Posted on 10/14/2005 4:23:12 PM PDT by GSWarrior
NASHVILLE — The Grand Ole Opry, the world’s longest-running radio show, turns 80 this month. And the Opry has been pulling out all the stops, with Nashville festivities under way since spring. The official birthday weekend is Oct. 14-15, and a star-studded November show at New York City’s Carnegie Hall will cap the celebration.
Visit the Grand Old Opry at www.opry.com or www.wsmonline.com.
The Opry remains the pinnacle of country success for artists like Opry member Trace Adkins, who calls the Grand Ole Opry stage “the most special stage I get to perform on.”
“There is a respect and a reverence I have for that institution,” Adkins says. “It reminds me sometimes of those old church singings I used to go to when I was singing (gospel music) in a quartet.”
The Opry’s longest-tenured member, 84-year-old Little Jimmie Dickens, says the “different feel” of the Opry “is because that’s the birthplace of it all. I look forward to (playing there) from week to week, so I can get back in the harness again.”
Dierks Bentley, 30, the Opry’s newest member, simply calls his invitation to join the Opry “the greatest night of my life.”
Adkins, Dickens and Bentley typify the diversity of artists gracing the Opry stage. Since its inception, the Opry has helped transform country music from a regional music form to a worldwide entertainment phenomenon. The Beginning
What began as a 1925 show on Nashville radio station WSM (650 AM) has evolved into several shows a week, attracting more than 700,000 fans each year. Millions experience the Opry via cable or satellite television, satellite radio and the Internet. Broadcasts on WSM reach listeners in 38 states and parts of Canada, and a syndicated radio show is heard on 200 stations across the United States.
The Opry camaraderie that artists talk about is echoed by audience members. In the 1930s, rural Americans without a radio would walk miles to a neighbor’s house to hear the show. In the 1940s and ’50s, entire families would pile in the car to make a pilgrimage to the Opry. Today, fans like Chuck and Sharon Schafer, of Auburn, N.Y., plan their annual vacation around an Opry visit.
“Since 1989, we’ve only missed one year,” says Sharon Schafer. “One of the greatest things about the Opry is the people you meet there.”
“The music (at the Opry),” adds Chuck Schafer, “connects the common people. Every song tells a story that someone can relate to.”
The Opry began courtesy of George D. Hay, a newspaper reporter turned radio announcer and producer. Hay originated the WLS Barn Dance on Chicago radio station WLS, later known as The National Barn Dance, and started the WSM Barn Dance in 1925 in Nashville. The show was a mix of fiddles, banjos, string bands and down-home advertisements.
A NBC Radio Network show devoted to opera and classical music preceded the WSM Barn Dance, and one night in 1928, that show’s final song featured a musical interpretation of a train locomotive.
As the Barn Dance began, Hay introduced performer DeFord Bailey, who played his classic train song, “Pan American Blues,” on the harmonica. After Bailey’s performance, Hay said, “For the past hour we have been listening to music taken largely from grand opera. From now on, we will present The Grand Ole Opry!” And the name stuck.
Home
As the crowds grew, the Opry moved to several larger halls. Even charging a 25-cent admission didn’t deter the crowds. In 1943, the Opry moved to the Ryman Auditorium, in downtown Nashville.
The Ryman was the Opry’s home until 1974, when it moved to the new 4,400-seat Opry House nine miles from downtown. Now part of the Opryland Resort & Convention Center, the Opry House received a multimillion-dollar facelift in 2003, complete with technological, sound and production upgrades.
Today, the Opry hosts a Friday night show and two Saturday night shows. The Saturday night “Grand Ole Opry Live!” television show is a portion of the two Saturday night radio shows, and it runs concurrently. The Opry TV show is the highest-rated show on GAC, the Great American Country cable network, reaching 38 million households.
A two-hour Tuesday Night Opry, which runs from April to December, attracts some of the hottest new country acts. On select winter dates, the Opry broadcasts from the upgraded historic Ryman Auditorium, which still hosts special concerts.
“Some people still listen (to the radio show) religiously each week,” says Opry member and country music legend Porter Wagoner. “I do more of the live shows in Nashville on weekends, not as much on the TV show. The music of the Opry is worldwide, and it encourages people to come.” All Genres
The Opry is where Wagoner and Dickens still perform in their legendary rhinestone-studded suits, but it’s also a place where current hitmakers like Adkins elicit huge audience responses. The Opry embraces the gamut of country, from new rock-infused country to traditional country to bluegrass, old-time mountain music and gospel.
As Opry announcer, WSM radio personality and country music historian Eddie Stubbs explains, “The Opry encompasses all genres of country music. You may see a 12-year-old champion yodeler all the way to one night we had Wade Mainer. Mainer was a tremendous star in the 1930s who had never played the Opry. He was 95 years old at the time, and he got a standing ovation.”
At its core, the Opry remains a radio show. As in earlier days, the show is divided into segments, each anchored by a sponsor whose advertisements are presented live from the stage. The televised Opry show uses typical taped commercials. Crew members scurry around the stage between acts, setting up and tearing down equipment as a rotating trio of Opry announcers touts the virtues of a variety of sponsors.
Backstage, the family-reunion feel continues. Stars enter the back door and stop to check mail at the Opry Post Office, a brass-plated collection of individual mail slots marked with members’ names. Artists and family members, friends and media mill around locker-lined corridors. Stars join colleagues for impromptu jam sessions. Artists fresh from the road embrace old friends, while others patiently sign autographs for fans lucky enough to gain backstage access.
“I think the story for me is just the legendary performers. ... I get to be in their presence,” says Adkins of his backstage experience. “Little Jimmy Dickens, Jean Shepherd, Porter Wagoner ... it’s just amazing to be able to hang out with them back there and get to know them a little bit.”
“There are people who dream about coming to this town and this show,” says Stubbs. “There’s a great mystique surrounding the Opry. It has a legacy, but it also lives up to its legacy. The Opry is committed to the past, present and future of country music.”
I can't figure out why 'Jerks Gentley' is a member of the Opry, tho.
I think it's pretty sad what has happened to "country" music in the past 30 years or so. If I wanted to see long haired, maggot infested "musicians" playing electric guitars and drums and seeing who could out-jerk the other while making words rhyme that don't, I'd go back to rock music. Give me a bluegrass group any day.
Artists such as Rex Hobart and the Misery Boys, Slaid Cleeves, Mike Ireland and Holler, Paul Burch, to name a few, should be all over the radio!
The real Opry was in the Ryman. Everything since is styrofoam and bullshirt.
Never heard of none of them folks. Ain't nothin like the old time homemade music. Acoustic. No stinkin drums.
BUMP
How can you be the spelling police when I'm the spelling police? And I have a minor in punctuation and grammar. Besides, you spelt bullshirt wrong. ";^o
Like we don't need all hands! Remember our motto: "To Mock and Ridicule."
Wasn't Ryman damaged by fire recently?
Hey, I do know Mike Ireland. He's one of my Farmall tractor friends. I didn't know he was a musician but I did know he liked bluegrass like I do. Ever look at CDBaby.com? My band has one of our CDs for sale there. Mike Ireland is the one who told me about the site.
I can do that. Glad to be of help. Do we mock and ridicule everybody or just dibwads that are too stupid to be ashamed?
Mike Ireland--poor guy. Didn't the partner in his band run off with his wife or something?
Mike does the countrypolitan style quite well.
Was it? That would be a pity.
I'm pretty sure we're not talking about the same Mike Ireland here. I saw Mike today and even talked to him about going together to a tractor auction together tomorrow. It's so wet, I believe I'll pass.
Name of the band is Blake Mountain Band. Website is www.blakemountainband.com
Did you ever sell any there? Serious not joking.
We've only had ours listed there for a month or so. But the answer is "no". Had one inquiry from a "DJ" in Norway who wanted one for nothing. I ignored him.
Are you thinking of giving it a try? There isn't much to lose. Send them $35 and 5 CDs. We got a few hundred kicking around so we figured it was worth a shot.
Well, Dwight Yoakam is playing the Ryman in Nov. so if there was a fire I guess they got it patched up. Also, I've heard the Grand Ole Opry is going back to the Ryman. Nashville still sucks though.
youse got mail
"...Wasn't Ryman damaged by fire recently?
Was it? That would be a pity...."
I was in Nashville a few weeks ago and walked by the Ryman and saw no sign of a fire. If there was one, it must have been on the inside. Still looks as great as ever.
Happy 80th to the Grand Ole Opry!
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