{"id":5492,"date":"2025-09-26T14:29:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T14:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/nashville-treasure-celebrating-100-years-of-country-music-institution-the-grand-ole-opry-151579\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T14:29:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T14:29:08","slug":"nashville-treasure-celebrating-100-years-of-country-music-institution-the-grand-ole-opry-151579","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/nashville-treasure-celebrating-100-years-of-country-music-institution-the-grand-ole-opry-151579\/","title":{"rendered":"Nashville treasure \u2013 celebrating 100 years of country music institution, the Grand Ole Opry"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When James Brown came to Nashville in 1979 to record vocals for \u201cIt\u2019s Too Funky In Here\u201d, he received an unexpected invitation. Country star Porter Waggoner asked him to stop by the Grand Ole Opry \u2013 not as an audience member, but as a performer. Backed by the fiddlers and pickers in Waggoner\u2019s band, The Godfather Of Soul tore through Hank Williams\u2019 \u201cYour Cheatin\u2019 Heart\u201d as well as his own \u201cPapa\u2019s Got A Brand New Bag\u201d. A few Opry members clutched their pearls, but the audience went wild.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt wasn\u2019t meant to be a big media event\u201d<\/h2>\n

When James Brown came to Nashville in 1979 to record vocals for \u201cIt\u2019s Too Funky In Here\u201d, he received an unexpected invitation. Country star Porter Waggoner asked him to stop by the Grand Ole Opry \u2013 not as an audience member, but as a performer. Backed by the fiddlers and pickers in Waggoner\u2019s band, The Godfather Of Soul tore through Hank Williams\u2019 \u201cYour Cheatin\u2019 Heart\u201d as well as his own \u201cPapa\u2019s Got A Brand New Bag\u201d. A few Opry members clutched their pearls, but the audience went wild.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t meant to be a big media event, just a gesture of goodwill,\u201d says Nashville historian Craig Shelburne, who writes about the performance in his new book 100 Years Of Grand Ole Opry. \u201cIt was an Opry artist saying to James Brown that his music mattered. But it also showed how unpredictable the Opry is. Anything is liable to happen on live radio.\u201d<\/p>\n

The venerated institution \u2013 which started as a small radio show and has grown into a symbol of the country music tradition \u2013 is celebrating its centennial in 2025, with a new boxset of live performances, a TV special, an exhibition at the Country Music Hall Of Fame, and a European tour that includes a night at the Royal Albert Hall. \u201cThe Opry is a way of life,\u201d says Marty Stuart, who was inducted in 1992 and will be headlining the London show. \u201cIt\u2019s an institution that gets passed along every weekend. If you\u2019re going to be a country performer, the Opry is the place to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe place was a fire hazard\u201d<\/h2>\n

Broadcasting its first shows from an insurance office in 1925, the Opry has survived numerous musical revolutions. Elvis was banned after a disastrous performance in 1954, and The Byrds were booed off the stage fourteen years later. In 1974, the programme moved from the Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville to a new theme park facility on the banks of the Cumberland River, which proved controversial as the beloved Ryman sat in disrepair for decades. \u201cThe place was a fire hazard, sadly,\u201d says Larry Gatlin, of the Gatlin Brothers. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t air-conditioned. When you played a matinee on a Saturday afternoon in August, it was hotter than two rats making love in a wool sock. There were people who wanted to tear it down, but I think moving the Opry actually saved the Ryman.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gatlin is one of few remaining artists who\u2019ve played the Opry both at the Ryman and at what he calls Big House. He first took the stage in 1971, backing up Dottie West. Five years later, West inducted the Gatlin Brothers into the Opry, this time in its brand-new facility. \u201cYou have to sing your way in,\u201d says Gatlin, who now hosts a regular segment called Opry Country Classics. \u201cThey announce you, then you cry for a little bit and hold up the little trophy, and then you\u2019ve got to sing a song.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a crucial accolade for any country star. \u201cFor us it was the big bang moment,\u201d says Ketch Secor, who started performing at the Opry in 2000, when his band Old Crow Medicine Show was hired to play on the sidewalk outside the auditorium. \u201cWe started working our way in and were finally inducted in 2012. Everything that has happened to us happened because of the Opry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has never repeated a show once in its 100 years\u201d<\/h2>\n

Secor has seen the Opry grown more varied over the years, acknowledging the important contributions of black performers like Linda Martell and the harmonica player DeFord Bailey. That adaptability has been crucial to the Opry\u2019s longevity, as it balances the old with the new. \u201cThe Opry is a way to connect with the past, but it\u2019s important to note that it has always changed with the times,\u201d says Shelburne. \u201cSo it never became a thing of the past, and it has never repeated a show once in its 100 years. The Opry is always new.\u201d<\/p>\n

Craig Shelburne\u2019s 100 Years Of Grand Ole Opry is out now, published by Abrams; the Grand Ole Opry takes over London\u2019s Royal Albert Hall on September 26<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The post Nashville treasure \u2013 celebrating 100 years of country music institution, the Grand Ole Opry<\/a> appeared first on UNCUT<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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When James Brown came to Nashville in 1979 to record vocals for \u201cIt\u2019s Too Funky In Here\u201d, he received an unexpected invitation. Country star Porter Waggoner asked him to stop…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,3297,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-grand-ole-opry","category-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5492\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}