12-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
A lavish new Patsy Cline box set captures the trajectory of her career
In the late '50s, 'Don Owens's TV Jamboree' was a must-see every Saturday for country music fans across the Washington metro area. A promoter and DJ with a carnival-barker's zeal, Owens was known to kick off his radio program with a pistol shot, and he ran his TV show in the same freewheeling style. Broadcast from the Raleigh Hotel at 12th Street NW and Pennsylvania Avenue, the Jamboree was high-octane entertainment for the have-nots, many of whom wouldn't have felt welcome in the lobby. Owens honored the music but also celebrated its backwoods roots with cornball humor. He often included his dog, a classical-music-loving mutt that yapped on cue at the fiddle-and-banjo racket.
