Two Lane Adventures: Saturday 9/23/2023

This morning began with my morning walk, just like almost every other day since May of 2022! Our first of two “big” events today occur at 10am. We will walk in the footsteps of country music’s superstars and get an exclusive look at what happens behind the scenes of the show that made country music famous on our backstage tour of the Grand Ole Opry House.

We enjoyed pictures outside of the Opry first! This is a picture of the staff for this 2023 American Mountain Music tour.

The tour begins with a state-of-the-art theater experience with music, special effects, priceless archival footage, and superstar hosts Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood.

We stood under over $90,000 of Gibson guitars. This feature was specially designed for the Grand Ole Opry.

There are life size pictures of the stars everywhere!

We toured the artist entrance, where stars walk into the world-famous Opry House every night, and learned about the significant pieces of art and traditions.

We stood at the security desk, where every artist check-in. Each member has a mailbox, and you can send them mail. You don’t even have to know the zip code, or so our tour guide claims!

We could run our fingers over all the plaques that the Grand Ole Opry members install themselves when they are inducted.

Next was a glimpse and some information about the many dressing rooms that the stars use.

We went backstage and even on stage and stood in the circle!

We had free time until our dinner at the Aquarium and the Saturday night Grand Ole Opry show.

The Aquarium is a restaurant that surrounds a large fish tank!

The Grand Ole Opry is the stage that showcases country music's past, present, and future. They have been home to country music for over 96 years. In 1925, a radio-loving founder of National Life and Accident Insurance Company convinced the company to launch its own radio station: WSM – named after their slogan “We Shield Millions." WSM went live for the first time on October 5, 1925.

George D. Hay launched the WSM Barn Dance with Uncle Jimmy Thompson, a 77-year-old fiddle player, on November 28, 1925 – widely known as the day the Grand Ole Opry was born. In December of 1927, following an NBC broadcast of Walter Damrosch's Music Appreciation Hour, George D. Hay proclaimed on-air, "For the past hour we have been listening to the music taken largely from the Grand Opera, but from now on we will present the Grand Ole Opry.” The new name for the WSM Barn Dance stuck.

Roy Acuff opened the first show in the new 4,440-seat Grand Ole Opry House with a performance of "The Wabash Cannonball.” President Richard Nixon was in attendance and lead the Opry audience in singing "Happy Birthday" to First Lady Pat Nixon. The night featured a packed lineup, so each artist was limited to performing just one song.

The Opry House gave the show more space and the facilities necessary to grow and evolve. It was televised live for the first time on March 4, 1978, as part of a PBS fundraising special, but the show wouldn’t start regular television broadcasts until 1985. The Opry family began welcoming more giants like The Gatlin Brothers, John Conlee, Ricky Skaggs, Lorrie Morgan, Reba McEntire, Randy Travis, and Patty Loveless.

The 1990s brought some of the Opry’s most monumental moments: Minnie Pearl and Jimmy Dickens celebrated their 50th anniversary with the show; Roy Acuff made his final Opry performance, one month before he passed; Charley Pride, Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Vince Gill, Emmylou Harris, Martina McBride, Diamond Rio, and Trisha Yearwood were all welcomed into the family.

Throughout the 2000s, the show and its cast paid tribute to fallen members Hank Williams, Waylon Jennings, and Minnie Pearl. In 2002, the Opry celebrated its 4000th consecutive Saturday Night broadcast. And the family continued to grow, adding Brad Paisley, Dierks Bentley, Trace Adkins, Carrie Underwood, and Montgomery Gentry, among others.

In May of 2010, the venue was ravaged by a historic flood that forced the Opry House to close its doors for five months for restoration. The show pressed on at other venues across Nashville, including two former homes: War Memorial Auditorium and the Ryman. The Opry House was beautifully restored, and the show made its triumphant return on September 28, of that same year.

The Grand Ole Opry celebrated 40 years at the Opry House on March 16, 2014, with an all-cast opener led by Old Crow Medicine Show, and performances by some of country music’s biggest names. In 2015, the show celebrated its 90th anniversary with a star-studded weekend-long birthday bash. The 2010s brought Blake Shelton, Keith Urban, Darius Rucker, Old Crow Medicine Show, Little Big Town, and more into the Opry family.

In March of 2020, COVID-19 forced the Grand Ole Opry to make the hard decision to temporarily cancel live audience shows. In a historic moment for the Opry, the Saturday Night Grand Ole Opry broadcast live without an audience, via Livestream. The show continued to broadcast live on WSM Radio and Circle TV, which incidentally launched in January of 2020 – keeping the music playing and the circle unbroken.

After seven months of performing without a live audience, in October of 2020, the Opry kicked off its 95th anniversary by welcoming back 500 guests to the Opry House – and so began a month-long celebration of the Opry, country music, its artists, and its fans. The Opry family continues to grow, with Rhonda Vincent, Lady A, Carly Pearce, Lauren Alaina, and many more inducted in the last few years.

Our show included some great performances by seasoned Opry members and 2 entertainers having their Opry debuts.

Our opening act was the Opry Square Dancers. They have been a Saturday night Grand Ole Opry tradition since 1952. This troupe of dedicated square dancers has performed every week at the top of the Saturday night show and following intermission. The Opry Square Dancers’ distinctive style of clogging is rooted in Southern Appalachian culture, and they are a crowd-favorite.

Riders in the Sky was up next. Back more than 40 years ago when they first started playing together, there were no laptops, no cell phones, no Google, Apple, or Microsoft. No texting, tweeting, or Ubering. It truly was a different world.

But there were three young men with drive and wit who wanted to keep a special music alive. They believed in preserving the heritage of Western Music and presenting it to a new generation. They believed in entertaining, and they did so… entertaining themselves as well as the audience! And they believed in creating original Western Music to continue the tradition, not just seal it in amber as a museum piece. What they did not realize at the time was that they would be doing the same thing 40 years later.

Riley Clemmons was on the Opry stage for the 2^nd time tonight. She grew up singing in church and performing around town but was discovered at a high school talent show. She signed with Capitol CMG Label Group and released her debut single, "Broken Prayers," at the end of 2017. The song quickly found its way onto the Billboard Hot Christian Songs chart. She is a rising artist from Nashville, TN who has accumulated over half a billion global streams and 85 million YouTube video views.

Making his Opry debut was Sam Barber. He is from a farm in a small town in Southeast Missouri. Music had not always been his passion. In fact, he was the kid that never participated in music class or music performances. His music journey was completely unplanned and his success continues to astound him. When he was 16 he picked my great grandfather's Gibson guitar. It was out of tune and had with 5 strings. He fell in love with the art of playing. He soon found his voice and started to sing along. Making his way to his Opry debut!

Our other Opry solo debut was RVSHVD (pronounced Rashad) whose, real name is Clintarius Rashad Johnson. He started out studying the music of Lil Wayne, Eminem, and Tupac before becoming a self-taught R&B singer. It wasn’t until he discovered a track by Keith Urban did he fully realize that country music was for him, and this led him down a different path, allowing him to infuse the R&B style that he had come to know, into his new-found love of country music. In doing so, he’s created this whole new path and is continuing to show the world that music is for everyone regardless of genre. His music just proves that combining country with black influences is not only innovative but also inspirational.

After the intermission, we enjoyed another dance by the Opry Square dancers. Followed by Opry Member, Charlie McCoy. He has been a mainstay in Music City since the '60s. He has played on dozens of hit records, including work with such legends as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Simon and Garfunkel, George Jones, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and many more. The solo work of this Country Music Hall Of Fame member is contained on more than three dozen albums that Charlie has released over the past four decades. His harmonica playing is second to none!

Ashley McBryde was our next Opry member to perform. She grew up in Arkansas and she was drawn to various types of music from a young age. She also developed a passion for writing songs and later moved to Nashville to pursue a music career.

Between 2006 and 2011, McBryde released a pair of self-released albums. Her 2016 release drew attention from country artist Eric Church. His support helped her gain a country music recording contract with Warner Music Nashville.

In 2017, both her album and her single received critical acclaim and led to recognition from several music associations. It was followed by 2019's Never Will, which was also met with critical acclaim. Its lead single "One Night Standards" reached the top 20 of the American country songs chart and topped the Canadian country survey. She has received one Grammy Award from six nominations, one Country Music Association Award, three Academy of Country Music Awards, and was nominated for a Daytime Emmy. She earned one of country music's crowning achievements when she was invited to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry by Garth Brooks and was subsequently inducted by Terri Clark on December 10, 2022.

The Cleverlys were our final act. They are a one-of-a-kind, unique comedy and music experience. From the group’s humble beginnings in the Ozark Mountains, to currently headlining festivals and PAC's all over the country, even performing regularly on the coveted Grand Ole Opry stage. One thing is for certain, there is no other show like this out there.