The White House most evenings is dark, full of shadows and dim light, eerily silent. The White House gig, once the highest honor for many American and world performers alike, is no more, the grand ballroom no longer the quintessential American venue celebrating performing arts and artists … and that certain something that makes them great, immortal and beloved. During Presidents’ past, White House concerts were major celebrity events, sparkling with performances spanning every genre of musical taste. President Carter and Presidents Bushes were keen on progressive country artists while President Obama was first to include an evening of rap featuring then-controversial Common. But Presidents Kennedy, Reagan and Clinton opened the White House every few weeks to a variety of performers in fondly remembered concerts. For decades the tradition of special musical evenings was magical in that they brought together politicians and performers, Republicans and Democrats, for a night of delight. That’s the way it used to be in America. Everyone tried to get along. All agreed music charmed and soothed.
What happened? Who killed the White House concerts? PBS used to air
“In Performance at the White House” since 1978, the last show in 2016. The only one to blame is the current President, a longtime associate of show business but lacking that certain something that springs forth from great entertainers into the living rooms of Americans watching television.
Musicians and show biz folk are for the most part liberal. They are free-spirited, freedom-loving idealists who are not afraid to speak their minds while artistically musing on the good and bad in life. Their songs, music, art, novels, movies and shows reflect real life. And the one thing talented American artists cannot stand is not so much controversy but blatant lies and lying. Artists are about truth. Great art, from writers to performers to painters, is about what’s really going on in the world in which we live today. Truth and lies don’t mix. Lies can’t enter the artistic realm. Honesty is the key.
Music of the spheres
Artists … musicians … actors … writers … whether great or unknown reside in another dimension. Talented artistic people are more often than not great at their craft for one reason: empathy. They are not simply sympathetic toward others in crisis. Anyone can be sympathetic. Those with an artistic soul have the ability to place themselves, their wonderful imaginative minds and loving hearts, into the lives and circumstances of other people. Artistic souls should be revered by society. But society, not fully comprehending (though usually envying) the cool artistic types, only laud a few, the very few, who capture collective attention through sheer luck and happenstance. In other words, fame, which is not the ultimate goal of an artist, is usually gained by ‘who one knows’ and ‘being at the right place at the right time.’
A commercially and therefore financially successful artist is not necessarily a great one or even enduring. There are far more flashes in the pan, born with great talent and drive enough to get famous but maybe get bored and return to private life. We all know that only a tiny percent of the great ones will endure and even fewer of those achieve immortality to be called an icon. Yet they all used to perform at the White House: from Willie Nelson to Ray Charles, Barbra Streisand to Aretha Franklin, Pablo Casals to Count Basie.
And isn’t a great leader like a great artist? They understand each other. They both empathize with their fellow man and were born with an innate love for humanity. They know humility, failure, heart ache and depression. Yet they both are not averse to evolving, growing emotionally and intellectually, changing their views and moving forward. They’re comfortable with the unknown in life. They don’t and can’t see life in black and white but only the many shades of gray. A great leader and a great artist are in sync. They lead by the power of their words and the integrity of their intentions.
Perhaps it is best the White House remains quiet as our nation contemplates how and why we’ve become tone deaf—unwilling to stand, let alone consider, another point of view; unable to listen to the same music, enjoy one hour of pleasantness seated among political opponents, allowing our hearts to soften and our humanity to be inspired by awesome God-given talent, to be temporarily swept away by the sound of music. The White House may be silent for now. But the music of past concerts for the Presidents of the United States—the highest honor of a performer’s life—can be heard by those unafraid to travel to another realm and listen from the heart.