LEGENDARY GRAND OLE OPRY

If you grew up in the south like I did, you probably either heard or watched the Grand Ole Opry. The radio show that began in 1925 can still be heard on the radio today. When I was a kid, the Opry was at the Ryman Auditorium.  The Ryman was an old church auditorium and still had the pews for seating.  My parents and I went to the Ryman when I was around 9 years old to see the Opry.  The Opry has since moved to a new location but it is still going strong.  Yesterday, nearly 50 years after my first visit, I went back to the Opry.

The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee that has presented the biggest stars of that genre. Founded on November 28, 1925 by George D. Hay as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM, it is also among the longest-running broadcasts in history. In the 1930s, the show began hiring professionals and expanded to four hours; and WSM, broadcasting by then with 50,000 watts, made the program a Saturday night musical tradition in nearly 30 states. In 1939, it debuted nationally on NBC Radio. The Opry moved to a permanent home, the Ryman Auditorium, in 1943. As it developed in importance, so did the city of Nashville, which became America's "country music capital".

Membership in the Opry remains one of country music's crowning achievements. Such country music legends as Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Marty Robbins, Roy Acuff, the Carter family, Bill Monroe, Ernest Tubb, Kitty Wells and Minnie Pearl became regulars on the Opry's stage (although Williams was dismissed in 1952 due to frequent drunkenness). In recent decades, the Opry has hosted such contemporary country stars as Dolly Parton, Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire, Josh Turner, Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts, Dierks Bentley, and Blake Shelton. Since 1974, the show has been broadcast from the Grand Ole Opry House east of downtown Nashville and performances have been sporadically televised in addition to the radio programs.

In May 2010, the Opry House was flooded, along with much of Nashville, due to the Cumberland River overflowing its banks. While repairs were made, the Opry was temporarily housed at alternate venues in Nashville, with the Ryman Auditorium hosting the majority of the shows. The Opry returned to the Grand Ole Opry House on September 28, 2010 in a special edition of the Opry entitled Country Comes Home that was televised live on Great American Country. The evening was filled with one-of-a-kind Opry moments. Martina McBride and Connie Smith dueted on Smith's signature hit "Once a Day," and other collaborations included Dierks Bentley and Del McCoury ("Roll On Buddy, Roll On"), Josh Turner and Lorrie Morgan ("Golden Ring"), and Montgomery Gentry and Charlie Daniels Band ("Devil Went Down To Georgia"), among others. The show closed with an all-star guitar jam featuring Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, Steve Wariner, Ricky Skaggs, and Marty Stuart. WOW, what a guitar jam!

You can do a backstage tour at the Opry and I decided that would be  a fun thing to do. Actually, the videos they show, hosted by Blake Shelton and Carrie Underwood would more interesting and full of trivia and facts than our tour guide, Dave.  Yawn, yawn....... But, I'm glad that I did the tour for the pics of places/things that I would not have gotten without the tour. So, let's begin the tour.

Minnie Pearl's husband gave her the birdbath fountain for their 25th wedding anniversary.  When she died, she bequeathed the fountain to the Opry!

The last 10 years of Hee Haw was actually taped in one of the rooms at the Opry. I was walking through Cornfield County y'all!



Receptionist/Check-in desk at the stars' entrance to the Opry.

Once you become a member, you are assigned a mail box.  You can receive your fan mail here too.  Most of the boxes are done alphabetically, except for one.  Little Jimmy Dickens mailbox should be on the top row but since he is only 4 foot 11 inches, they moved his mailbox down.

Minnie Pearl's shoes (And they are so proud to be here!)

This is the wall that has the placques with the names of everyone who is a member of the Grand Ole Opry.

One of the dressing rooms.

A display dedicated to Curly Fox and Texas Ruby. I really like the boots.

There aren't bathrooms/showers in the dressing rooms so when you perform, you are assigned a locker for the evening.

When the Grand Ole Opry House opened in this location in 1974, President and Mrs. Nixon attended the opening.  Roy Acuff did a trick with the yo-yo. He then handed the yo-yo to the President to try and do the trick.  He couldn't do it. President Nixon told Roy that he would go over and practice the yo-yo and Roy could go practice being President! President Nixon also played the piano that night on the Opry.

 

The dressing room you get to use the night you are officially inducted into the Grand Ole Opry.  You first get invited to join and then you come back to be inducted as a member.

The Women of Country dressing room

The Wagoneer Dressing Room - It use to be Porter Wagonner's private dressing room. 

Porter and Marty Stuart were very good friends and when Porter died, Marty Stuart moved into Porter's dressing room and it is now Marty's dressing room.

 

Mr. Roy Acuff's private dressing room - Roy was affectionately known as the King of the Grand Ole Opry.  There is a house that sits on the Grand Old Opry's land.  After Roy's wife died, the Opry built the house for Roy to live in.  He didn't sleep much so he would walk over to the Opry and spend a lot of nights there.

Pics of Roy Acuff on the wall in his dressing room. His dressing room is one of the only ones that has a shower in the dressing room.  Usually, whoever is the headliner for the night, gets to use this dressing room.

This is the common room or "chill out" room.  You can get refreshments, watch TV or whatever before or after you went on stage.

Archie Campbell, from Hee Haw, drew this mural on the wall in the common room.  If you look right under the E in OLE on the mural, you will see Archie with his moustache.  The girl in the red dress by him?  Well, rumor has it that he had a big crush on Dolly Parton and that is suppose to be Dolly in the mural.

 

As you enter back stage

Looking at the auditorium from onstage.

 

That circle is wood carefully removed from the Ryman auditorium stage and moved to the new location.  This wood was where all of the entertainers that ever performed at the Opry stood while they performed.  The Opry wanted the tradition to continue.

 

The lit up barn of the Opry during every performance.
 

Since I took the afternoon tour, I had time to kill before I went back for the show.  Of course the outside is pretty when you walk up.

 

The Grand Ole Opry doesn't publish their line-up too far in advance.  You can buy tickets but you may not know who you will see.  The Grand Ole Opry only has shows on Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday nights from March through October. I knew my schedule was only going to allow me to go to the Tuesday evening show this week.  So, I bought the tickets as soon as I knew what week I would be there and didn't really care who I would see.  But, I got GREAT seats.  I was on the 5th row center stage.  As it turned out, all of the male stars from the TV show Nashville were performing in the first half of the show.  I don't watch the show but all of the women around me who do watch the show, were swooning over these guys.  They do have some cuties!

Chris Carmack
Chris played and sang like a real country music star.

Sam Palladio
Sam was a very talented musician and played several instruments. I wasn't a big fan of his music but it was OK.

Johnathan Jackson
Johnathan was a talented musician also.  But, again, not real crazy about his music.  He and Sam both sang original music they wrote.

Charles Esten
Charlie was the real heart-throb of the show Nashville

He plays Deacon on the show and I really enjoyed his playing and singing.

He did have a way of charming everyone! He has performed several times at the Opry and you could tell he was very comfortable on that stage.

The second half of the show were real country music stars. 

Tracy Lawrence - a good ole Texas boy

Something I learned on the Studio B tour - Before the resurgence of the downtown area of Nashville, crime was a problem.  Tracy Lawrence was shot 3 times one night while in downtown Nashville years ago.

Del McCoury Band
Del playing the guitar and one of his sons playing the mandolin. His other son is playing the banjo but you can't see him.  He is standing behind the son with the mandolin.

They were also the singers of the group.

The headliner of the night - Easton Corbin

He was such a cutie and I love his music!

So, if you go to Nashville, pick a night to go to the Opry and do it soon  enough to get good tickets.  They will tell you, How---dy! They're so proud you are there!