Brad Paisley’s “love affair with water” paid off for Alabama’s Gulf Coast Sunday evening as more than 30,000 people packed onto the Gulf Shores Public Beach for Paisley’s beach concert for coastal recovery.

Paisley’s concert was the third concert held on the coast this summer to both boost tourism and bolster the coastal economy that was devastated by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill earlier this summer.

Legendary rocker Jon Bon Jovi opened the weekend with a Friday night concert in front of 35,000 fans on the same stage.

Country superstars Little Big Town kicked off the concert on Sunday evening at 6:55 with their song “Why, Oh, Why.” The band includes four vocalists who can be heard on all of their tracks. Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman, Jimi Westbrook and Phillip Sweet all harmonize together and alternate as lead singers to create some of the biggest hits in country music today.

Little Big Town continued to rock the beach with their hits including their latest on the charts, “Little White Church.” Fairchild joked that the song about a woman holding back until her longtime beau took her to the altar was written for all the women out there.

Little Big Town performed “Bones,” “A Little More You,” “The Reason Why,” “Bring it on Home,” “I’m with the band,” “Good as Gone,”  and previewed “Kiss Goodbye,” which will be released to country radio this week. Little Big Town also performed their first hit, “Boondocks” with slightly different lyrics, singing “Bama feels like home to me.”

Fairchild spoke for the group, saying “We are so excited to be here with y’all. We came to tell the whole world that we came to have a party with you and Brad Paisley.”

Little Big Town only took the stage for forty minutes, but their time on stage was packed with hits.

Brad Paisley took the stage at 8 p.m. and performed non-stop until 9:45. Paisley appeared to be climbing out of a pool with his guitar on his back to kick off his set with his recent hit, which was fittingly entitled “Water.”

Amidst his set, Paisley proclaimed, “We have got to prove this place is still open for business,” and “I never dreamed I’d ever look at something as beautiful as this. I am so glad to be here in one of the most beautiful places on Earth! We are here to show people that it is still one of the most beautiful places on Earth!”

Paisley continued rattling off his repertoire of hits, along with a few covers. Paisley performed “Online,” “Wrapped Around,” “Everything to me,” “You do the math,” “Celebrity,” “Waitin’ on a woman,” “Catch all the fish,” “Letter to me,” “Mud on the Tires,” “Still a guy,” “Whiskey Lullaby” with a special (effects) guest appearance by Allison Krauss, “You are the world,” “Fishing song,” “Welcome to the future,” and “Then.”

His three-year-old son requested that he sing a special song, “Single Ladies” by Beyonce and he also covered “Dixie Delight.” After closing the show Paisley came back out for an encore and sang “Ticks” and “Alcohol.”

Shortly after taking the stage, Paisley said this concert would last as long as those in the crowd wanted it to. “We will stay here as long as you will. Skip work tomorrow. I said it was OK,” said Paisley.

Paisley joined the crowd on the beach for a while during his concert, playing a few tunes from a special stage amidst the crowd. He said, “I thought I better come out in the sand with you guys. This is one of the coolest places to have a concert.”

As the crowd made their way towards the buses waiting to take them back to their cars, Paisley said, “God Bless you guys and thank you for coming out here. God Bless the Gulf of Mexico.”

Paisley also said, “They think the oil spill was hard to clean up? Wait until you people leave.”