Update #1: George Hamilton IV is off the schedule for Friday night.
The Grand Ole Opry has posted the schedule for the shows this weekend. This will be the final full weekend at the Ryman Auditorium as next Saturday the Opry returns to the Grand Ole Opry House.
Friday Night's Opry will feature newcomer Casey James, along with Opry members Del McCoury Band, Craig Morgan and Diamond Rio. Saturday night's Grand Ole Opry will have Opry member Ricky Skaggs performing along with guest artists Love And Theft, along with John Anderson.
Friday January 27
7:00: John Conlee (host); Jimmy C Newman; Del McCoury Band
7:30: Jimmy Dickens (host); Jesse McReynolds; Craig Morgan
INTERMISSION
8:15: Bill Anderson (host); Bobby Osborne & The Rocky Top X-Press; Casey James
8:45: Mike Snider (host); Ray Pillow; Diamond Rio
Saturday January 28
7:00: Jimmy Dickens (host); John Conlee; Love And Theft
7:30: Riders In The Sky (host); Jim Ed Brown; Connie Smith; Del McCoury Band
INTERMISSION
8:15: Ricky Skaggs (host); The Whites; John Anderson; Opry Square Dancers
8:45: Bill Anderson (host); Mike Snider; Diamond Rio
That comes down to 13 artist for each night, 12 of which are Opry members on Friday night and 11 Opry members on Saturday night. I personally am glad to see the majority of those performing each night being Opry members.
The Ernest Tubb Midnight Jamboree contines this week with their archived shows. This week's show will be hosted by Carl and Pearl Butler, which should be great. Very rarely do we hear this great duo and former Opry members. Like I mentioned, it should be a good one. Next week's show will feature an archive hosted by Roy Acuff.
Enjoy!!
That first sentence says "newcomer Casey Jones".
ReplyDeleteI am positive Byron meant to say Casey James not Casey Jones.
ReplyDeleteFriday is the Opry show that Josh Turner was scratched from. I am wondering if Casey was put in what may have originally been Josh's time slot? Isn't it nice to know that an Opry member was possibly dumped in favor of a lesser known artist? Interesting that the Opry member just might happen to be Josh Turner.
Happy to see a really nice line-up for both shows.
I have found it more pleasant to listen AFTER the Opry to WSM's airings of 1960s Opry shows. Now the ET Record Shop really rounds out a great evening.
ReplyDeleteI obviously was thinking of the Johnny Cash train song instead of paying attention to what I was typing!!! Sorry about that folks. And, George Hamilton IV was scratch already.
ReplyDeleteI would find it interesting that Josh Turner would be taken off and Casey James put in his place. I would think that Josh would have been kept on the line up as the pay is the same for either one. The other thought is that Josh has a live show in Virginia on Saturday night and maybe he didn't want to make the overnight bus trip. Just guessing. I do know that Josh is scheduled for the Opry in a couple of weeks.
Michael, I agree with you. I enjoy the archived shows that are played after the Opry. Some nights, more than the Opry itself.
(byron)
Good to see Opry star Ray Pillow on the bill. Not a big star in Country Music but such a great performer. As Roy Acuff said once about Herman Crook, "One we can depend upon".
ReplyDeleteAlthough Ray doesn't really have any hits that anybody would actually know, he is a great singer. He's a much better fill-in than Stu Phillips.
ReplyDeleteFred in Bismarck here:
ReplyDeleteI don't know how well Stu can sing anymore -- it's been years since I heard him -- but I used to love him on "Blue Canadian Rockies" and some others.
Stu used to have such a great voice and a fine ballad singer. But in the last year, his voice has really been bad and appears to be shot. When he did the Opry in December, he sounded really horrible. Stu, like Ray Pillow, is considered on of the Opry's senior members and appears about once a month.
ReplyDeleteRay Pillow never really had that great career as a singer, but he was a very fine record company executive in Nashville. In fact, his publishing company published most of Lee Greenwood's hits, including "God Bless The USA." I do question that comment that Ray doesn't have any hits that anyone would know. He had several top 10 duet hits with Jean Shepard and solo hits including "One Too Many Memories" and "Julie Loved Boston More Than Me."
Ray was not the biggest star in country music, but he was a good one.
(byron)
Stu Phillips mentioned recently that he was in an auto accident, and I'm sure that the recovery from that has had an effect. Ray Pillow always had a pleasant voice and doesn't sound to me like he's lost a thing. The worst thing I ever heard on the Opry, next to some guests who shouldn't have been there, pains me to say it. But in his later years, David Houston had lost that beautiful voice, and it really hurt to hear him sing.
ReplyDeleteAlso, even if it's sacrilegious to say so, Charlie Louvin. Of course, for some devoted fans, it's enough just to see their favorite up there. -- Fred
ReplyDeleteI love the recording "I'll Take The Dog", but in my years of listening to the Opry I have never heard Ray & Jean sing together? This would be from the Mid-90's to present day.
ReplyDeleteI have to second what Michael said about David Houston. Late in his life David was wearing double hearing aids and on more than one occasion he sounded like he forgot to turn them on before he went onstage. A friend of mine told a funny story about one Opry performer commenting on David's later-years "singing:" during Halloween they had a motion-activated ghost hanging up in the green room and when anyone walked by, the ghost would start moving and making spooking sounds. The Opry member (won't call his name 'cause he's still a member) walked over to my friends and said, "Hey, wanna hear David Houston?" and activated the ghost.
ReplyDeleteI'm a huge Louvin Brothers fan but I'll have to agree with Fred's comment, too. The only thing I heard Charlie sing the last ten years of his life that sounded any good was "Ira." In that case his old and frail voice was perfect for the reminiscing lyrics of the song. Charlie got to the point where he talked the songs more than sang them, and his voice was just shot from 70 years of smoking. A dear friend of mine, Charles Whitstein, sang tenor with him for years and said it got to the point where it was nearly impossible to keep "down" with Charlie because he was doing the songs so slow and out of meter that it threw everyone else's timing off. I still wouldn't trade you a million dollars for the final time I saw him (on the Midnite Jamboree in November 2010, two months before he diede), though.
Raizor's Edge, that story about David Houston is unkind, of course, but it's also hilarious. I think of the line about the Earl Scruggs Revue when he came to the Opry with his sons and someone (it sounds like it HAD to be Ernest Tubb) said, "That sounds like a #$%^&* electric bathtub in heat."
ReplyDeleteThat said, let's face facts. Our voices change with time. Mr. Acuff didn't lose his ability to sing so much as his voice aged and became gravelly. In pop music, Frank Sinatra provides the most obvious example of someone who lost it; Tony Bennett remains a human marvel. But when we hear the greats as they age, even if they can no longer sing the way they could, I think in some cases we see and hear them as they were, or forgive them because of who they are and what they were.
Grandpa Jones had similar problem only it wasn't his voice that went...it was his ears. I think most of us remember in the late 80s to early 90s it was really painful to listen to because Grandpa would often be singing in one key while the band was playing in another. They tried all sorts of things with his monitors from raising them almost to eye level to giving him "in ear" monitors but nothing seemed to work. Then, suddenly Grandpa was singing in key again and the next time I saw him he had hearing aids in both ears which apparently did the trick.
DeleteCompletely off the topic: R&R legend Chuck Berry has a similar problem only it's one of his own making. He doesn't carry a band of his own preferring to hire local musicians for his personal appearance. He refuses to rehearse with the band at all before show time often resulting in the band taking off on a song in one key and Chuck taking off on another. Sometimes, he'll stop midway through the song and start again. But mostly, he'll soldier on until the band figures out what key he's in which frequently doesn't happen. A Chuck Berry concert can be a real adventure for everyone involved!
Barry, I'd forgotten about Grandpa, and that could get pretty wild. But he's also the one who, so far as I know, originated the joke The Potato tells about his hearing aid being where a suppository was supposed to be, and there are rumors that in Grandpa's case, the story was true!
ReplyDeleteTo quote Mike Snyder, after hearing Grandpa perform his banjo in claw hammer style: "You don't hear banjo played like that much anymore. Grandpa can't hear it neither!"
ReplyDelete