Nashville is Country Music!

Our entertainment for the night was to partake of what makes Nashville famous, country music. And what is more country music than The Grand Ole Opry?

The Grand Ole Opry is longest continually running radio program in the world. It debuted in 1925, and has been going ever since. The name Grand Ole Opry was coined in 1927, by George (Judge) Hay. He was the announcer for the WSM Barn Dance, which was what the Grand Ole Opry was officially called back then. The WSM Barn Dance was preceded by a program the played classical music. Hay noted at the start of one show that the audience had been listening to music from grand opera. He then went on to say that for the next three hours the audience would listen to the “Grand Ole Opry”, giving a home spun, countrified pseudo-hillbilly spin to his program. The name stuck.

In the early days to gain an audience the radio station (650 WSM) allowed people to come watch the radio show. Word spread and more and more people began showing up. They had to move several times because of the growing audience. In 1945 they moved to the Ryman Auditorium and stayed there for nearly 30 years. In 1974 they moved to it’s current location, The Grand Ole Opry House, which seats 4,400 people. Pretty good attendance for a radio show, huh?

There are two shows on Saturday night at the Grand Ole Opry. The first from 6 to 9 PM, and the second from 9:30 to Midnight. We had tickets for the first show, and we were all very excited about this. But we ended up being a tiny bit disappointed. We saw a wide variety of country stars. Vince Gill was the most contemporary, but there were many that I grew up listening to. Grandpa Jones (from HeeHaw), Bill Anderson, and Hank Snow each did a set. Then there were those that I knew from Dad’s era, whose music I liked. Stonewall Jackson, Hank Locklin, Jeanne Pruett, Connie Smith, and Jan Howard exemplified that time. There was also plenty I had never heard of. There was J.D. Sumner and The Stamps, The 4 Guys, Jake Hess, and plenty more. Including the warm up segment, the entire show lasted 3 hours.

The part that was disappointing was that we were too far away. Our seats were in the front of the balcony, which wasn't bad, but still a little too far away. We could see OK, but we couldn’t get down to take pictures, which is allowed, maybe even encouraged.  I'm not sorry we went; we still had a good time. Next time, should there be one, we will get better seats.