The Grand Ole Opry has announced that the Tuesday Night Opry on May 25 will be shown live on opry.com. The show will feature Grand Ole Opry members Vince Gill, Brad Paisley, Ricky Skaggs and Steve Wariner.
The night is set to both raise funds for Middle Tennessee flood relief and kick off the Opry's months-long 85th Birthday Celebration. Each Opry member will take the stage individually followed by a guitar jam finale featuring the group's take on some of the most popular songs in the Opry's 85-year history.
My opinion is that I am glad that the Opry is doing this. Since they can't seem to get a television deal, it looks like they are exploring other options. This is a good start and perhaps we will see more of this. On the down side, it would have been great if they were to show the entire 2 hour show, as the 1st hour of the show will feature Jimmy Dickens, Bill Anderson and Jeannie Seely, true Opry legends. Since the Opry is producing this themselves, I would ask what is the reason for not showing the entire show? Based on the press release, they are not.
I will second you completely. In fact, I think streaming an Opry show just occasionally would build up interest. I mean, wasn't that the idea behind televising it? If I see 30-60 minutes I really like, I should check out the whole thing?
ReplyDeleteI know that when the Opry made the decision in the 1970's to televise the show on Public Broadcasting for their fundraiser, there was a lot of discussion about what a great thing this was for the Opry, as it gave millions of people an opportunity to see the show.
ReplyDeleteI think that the same positive reaction would take place today if the Opry decided to broadcast an entire show, even if it was on Opry. com. Once a year, like the PBS specials would be fine with me. And, it would again give millions an opportunity to see an entire show, which would be great for those who live so far from the Opry that they would be unable to attend the Opry, and it would be great for those who listen to the Opry each weekend and try to visualize what the show is really like and what is going on stage.
My wife, who is not the worlds biggest country music fan, will listen to the Opry with me once in a while and attend maybe one show every five years. On our last visit, she told me that attending the show helped her to better relate to what was going on while she listened to the show, and to see what the entertainers really looked like and dressed.