Eric Paslay definitely knows how to craft a hit song. Jake Owen, Rascal Flatts, Love and Theft and the Eli Young Band have all scored No. 1 singles thanks to Paslay’s songwriting prowess, but fans who have seen him onstage will testify there is so much more to the tall, Texas redhead than his excellent songwriting chops.  Paslay is a charismatic performer and a potent vocalist who knows how to connect with an audience. When his single “Friday Night” reached the No. 1 spot, Paslay arrived as an artist in his own right.

“Friday Night” serves as an inviting preview to his EMI Records Nashville debut album, a vibrant collection of songs that cover a wide expanse of emotional territory from his newest single, the aching ballad “She Don’t Love You” to the clever up tempo “Song About A Girl” and the poignant, uplifting “Deep As It Is Wide.” Working with producers Marshall Altman, Daniel Hill and Billy Lynn, Paslay has created a colorful sonic landscape. “Life isn’t always the same heartbeat, so I don’t want to have an album of songs at the same tempo,” Paslay says of the musical and lyrical diversity displayed on his eponymous debut.

It all started for Paslay when he began playing guitar and writing songs at 15. “I wrote a poem for a girl,” he recalls with a grin. “I never gave it to her and then I discovered that most songs are poems, so I just put a melody and chords to the poem, and there was my first song.” These days Eric Paslay has moved from backstage to center stage. “It’s like someone flipped a switch on and people know what I do now,” he says with a smile, “but the coolest thing is when you have a hit song and you can stop singing and the audience keeps singing it. With ‘Friday Night,’ that’s started to happen. I’ll sing ‘I want to be your…’ and I’ll point to the crowd and they’ll go ‘Friday Night!  That’s one of those moments that every kid dreams about – singing a song and the crowd knows it so well that they sing it back to you. You get to sing it together. I’m glad I’m getting to experience that as a performer. To have a hit that radio has played so much that people are singing back to you, it’s pretty cool.”  It is with this excitement that Paslay extends his national headlining Make Every Night A Friday Night tour which runs through April 2015, making stops in over 30 markets.