This is country music week at the White House! Get ready to hear Brad Paisley (top) and Alison
Krauss (bottom) and Union Station — the top modern bluegrass band (she has 26 Grammys) — in the East Room and the State Dining Room. The show begins Tuesday at 2 p.m., when Jay Orr moderates an educational workshop with the musicians for 120 middle- and high school students from around the country (40 are coming from Nashville, which is a little like coals to Newcastle, no?). The students are supposed to “learn about the craft of songwriting and the genres of country music, including bluegrass, honky tonk and rockabilly,” according to the White House press machine.
As she was for the first of these music events — on
jazz — First Lady Michelle Obama will be there. Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, will
make the opening remarks.
Then, at 7:30 p.m., Paisley and Krauss and Union Station will perform at the White House, with the president in attendence, and he’ll make remarks. Eddie Stubbs, from the Grand Ole Opry will MC.
UPDATED, 7/20: 4 p.m.: The White House has just sent word that Charley Pride has joined in and will perform at the 7:30 gathering — though not the workshop.
This is all part of the Obama Administration’s effort to make the arts more prominent, more part of our daily lives, and to show the importance of arts education. I applaud it, and hope it works.
It’s unclear to me exactly how these events are coming together, though. Jazz At Lincoln Center was critical to the last one, and this time the Country Music Association and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum were involved with the planning. The Grand Ole Opry and Great American Country Television are producing the evening event. But my call to the First Lady’s press office, to which I was referred by the West Wing Press Office, has so far gone unanswered.
In the fall, classical music will get its turn — and I am very curious about who’ll be involved with that event.
Here’s another suggestion: wouldn’t it be great if these events were televised on a network? A video of the jazz event was available on the White House website, I’ve been told, but I could not find it yesterday — just a short clip of Mrs. Obama’s remarks on YouTube. I’m probably not the only one who’d rather watch these music celebrations than summer reruns.
For those who subscribe, Great American Country Television is producing a special on this event, for airing early in August, according to a press release.