The new Grand Ole Opry building was closed because they were getting ready for the big Dove Awards show, so they moved the Tuesday night show back downtown to the Ryman Theater. The GOO was held at this theater for over 30 years, so it was kind of neat to get to go to the show there. They call this building the Church of country music. There's a reason for that.... it originally WAS a church!!! Yeah, you find that out when you sit down in the ORIGINAL church pews!!!!!! A great show, but eewwwwwww .... hard on the buttinski!!!!
The show tonight was called "Songs of Faith Signature Show"
The announcer comes out and gives the audience a rundown on the show. One must remember that while it IS a performance for the people in the audience, it is also the longest running live radio show in North America! So we are instructed that if we don't cheer loud enough, we might find the announcer standing off to the side waving his arms for us to cheer and clap louder!! Also, we were treated to commercials between each act!!!!! It was different, but cute.
Little Jimmy Dickens. This little guy is EIGHTY-SEVEN years old!!!! Really quite amazing. Apparently some nights he's not as "with it" as others. We were lucky. Tonight was a "with it" night. He was quite good! There's a link to his bio on my Country Hall of Fame and Museum blog page, if you are interested in learning more about this amazing little fellow's career. He's under 5 feet tall!
As the lead vocalist for the award-winning country group Lonestar, Ritchie McDonald's voice was the driving force behind such chart-topping country hits as “Amazed,” “No News” and “I’m Already There.”In 2007, after more than a dozen years with the platinum-selling group, McDonald announced he was leaving Lonestar for a solo career and set out on his own. If you are interested, you can learn more about him and his music at:
http://www.richiemcdonald.com/
Constance June Meador was born Aug. 14, 1941, in Elkhart, Ind. One of 14 children in a poor family that moved often, she grew up in West Virginia and Ohio. She married young and was starting a family when, in 1963, she won a talent contest in Ohio that brought her to the attention of singer-songwriter Bill Anderson. Impressed by what he heard, Anderson persuaded her to come to Nashville, where RCA Records signed her the following year. She's been a member of the Grand Ole Opry since 1971. For more information on Connie go to:http://www.opry.com/MeetTheOpry/Members.aspx?id=104
To learn more about Point of Grace, go to their website at:http://www.pointofgrace.net/aboutpog1.htm
They have a video you can watch and listen to. They are going to the Dove Awards show tomorrow night, as they are nominated for FIVE awards!!!
Terri Clark was rather an odd inclusion in the Songs of Faith category. She made reference to it in her comments, and then told the audience that the Opry had said she could sing one of her own songs as well as the two inspirational songs. She made fun of it saying that most of her songs involved subjects not compatible with Songs of Faith! However, she did do one of her own songs and was wonderful!!!!
Terri's personal website isn't really viewer friendly.... unless you pay and become a fan club member. I don't understand her reasoning for that, because even Garth Brooks lets ANYONE view his website. Why would someone like her want to charge her fans for seeing her website?????? On my Hall of Fame blog, there is a link to her Grand Ole Opry page, and the wikipedia site has more info on her at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terri_Clark (and it's FREE!!)
Steven Curtis Chapman only got to sing 2 songs, because they were running over and had to cut something short! He sang his Cinderella song, which you can hear on his website at: http://www.stevencurtischapman.com/
Ricky was born on July 18, 1954 in Cordell, Kentucky, and was already an accomplished singer and mandolin player by the time he reached his teens. You can learn more about Ricky on his website at:
http://skaggs.musiccitynetworks.com/index.htm?CFID=7614011&CFTOKEN=87827016
Joining Ricky Skaggs were The Whites. A rousing ending to the evening!http://classactentertainment.com/tw.html
After we left the Opry House, we had an hour to kill waiting for the shuttle to come back for it's second load. We arranged to be picked up down on Broadway and a bar called "Robert's". Believe me, the bar looks better on the internet than in reality, but the music was good! http://www.robertswesternworld.com/home.html
One of the neat things about Broadway..... bar after bar after bar with aspiring artist after aspiring artist offering their music for free... no cover charge! Playing for tips. I call them aspiring rather than starving, because those tip jars looked pretty full, and it was only a Tuesday!! Only for us ol' folk who don't drink and have a strong appreciation for our ear drums, it wasn't quite our scene. But for a little while, it was fun. Our shuttle driver, Jerry, was right on time and we headed home after a LOOONG day of enjoyment!
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