Proclamation 4531—Country Music Month, 1977

Country music, once the simple expression of America's isolated hill country and farms, has spread to our most sophisticated cities. It has always told of the basic human emotions and experiences--of childhood heroes and lost places, forgotten dreams and everyday goodness and disappointments as well as great sadness, love and loneliness, honor and humor. It vibrates with the passions and scenes that make up our common heritage. Country music is as universal as a sunset and as personal as a baby's smile. It is fitting that we acknowledge the importance of a form that reflects so much the lives and hopes of the people who make up our nation and pay tribute to the talented people who have contributed to its growing popularity.

Now, Therefore, I, Jimmy Carter, President of the United States of America, ask the people of this Nation to mark the month of October 1977, with suitable observances as Country Music Month.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this thirtieth day of September, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and second.

JIMMY CARTER