Good Evening to all Opry fans:
Sorry for the lack of any posts over the past week. Between out-of-town trips and computer issues, it was a tough one. But, I am back and regular posts will return.
This weekend the Opry has 1 show on Friday night and they return to 2 shows on Saturday night (at least for a couple of weeks). I also noticed on the schedule that with the return to 2 shows on Saturday that they have done away with the intermission. Sometimes I don't know what management is thinking. Why an intermission on nights with 1 show but not on nights with 2 shows? Of course, knowing how they change their minds, an intermission could be coming in future weeks.
As far as Friday night's show, the Oak Ridge Boys make another appearance on the Opry, and in fact have the closing slot on Friday night. Also appearing on Friday night is Darius Rucker, who has made a strong impression among the younger country music fans. On Saturday night, Marty Stuart will be on both shows along with Joe Diffie and idol favorite Danny Gokey. Both nights look pretty good as far as the line-ups.
Here is the line-up for the Friday Night Opry, March 12
7:00: John Conlee(host); Jimmy C. Newman; Jean Shepard; Billy Dean
7:30: Jimmy Dickens(host); Jan Howard; The Grascals
INTERMISSION
8:15: Jeannie Seely(host); George Hamilton IV; Jack Greene; Darius Rucker
8:45: Mike Snider(host); Stonewall Jackson; Jim Ed Brown; Oak Ridge Boys
Here are the line-ups for the Grand Ole Opry, Saturday March 13
First Show
7:00: Jimmy Dickens(host); The Whites; David Nail
7:30: Mike Snider(host); Jimmy C. Newman; Jean Shepard; Steel Magnolia
8:00: John Conlee(host); Jeannie Seely; Danny Gokey; Opry Square Dancers
8:30: Marty Stuart(host); Connie Smith; Joe Diffie
Second Show
9:30: Jimmy Dickens(host); The Whites; David Nail
10:00: Jim Ed Brown(host); Bobby Osborne & The Rocky Top X-Press; Jack Greene; Stel Magnolia
10:30: John Conlee(host); Charlie Louvin; Danny Gokey; Opry Square Dancers
11:00: Marty Stuart(host); Connie Smith; Joe Diffie
Here is the line-up for the Tuesday Night Opry, March 16
7:00: Nashville Irish Stepdancers; Bill Anderson; Terri Clark
7:30: George Hamilton IV; Diamond Rio
INTERMISSION
8:15: Connie Smith; Justin Moore
8:45: Jimmy Dickens; Lee Greenwood
Not a bad line-up for Tuesday night. The Nashville Irish Stepdancers are making their annual appearance with St. Patrick's Day coming up.
Recaping, there are 15 artists on Friday night, which lately, is one of the higher number of artists on a show. Both shows on Saturday night have 13 performers. Finally, if you notice, Jimmy Dickens is working 4 shows this week. I really hope he is up to it and his voice holds out ok.
Finally, the host of the Ernest Tubb Midnight Jamboree this week is John England and the Western Swingers. They are not on any of the Opry shows over the weekend. Remember the time when whoever was hosting the Midnight Jamboree was always on that weekend's Opry shows. That does not happen much anymore.
Enjoy.
I wish I could listen this week, although I do wish management or someone could get into the skulls of some of these younger members that the Opry is worth playing so we could have more members instead of guests. I suspect part of the thinking with adding the weeknight shows is that it's a way to get the big names to perform without them having to give up a big Friday or Saturday night road gate. But I also think of Roy Acuff returning to the Opry because he was told it needed him, and Ernest Tubb providing a list of 26 weekends he would be in at the first of every year.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I have to share a nutty idea. Years ago, CBS had the greatest network news division. New management started destroying it (and ultimately succeeded). One day, the 60 Minutes producer, Don Hewitt, got an idea, called a few friends, then called the president of CBS and said he'd gathered some of the top salaried correspondents--people like Mike Wallace, for example--and they wanted to know if they could buy CBS News from the network so they could save it. It obviously didn't work. But I actually dreamed the other night that Vince Gill got a group together to do that for the Opry.
The Friday Night Opry was a pretty good show last night. Jimmy Dickens didn't sound too bad and the Oak Ridge Boys were just great. They did an encore and ended up doing 3 songs.
ReplyDeleteLooks like they replaced Connie Smith on tonights Tuesday show with Jesse McReynolds and the Virginia Boys.
ReplyDelete