Country Comes to Town

Marty Stuart joins a lineup of numerous country music performers for the Kennedy Center's "Country: A Celebration of America's Music." (2003 Photo By Mark Humphrey -- Associated Press)

"We said, 'Let's go there with the right people, the people that are authentic,' " Gill says. "Not to say that someone isn't, but oftentimes when you do something a little out of your comfort zone or norm, people think you have to bring what's the most popular, what's the most famous, what's the biggest thing going. I've never really thought that way. To me it was about getting artists to come and perform whatever kind of music they do in an authentic way. Let's go and represent the history of this music, not just the currency of this music."

Kyle Young, director of the Country Music Hall of Fame, says that although country music is firmly rooted in tradition, it's always moving in new directions and has connections to other kinds of music (see Allan Harris and Cross That River's jazz-oriented "The Saga of a Black Cowboy" March 25, or the old-timey comedy string band antics of the Tennessee Mafia Jug Band on March 26).

"By giving people a good sampling of what the music is about, what its origins are, what contemporary manifestations of it are, people begin to appreciate that this music is a more complicated thing than people might think it is, that it really is part of a long, long, long tradition that constantly evolves," Young says.

Giving country music a national stage, even temporarily, has been a challenge on several levels, particularly scheduling big-name artists and finding open dates in the appropriate concert halls. With classical music and opera, for instance, concerts are often booked years ahead. In pop and country, artists playing for larger audiences tend to book much later than performing arts centers are traditionally used to.

"In the time frame of this festival, we were not able to get everyone we wanted," Kaiser acknowledges, "but this is not the last time we're going to be doing this."

There's also a perception, mostly unacknowledged and, Kaiser insists, unfair, that people who love country music don't necessarily frequent performing arts centers. That advance ticket sales have been good doesn't surprise Kaiser, who says, "There's this huge audience out there for country music.

"There was this notion that certain people wouldn't feel comfortable coming to performing arts centers if they hadn't done it routinely, and I've never believed that. I believe that if you do work that people want to see or hear, they're going to come. In that, the Kennedy Center record mirrors other arts centers, and that's what we're trying to rectify now."

There's also the comparative abundance of year-round jazz programming, though in the commercial world, jazz sales pale next to country. Kaiser speculates that "historically there has been more jazz in arts centers. It was just a music that was more accepted and promoted, whereas country music was something that was done in very specific parts of the country but didn't necessarily 'belong' in an arts center. We disagree obviously."

Wisely, the Kennedy Center understood it was not capable of curating a country music festival by itself, and that's where the collaboration with the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum emerged.

"We were flattered and overjoyed," Young says. "We knew of [the Kennedy Center] as the nation's performing arts center. They had a sense of the context they wanted to bring to the festival, and we were happy they thought about us. "

The Kennedy Center sent representatives to Nashville to tour the museum and to meet with key staff. According to Young, "It was pretty clear they really appreciated what we've done here and thought we would be important to helping create the content, and that's what we are -- content people. We have devoted 40 years to taking care of this part of the culture, so we value it highly."

Given the limited number of open dates at the Kennedy Center, and the limited availability of artists, it shouldn't be surprising that the lineup for this inaugural "Celebration" is somewhat limited. There's none of the Muzik Mafia (Gretchen Wilson, Big & Rich) that seems to be dominating country radio and sales, no glimmer of the alt-country movement.