Brad Paisley's touring bourbon returns for an encore release

Most musicians can't hit the road without that one travel essential — like a pillow from home, a pair of comfortable headphones or a beloved road dog that doesn't miss a tour date. 

Brad Paisley? He travels coast-to-coast with a semi-truck full of bourbon. Seriously. 

Paisley introduced this week his second batch of American Highway Reserve, a Kentucky whiskey aged in barrels that rolled along with the country singer during his 2021 U.S. tour. 

The bourbon — called "Route 2," created in partnership with Bardstown Bourbon Company — traveled in 90 barrels with Paisley and his band, from crisp New England nights to desert heat in Arizona. 

The 10,000-case batch primarily includes 12-year-old and 4-year-old Kentucky straight bourbons aided by an 8-year-old Georgia bourbon that distillers aged for thousands of miles on Paisley's "Rolling Rickhouse" last year. 

"OK, you've got this great recipe,' Paisley told The Tennessean, "What happens to it when takes the journey of a country music tour?. Which is pretty ironic, because the journey is also the destination for this [bourbon]. My best case scenario is someone has a glass of this while they're watching a concert." 

Tossing and turning in barrels on the road isn't far removed from liquors aged centuries ago on boats at sea, Paisley said. Plus, a little live music doesn't hurt, either. 

"I think there's an intangible alchemy," Paisley said. "You gotta think there's definitely a response to having been in earshot of 60 concerts." 

In the batch of American Highway Reserve, Paisley and Bardstown blended a bourbon the former describes as featuring unexpected hints of a caramel scent and an effervescent richness he likens to Coca-Cola.

Bardstown describes the bourbon as featuring notes of charred oak and leather teamed with baked apple and almond on the nose, plus an toffee and cinnamon complexity. Route 2 aspires to be a glass to unwind with, Paisley said — maybe at a baseball game or, of course, catching a concert. 

For this three-time Grammy-winning "Whiskey Lullaby" singer, a memorable glass of bourbon shouldn't come off as too sweet or too spicy.

"There [are] bad things you don't want," Paisley said, " like astringency. A bitterness that's not good. If you can avoid those, I usually like it. That's what we were going for with this." 

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And no, Paisley isn't a backroad bootlegger like Burt Reynolds in "White Lightening," he jested. Each batch gets padlocked when it leaves Kentucky, leaving the aging process up to a little roadside faith, Paisley said. 

After all, like a great song, each batch may never be the same. 

"You could do the same exact recipe and it's not gonna be the same," Paisley said. "We're not gonna play the same places. It won't be the same time of year. It's just gonna be different every time."