On Tuesday, July 21, 2009 Brad Paisley performed for the President, First Lady and family, members of Congress and White House staff in the historic East Room of the White House. Photo credit Ben Enos.

Tuesday is Election Day in many parts of the U.S., and the week is a monumental anniversary as well: Barack Obama was voted the nation’s first African-American president on Nov. 4, 2008.

That same date marked the release of Brad Paisley’s Play album, and he couldn’t have created better timing if he’d planned it. He was in New York to promote the CD the day the nation went to the polls, and he witnessed hysterical celebration in Times Square. That helped inspire his song “Welcome To The Future,” which hit No. 1 this anniversary week in Country Aircheck.

“Welcome To The Future” had even better timing this summer. Brad performed the song live for the first time in the East Room of the White House with Obama sitting just a few feet away. Neither the president nor his staff were aware of the song when Brad was invited to perform.

Brad didn’t know when he started writing it that “Future” would be a single, and he didn’t know the rest of its destiny either — that he would play it for the man who inspired it or that it would become his 12th No. 1 single. And, as things go, it’s just as well.

“If you had made me aware of that when we were writing it, it would’ve been a different song,” Brad says. “It would have been very hard to focus thinking about performing that in the East Room.”

Whatever statement the election made about the red state-blue state divide, Brad felt the real focus of the song was the social progress he’s witnessed.

“I caught a little bit of flack from some people that didn’t quite understand, that thought for a second that maybe I was getting political with this song,” he concedes. “This isn’t that. This is my tribute to the emotions of Nov. 4th and that, just that verse, regardless of where you stand, to me, a year prior to the election, comments were made among friends and people that said to me, ‘I kinda like that guy… but I just don’t think this country’s ready to elect, you know, essentially a minority.’ And on Nov. 4th we proved that we were willing to sort of put things aside.”

“Welcome To The Future” makes its biggest impact by drawing a line from Obama’s victory to Martin Luther King and to Rosa Parks, the African-American woman who refused to give up her seat on an Alabama bus in 1955. Brad’s song isn’t the only current one to reference them. Tim McGraw’s “Southern Voice,” which hit the Top 15 this week, namechecks them both.

Meanwhile, Brad continues his impeccable timing. Just as “Future” hits the top this week, Brad released his new single, “American Saturday Night,” to radio stations on Monday. And all this activity rolls him toward next week’s 43rd annual Country Music Association Awards. He’ll join Carrie Underwood as co-host of the Nov. 11 show, where he’s the top prospect with seven nominations.

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