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On this day fifty years ago, November 10th, 1973, Stringbean Akeman frailed his final phrases on a Vega #9 five-string banjo, did his signature hand wave and hat flip one last time, and stepped off the Opry stage and into the history books in what would come to signal a change for the Opry itself, country music as an industry, and even country music as an institution. Before the night was out, Stringbean Akeman and his wife Estelle (Stanfill) were shot by two 23-year old cousins who’d come to know of Stringbean’s habit of keeping large amounts of cash on...

Both fans of yodeling and of the Grand Ole Opry will likely unite on August 2 when 13-year-old cowgirl Phoebe White will guest perform at the hallowed venue with Riders in the Sky. The Kentucky artist will take on a song adapted from the popular animated film, Toy Story 2. White and the Riders will perform the Ranger Doug song, “Phoebe, the Yodeling Cowgirl,” which is an adapted version of the song, “Jessie, the Yodeling Cowgirl,” from the Disney-Pixar animated movie. White, who recently released her new 10-song debut album, UnXpected, has recorded with the Riders In The Sky previously,...

Dolly Parton was just 13 years old when she first performed at the Grand Ole Opry. Appropriately enough, the future country legend was introduced by none other than Johnny Cash. Reflecting back on that, Dolly Parton shares that Johnny Cash made quite the impression on a girl coming of age. In an interview with GQ, the Jolene singer openly discussed things that a few things fans might not know about her storied life. Doll Parton spills tea about her very special relationship with Cash, declining performing at the Super Bowl, and her 54 year marriage to husband Carl Dean.

Country music and southern rock legend Charlie Daniels has passed away after suffering a stroke, his representatives announced Monday. The Grand Ole Opry member and Country Music Hall of Famer was 83.

Jan Howard, a longtime singer who spent nearly five decades as part of country music’s famed Grand Ole Opry, has died. She was 91. Howard died Saturday in Gallatin, Tenn., the Grand Ole Opry announced. “Jan Howard was a force of nature in country music, at the Opry, and in life,” said Dan Rogers, the musical institution’s vice president and executive producer. “We were all so lucky so many nights to hear her voice on stage and to catch up with her backstage. We’re all better for having had her in our lives.” The Grand Ole Opry, which Howard joined...

Actor William Shatner boldly went where no "Star Trek" captain has gone before when he took the stage for the first time for the Grand Ole Opry radio show to sing from his new album of country songs. Shatner made his Opry debut on Friday night in Nashville, Tennessee, on the famed country music radio show along with Jeff Cook of the band Alabama. Together they released a country album called "Why Not Me," which features songs like "Beam Me Up," a nod to both whiskey maker Jim Beam and Shatner's catchphrase on the popular sci-fi TV show.

Little Jimmy Dickens, a diminutive singer-songwriter known for his sense of humor and as the oldest cast member of the Grand Ole Opry, has died. He was 94. Dickens died Friday at a Nashville-area hospital of cardiac arrest after suffering a stroke on Christmas Day, Opry spokeswoman Jessie Schmidt said. Dickens, who stood 4-foot-11, had performed on the Opry almost continuously since 1948. His last performance was Dec. 20 as part of his birthday celebration. He sang "Out Behind The Barn" and delivered his trademark comedy. He had turned 94 a day earlier. "The Grand Ole Opry did not have...

George Hamilton IV, whose gentle demeanor and soothing folk-country vocal style earned him worldwide acclaim, died Wednesday (September 17th) at a Nashville hospital, following a heart attack which he suffered on Saturday. He was 77. A 50-year veteran of the Grand Ole Opry, Hamilton was known as the "International Ambassador of Country Music," having toured successfully throughout Europe, Asia, the Soviet Union and Australia... In 1963, he scored his greatest success with "Abilene." ...

NASHVILLE — The Grand Ole Opry has ended its itinerant ways and returned home. A host of country music's enduring legends joined some of today's biggest names on stage Tuesday night to kick off the "Country Comes Home" celebration. They began with a stirring rendition of "Will The Circle Be Unbroken?" as the curtain rose at the Opry house for the first time since the May flood damaged the building. The nation's longest running live radio program never missed a beat, moving around town to venues such as the Ryman Auditorium and War Memorial Auditorium, as laborers worked feverishly for...

Charlie Daniels Invited to Become the Next Member of the Grand Ole Opry Martina McBride Extends Surprise Invitation During Daniels' Christmas For Kids Benefit Show Legendary country superstar Charlie Daniels was surprised with an invitation to become the newest member of the Grand Ole Opry this evening. Daniels was hosting his annual Christmas For Kids benefit show at the historic Ryman Auditorium when Opry member Martina McBride delivered the surprise Opry invitation. After McBride walked on stage with what appeared to be a Christmas gift for Daniels, she opened the small box she was holding to reveal a Christmas card...

Excerpt - NEW YORK - Porter Wagoner looks right at home in the marble lobby of Manhattan's Roosevelt Hotel. He wears a dark Western suit and tie and holds a shiny black cane. The glare from the crystal chandelier reflects off his eyeglasses as he tilts his head back, trying to remember the last time he played Madison Square Garden. Sometime in the '70s ... one of those package tours ... Little Jimmie Dickens and Faron Young were there ... some others he can't recall ... Back then, "The Thin Man from West Plains" was still the grand showman of...

WASHINGTON - After kicking off the fall campaign season, President Bush took to the road Wednesday to capitalize on the attention surrounding his State of the Union speech last night. The President will recap his top initiatives in a speech Wednesday in Nashville, Tenn., at the Grand Ole Opry. Last night, Bush painted Democrats as defeatist for criticizing his march to war in Iraq and protectionist for questioning new trade deals and tax-cut extensions. Encumbered by some of the lowest approval ratings of his presidency, Bush hoped to take charge of the agenda at the start of a year that...

The president went to Nashville, Tennessee, today, to give a speech on his 2006 agenda. He signed a proclamation in honor of American Heart Month. There are pick up photos from last night of Associate Justice Alito's ceremonial swearing in, and from the president's State of the Union speech. Welcome to Sanity Island!!!!!

How Grand Ole Opry Was Invented Eighty years ago today George Dewey Hay, the new program director at Nashville’s radio station WSM, persuaded a 77-year-old amateur fiddle player from Tennessee named Uncle Jimmy Thompson to drop by and play some old-time tunes on the air. Hay had a notion that his listeners would like that. Was he ever right. The broadcast proved so popular that on December 26 WSM launched a regular Saturday afternoon show, Barn Dance, featuring Uncle Jimmy and a growing assortment of guest performers. They did the show in a small fifth-story studio at the National Life...

Nashville -- His Grand Ole Opry debut? Charley Pride remembers it well. "It was 1967, January 1," Pride snaps. "Ernest Tubb brought me on, and I was more nervous than a cat on a hot tin roof." That's how most performers feel about the Opry, the folksy live radio show that's helped define country music for four decades. The stage with the red barn backdrop is hallowed ground in Nashville, and entertainers still consider their first performance there a milestone. The show turns 80 this year, and while the anniversary doesn't have the bang of a 75th or a 100th,...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - As members of the U.S. military watched on television via satellite from Iraq, Dolly Parton invited their boss, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, onstage at the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday. The audience applauded as Rumsfeld appeared and thanked the troops serving in the military. As people entered the auditorium for Saturday's show they were given postcards with "America supports you," printed on them. Audience members waved the cards and shouted their support to the troops watching on television. Rumsfeld was sitting in the front row as Parton sang her hit "Coat of Many Colors" before he was...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- The live telecast of the Grand Ole Opry is moving from Country Music Television to its smaller competitor, Great American Country. The hour-long country music show, "Grand Ole Opry Live," has appeared on CMT every Saturday night since 2001. It draws 1.5 million to 2 million viewers and was CMT's highest-rated weekly series. The move means the TV broadcast will reach fewer viewers. Great American Country, started in 1996, reaches only 25.2 million U.S. households, compared to the more than 70 million households reached by CMT. "There isn't a bigger, longer-running music show on TV...