Thursday, September 25, 2025
Time: 6:10 PM
Song: Act Naturally
Artist: Buck Owens
Mode of Consumption: Listening to vinyl album “’Live’ at the White House”
Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/3FZNNBybkQJZ5Q0afTgpC1?si=f6c829ec8a04488a
“Who was president in 1968?” Jodi asks. The album was recorded then, and it made me wonder about who was trying to score political points with whom by having a country music act play a live show there.
The back of the album is sure to call country music the ‘people’s music.’ Boy, seeing that through the lens of 2025 makes you wonder what ‘people’ they are including in that wording.
While certainly one could assume there are racial undertones to the language considering country music in 1968 was almost exclusively a white brand of music, my sense is the reference has more to do with the fact that it is 1968 and country music is likely trying to stake its claim against the rising current of rock and roll and pop music.
“Well, it’s after the Kennedy assassination, so it’s probably Johnson. It’d make sense since it calls out that Owens is from Texas,” I said.
So, what was Johnson trying to gain here? It was a couple months until the election, one won by Nixon over Johnson’s VP Hubert Humphrey.
Did he think that bringing Buck Owens, a staple of traditional country, would stoke the Democratic ticket in the hearts of conservative country music fans?
I guess it didn’t work, if that was the case. Was this simply something Owens and his people pushed for?
Was a live show at the White House a way to take country music away from the outlaw turn, one championed by Johnny Cash’s “Live at Folsom Prison” released in May of that year?
It’s quite the contrast. One country star singing about making it in the big time to politicians in Washington D.C. and the other spitting out those “Cocaine Blues” behind bars.
It’d be interesting to research the reasons behind Owen’s show and contrast it with Cash’s show at Folsom.
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