Brad Paisley Leads Presidential Debate Show

feature

Brad Paisley at rehearsals for the 43rd Annual ACM Awards Show in Las Vegas. Photo provided by the Academy of Country Music.


Sept. 16, 2008 — Nashville’s Belmont University is hosting one of the three presidential debates this fall between John McCain and Barack Obama, and Brad Paisley is one of several former students who have banded together to present a concert for the media that will visit Music City for the big event.

Brad graduated from Belmont last decade, and WKRN-TV reports he’ll share the stage at the legendary Ryman Auditorium with former students Josh Turner, Trisha Yearwood and Julie Roberts on Oct. 5, two days before the debate takes place.

The concert is closed to the public, but it will likely shine a good light on country music for the visiting journalists, and that’s something the Nashville music business has tried to do frequently. It’s a reason the Country Music Association held its awards in New York for one year, and why the CMA continues to showcase artists and writers in the Big Apple. In fact, Josh and David Lee Murphy visited New York last week as the headliners for a CMA songwriters event at Joe’s Pub. That came the night before Rascal Flatts and Taylor Swift announced the CMA nominees from a New York television studio.

.