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)

Young suggests the event's producers are "trying to show that what you hear on the radio is not necessarily what country music is. People tend to think that is what the music is, and that is not really the case. We tried to be conscientious by giving a sampling, giving a feeling for the breadth and depth of the music."

Jay Orr, senior music editor at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, was heavily involved in programming, and he says this is "not just an opportunity to showcase country in Washington at the Kennedy Center. We felt, as their partner, this was an opportunity to show our museum's values, to expand on the story that we tell here of country music as a tradition that's rooted in the folk song of the British Isles, in blues, in gospel music, and then channeled through the commercial engines of business to be what it is today."

"We really felt it was important to talk about the roots traditions, so we have folks like Earl Scruggs, who's very connected to that early country music but also a very progressive musician in terms of the things he's embraced outside of the music he grew up with." (This will be the 82-year-old Scruggs's first concert appearance since the death of his wife and longtime manager, Louise, in early February.)

Orr also points to the String Masters concert (Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas, et al.). "Those guys are all very rooted in tradition. They all learned their music either in family or community settings or from people who were folk musicians, but they've taken that and expanded on it and done something that's very progressive, very forward-looking."

There's also Kristofferson, "who's a very progressive songwriter but comes from Texas and has that heritage," Orr notes. "And Price, who pioneered the 4/4 shuffle, then went into the Nashville sound, and today he's playing South by Southwest. Whether it's the Tennessee Mafia Jug Band or [songwriters] Guy Clark, Shawn Camp and Matraca Berg, you'll find that all of them have a deep sense of tradition, but they're also very much of the day."

Still, the festival's history lessons are incomplete, especially when it comes to local and regional elements, aside from a Millennium Stage concert March 29 featuring country rockers the Rosslyn Mountain Boys and Bill Kirchen and Too Much Fun. But there's nothing about what many call "The Big Bang of Country Music," the 1927 Bristol Sessions (named after the town near the Virginia/Tennessee border) where Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family -- the father of country music and the first family of country music -- made their first recordings and helped shape and define the genre in its infancy.

In the late '40s and '50s, the nation's capital was a hotbed of country music, a major market second only to Nashville; in the '50 and '60s, it was considered the bluegrass capital of the nation. But there's no recognition of folks like Patsy Cline, Roy Clark, the Country Gentlemen or Seldom Scene.

And until now, country stars have been more notable for their absence from the nation's performing arts center. Even the four legends who have received prestigious Kennedy Center Honors -- Johnny Cash, Roy Acuff, Loretta Lynn and Willie Nelson -- made few concert appearances there. On the other hand, Nelson, Kristofferson and Asleep at the Wheel were all part of a 10-day Texas Festival that took over the center in 1991.

Maybe a country festival of that magnitude is waiting down the line.

"This can't be it for us," Kaiser says. "We can't do this and say, 'Well, now we've done it.' With most large projects, like the [2002] Sondheim festival, we do it and then spend a year thinking about what did we learn and then plan something else. [As to another festival], probably not next season but the season after that."

Young says he thinks the "Celebration" "signals that country music will be part of the menu ongoing at the Kennedy Center, so of course we're very happy about that. Clearly, we think it deserves that."

As Stuart sees it, "Country music and the roots of country music are as cultural as anything else this world has to offer, and I'm really happy to see it recognized as such. And it will be influential, without a doubt. Everybody keeps their eyes on the leader, and the Kennedy Center is a leader. When they make a move, you'll feel it in Kansas and Kentucky and elsewhere. It opens the door for much broader relationships."

Richard Harrington is the music writer for Weekend.