By Nick Galvin
Jimmy Carter is widely acknowledged as the first president to effectively use music and musicians to help propel himself into office.
But the way he harnessed the star power of artists such as Bob Dylan, Greg Allman and Willie Nelson never appeared transactional or cynical, and also predated those other musical presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
From Carter’s earliest years growing up in rural Georgia, music was a constant in his life. Quite simply, he was a fan (although he was never a performer).
The music he was first exposed to was gospel. Raised as a Southern Baptist, his affinity for the music from the black churches of Plains, Georgia, along with his lifelong position as an anti-segregationist, has been credited in part for his overwhelming popularity with black voters.
Later, after he became governor of Georgia and was weighing up a run for the presidency, Carter’s musical tastes had expanded to encompass a wide range of genres, from country and blues to jazz and rock ’n’ roll.
Along with much of the country, he had become a fan of Georgia group the Allman Brothers Band. After Greg Allman visited the governor’s mansion in 1974, he agreed to do some fund-raising gigs for Carter’s campaign, which was just about broke.
“It was the Allman Brothers that helped put me in the White House by raising money when I didn’t have any money,” Carter said in 2020 documentary Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President.
If there was a political risk in associating himself with long-haired counterculture figures such as the Allmans, Carter didn’t seem to care.
“I was practically a nonentity, but everyone knew the Allman Brothers,” he said. “And when the Allman Brothers endorsed me, all the young people said if the Allman Brothers like Jimmy Carter then we can vote for him.”
A diverse roster of other artists, including John Denver, Toots and the Maytals and Charlie Daniels, also helped top up Carter’s election war chest.
After he beat Gerald Ford to the presidency, Carter wasn’t about to forget other big-name music friends, including Dylan and Nelson, who had helped him along the way.
“People didn’t like me being deeply involved with Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan,” said Carter in the documentary. “But I didn’t care about that because I was doing what I really believed, and the response from the followers of those musicians was much more influential than a few people who thought being associated with rock ’n’ roll and radical people was inappropriate for a president.”
Throughout Carter’s presidency, some of the biggest names of the era played at the White House, including in a 1978 concert when he brought together an unimaginable collection of jazz greats – Dexter Gordon, Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams, Ron Carter, Dizzy Gillespie and George Benson.
Looking back in 2020, Carter summed up his thoughts.
“I think music is the best proof that people have one thing in common,” he said.
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