Paisley to make a splash when ‘H20’ tour arrives at Arena tonight

Brad Paisley’s 2010 world tour isn’t just a concert, it’s a wetventure.

Titled “H2O,” the country music superstar’s live extravaganza, which comes to the Spokane Arena tonight and the Gorge Amphitheatre on Saturday, brings together a host of artists on the rise combined with water-based fun and fundraising.

Paisley’s tour is partnered with Hope Through Healing Hands and powered by Chevy, Sea Ray and Skinny Waters.

Hope Through Healing Hands is a nonprofit organization committed to improving health, diplomacy and sustainability for communities at home and abroad. Through the Water = Hope Campaign, it is raising awareness for estimated one out of five people worldwide who lack access to safe drinking water.

Donations from Paisley’s tour are being used dig wells and purify water in underdeveloped communities in the U.S. and around the the globe.

While the concert has a sobering message, it will be anything but dry.

In addition to the main music stage – where Paisley will be joined by pop-country artists Darius Rucker and Justin Moore – there is a Water World Plaza hydrofestival with a stage spotlighting Nashville newcomers Easton Corbin, Steel Magnolia and Josh Thompson, plus water-themed attractions including a fishing simulator and a dunk tank.

A Corvette driving simulator gives fans a chance to to meet Paisley – if they can beat his racing time.

And then there’s the music by the man himself.

A three-time Grammy winner and recipient of 12 Academy of Country Music Awards and 13 Country Music Association Awards, Paisley has been named Best Male Vocalist for the last three years by the CMA and the last four by the ACM – the only artist to do so three or more times in a row.

His eighth studio set, “American Saturday Night” was Time magazine’s 2009 Album of the Year. The title track was Paisley’s 16th No. 1 hit.

In November, Paisley releases his first official greatest hits package, “Hits Alive,” a double-disc collection with one disc of studio versions of hit singles and a second disc of previously unreleased live versions of his songs.

In an unfortunate coincidence, the H2O tour was almost capsized before it began when Paisley – along with hundreds of other artists – lost nearly all of his tour gear and instruments to the devastating flood that washed through Nashville in early May.

Team Paisley scrambled to replace everything in time for the tour kick-off as planned later that month.

The experience further fueled Paisley’s desire to use this tour to make a difference. Besides the fun and games at H2O, there is a Hope Through Healing Hands booth with information about water charities.

“That was my intent in the beginning,” Paisley told AOL News, “to make this thing more important than just a bunch of people getting drunk on the lawn every night.”