A Night At The Opera (well, sort of)

With apologies to the Marx Brothers for stealing their movie title, I'd like to take a few minutes and review the night Karen and I had at the 'opera'. In this case, actually, the 'Opry', as in the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.
When I realized that Karen and I were going to be in Nashville on Saturday night, one of the first things that came to mind was getting tickets to the Grand Ole Opry. It's pretty much a given that if you have the chance to see this show, you really should go. Regardless of your feelings about Country Music, the place, the show, and the performers are pretty iconic. With a little searching, I managed to get two tickets to the late show (9:30), as the early show had been sold out for weeks. Seems pretty typical, the 7 pm show regularly sells out; the 9:30 we were at was also pretty much full, with just a scattering of empty seats in the balcony all the way at the sides.
For those who don't know, the Opry show was at the Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville until about 1974. At that time, the show was outgrowing the Ryman, and so a new complex was planned. The 'new' Grand Ole Opry building is a magnificent structure, with a seating capacity of 4,400 in the auditorium, and it's located in the 'Opryland Hotel' complex, which also includes a fairly large shopping mall. Quite a big facility, and on Saturday nights, it gets very busy.

Outside the theater is a large plaza where you congregate before entering the building. There are refreshment stands, sponsor booths, bars, and other attractions that you can browse through while waiting for the doors to open. On Saturday, there was a young girl singer performing on a small stage adjacent to the doors to the Opry. It's like going to a fair outside before the show starts.
The doors open, and in you go. We had good seats, on the floor, in the rear portion of the theater. Here's a shot I took from our seats:

Pretty good view, and they have large screens throughout the theater for those who'd like a closer look at the show. The acoustics are great, the bench seats are upholstered and comfortable; a great place to see a show.
And what a show! For our performance, there were 9 performers, plus the Opry Band, and the Opry Square Dancers. It's important to remember that this show is actually a live radio broadcast (over WSM 950 AM), and so you are not so much at a concert, as you are in the audience for a radio show. Which means, commercials! Every few songs, they do a live read commercial for one of the sponsors. On Saturday, that was 'Dollar General', and 'Humana'. During these commercials, the acts can be changed. It's a pretty efficient format.
The show is divided into four segments; three 'hosted' performances of a couple of performers, and a final performance by the nights headliner. The first host we had was Jeannie Seely. At age 76, this longtime member of the Opry looked good, and sounded great. 

Her first hit was back in 1966, "Don't Touch Me". She closed her portion of the show with a very strong rendition of "Ode To Billie Jo", during which she showed off a quite a voice - this gal has some set of pipes! The first act we saw was a duo, "Ben and Sarah", two songwriters who were making their first appearance at the Opry. They did two songs, and one of them, "Let's Switch to Wine" was really good. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a photo of them, I guess they're a little too new. Up next was Mike Snider, another longtime member of the Opry, who originally played with Grandpa Jones, and who was on "Hee Haw" for a couple of seasons. 

His group did a medley of three songs, all very strong 'country' instrumentals, and they were quite good. Time for our next host, John Conlee.

Another well known singer, John had a string of hits from about 1978 to 2004. He did his first hit record, "Rose Colored Glasses", and showed a very strong voice. His patter between songs was quite entertaining, he even invited the entire audience to visit his church for services on Sunday! You could see why he's still a very popular member of the Opry, he was a lot of fun. John introduced the next act, a true Opry legend, Roy Clark. 

Many of you will remember Roy from "Hee Haw", and from his many television appearances through the years (check him out as guest star on the old Odd Couple show; hilarious!). Now, at age 83, he's slowed down a bit, he needed some help getting on and off the stage, but he did two songs, and still managed to show off some of his guitar picking. Any time you get to see a legend.....
Up next, John introduced a band that has become a very popular country act, one that morphed over from the pop side of music, Exile.

They did two songs, and were terrific. For their second song, they did their big pop hit from 1978, 'Kiss You All Over', but before kicking it off, they brought out Trace Adkins to start the song. They sounded great, and were a surprise high point of the show. Their musicianship was excellent, their voices have held up, and they got the audience into the show. As they left the stage, and after a commercial or two, it was time for our third host, Ricky Skaggs. 

Ricky has been a popular performer at the Opry since the 70's. He was formerly in Emmylou Harris' band, and is a highly regarded player. His work on the Mandolin was phenomenal. I can't imagine how anyone can play an instrument so fast and not hit wrong notes, but Ricky did, and he and his band sounded great. Ricky brought out Ernie Haase & Signature Sound, a four man vocal group that performed two gospel songs. 

These guys were simply amazing. Four incredible voices, intricate and perfectly sung harmonies, and energy to the max! They had the crowd on their feet for their performance, and were a joy to see.
A quick performance by the Opry Square Dancers, another great tune by Ricky Skaggs, and it was time for the closing act, the headliner, Trace Adkins. 

Trace is probably familiar to many of you from his appearances on "The Celebrity Apprentice" and other television shows. His first album came out in 1995, and Trace has been a popular artist ever since then. His band was excellent, and Trace was in great voice as he did several songs, including his hits "You're Gonna Miss This", and "Ladies Love Country Boys". Out of all the acts we saw, this is one that I would go see, should he come through my area.
And that was the show, two full hours of really well played and well sung music, by performers who were gracious, entertaining, and who seemed like they really wanted to be on that stage performing.
Country music really isn't my thing. However, I heard a lot of it growing up, as my Dad, a skinny Irish kid from the lower east side of Manhattan, loved it. He'd been a fan of big band music when he was young, and even played drums in a couple of bands. But as he got older, he really took to Country. He was a big fan of Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, and the rest of the 'traditional' Country artists. He'd play cassette tapes of their music over and over in his car going to and from work, and loved putting the albums on the big stereo set in our living room. So while I can't claim to be a 'fan', as you all know, I love music, and there was something about the music we heard at the Opry that was really good. It was presented in a fun atmosphere, very high energy, and it was hard not to appreciate both the skill of the performers as well as their enthusiasm.
Gotta give the Opry a huge thumbs up; if any of you are ever in Nashville on a Saturday night, or for that matter, any night there is a show at the Opry, go. Don't think you won't enjoy it, for you surely will.