong, tacitly inviting listeners to sample his perspective.

“Karate� is a more lighthearted counterpart to Martina McBride’s 1994 hit “Independence Day,� in which an abused woman literally gains the upper hand, while “Accidental Racist� even-handedly questions assumptions about race relations, with middle America’s favorite rapper, LL Cool J, along to help flesh out his message. “Those Crazy Christians� deftly tweaks and salutes the faithful among whom Paisley grew up.

A ballad of lost love, “Tin Can on a String,� and the end-of-week party anthem “Outstanding in Our Field� sound pedestrian by comparison to the album’s high points. But then, even Shakespeare was known to throw his core following a few bones along the way if it helped get his intention across.

Brad Paisley

“Wheelhouse�

(Arista Nashville)

Three and a half stars (out of four)