Brad Paisley photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

Country music insiders have long been able to measure the awards season by their mailbox, whether that meant snail mail or email. Members of the Academy of Country Music or Country Music Association — sometimes even likely members — could count on free CDs, fliers and emails with video links from artists’ representatives all trying to lock up a vote for the coveted trophies for their candidate.

The last few years, the ACM has thrown voting in the New Artist and Entertainer of the Year categories open to the fans (GACTV.com was a vehicle for the first round of fan voting for this year’s New Artist award), and plenty of artists and their reps have come up with ways to call attention to their candidate and essentially campaign for your vote.

Brad Paisley, who’s one of eight finalists for Entertainer, is not one of them.

“I’m uncomfortable campaigning, to be honest with you,” he said before his recent No. 1 party for “Welcome To The Future” and “American Saturday Night.” “I don’t like that part of it. I understand that people love to get involved, and that’s cool that they can. I just — vote for who you want. If you’re happy with somebody’s show last year and you had a great time, vote for them. If that’s me, that’s great. And if not, I will stand up and clap for whoever wins.”

Make no mistake: Brad will certainly be there. He’s got four nominations in all, and he’s scheduled to perform at the April 18 awards at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, then return the next night to take part in the taping of an ACM-related CBS special celebrating Brooks & Dunn. Whether he wins anything or not, Brad’s looking forward to the big event, which carries less pressure, he says, than November’s CMA Awards in Nashville.

“The ACMs, they’re in Vegas, first of all, so they’re a little more of the show where what happens there stays there,” he said. “You can walk through the casino and see Kix Brooks throwin’ down, you know… The CMA Awards are sort of the night of the year where everybody’s gettin’ dressed up, our wives are at home getting gussied up and there’s a limo picking them up and the rest of us are up there rehearsing and they bring them in and everyone’s decked out and then we all go to our respective parties and then home. [In Vegas] it’s a party the whole time, and it’s a little more light-hearted.”

Brad’s not the only one who’ll be in on the party. Reba McEntire hosts the awards at 8 p.m. ET April 18 on CBS. Some of the other artists slated to perform include Jason Aldean, Kenny Chesney, Lady Antebellum, Tim McGraw, Blake Shelton & Trace Adkins and Carrie Underwood.

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