Well, the build up has been taking place for months and we are finally here as Saturday night will mark the 5,000th Saturday night performance of the Grand Ole Opry.
I have been asked by several people about the show and if it is truly the 5,000th. I can't really answer the question as honestly, I have not counted every Saturday night since November 28, 1925 to see if the count is accurate or not, even taking into consideration the Saturday nights that have been missed at the Opry. And there have been a few. So I will leave it with this: I am going to assume that the Opry staff has researched this number and it is accurate and regardless, it will be a great Saturday night with two big shows scheduled and a number of Grand Ole Opry members listed. I am also thinking that there could be some surprises that night.
There are two shows on Saturday night with the entire 1st show being televised live on Circle TV and the various social media sites.
So looking who is on the schedule, here is the line-up for both shows, 7:00 & 9:30:
Bill Anderson
Connie Smith
Larry Gatlin & The Gatlin Brothers
Terri Clark
Darius Rucker
Chris Janson
Dustin Lynch
Jeannie Seely
The Isaacs
John Conlee
Chris Young
Vince Gill
Trisha Yearwood
Garth Brooks
I addition to those 14 Grand Ole Opry members, you have to wonder who will do the 5,000th show introduction. Will it be someone doing the announcement in person or will the Opry continue with a taped intro?
And while I don't want to give away any secrets, it has been reported that when the big red curtain goes up on Saturday night, Bill Anderson will open with "Wabash Cannonball" in a salute to Roy Acuff.
There has been a lot of media and internet attention being given to the 5,000th show so I thought I would share this piece from Billboard:
It’s just a number.
Some folks may say that about the Grand Ole Opry’s 5,000th Saturday show on Oct. 30. But Bill Anderson, who fought back tears when he celebrated his 60th anniversary as an Opry member this year, expects an emotional night when the WSM-AM Nashville show reaches the 5K mark. “How many any things last 5,000 performances or 5,000 times?” he asks rhetorically. “I mean, look at all that’s happened during the time of those 5,000 performances from 1925 to 2021. My goodness, the world has changed and the Opry has changed, and yet it’s been able to endure. It’s really amazing when you stop and think about it.”
Anderson is expected to kick off the ceremonial night with “Wabash Cannonball,” a song associated with late Opry icon Roy Acuff, preceding performances by Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Darius Rucker, Marty Stuart, Connie Smith, Terri Clark and Chris Young.
The number 5,000 means something because it’s such an outrageous one. The Opry didn’t survive 96 years without challenges. The show has managed to remain through a series of wars, downturns in attendance, changes in genres, the arrival of multiple new media platforms, the sometimes tragic deaths of numerous Opry members, a flood in 1975 and another in 2010, and the current pandemic. Only a resilient operation could make it through all those major events to 5,000 Saturdays. “There’s flood resiliency, and then there’s everyday Opry resiliency and blizzard resiliency,” says Opry vp/executive producer Dan Rogers. “There have been nights that I’ve been a part of where Nashville’s been hit with 5, 6, 7 inches of snow, and one by one, artists say they can’t make it in from Hendersonville [Tenn.], flight’s cancelled, et cetera. And we end up with a handwritten schedule that looks absolutely nothing like it looked at nine o’clock that morning.”
Pulling together the artists and, at times, the logistics can be monumental. It’s one thing to call Martina McBride on an off-day to stand in at the last minute for Loretta Lynn. It was another to book artists and venues for a parade of facilities after the 2010 flood. It has been an even bigger challenge to steer the show through the pandemic, as the end date for the crisis remains unknown and the safety guidelines frequently evolve.
“It’s not an option for the Opry to cease, as far as we’re concerned,” says Opry talent director Gina Keltner. “So the show will go on in some form or fashion. Always.” There are two known exceptions. On April 6, 1968 Saturday after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis — Nashville city officials expected riots and installed a 7 p.m. curfew. The station aired a previous edition, though Acuff gave an impromptu concert downtown for tourists that afternoon. Similarly, WSM pre-empted the Opry on April14, 1945, for President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s memorial, though the Opry itself was conducted without being broadcast. The possibility exists that another Saturday or two may have been missed, though that doesn’t diminish the significance of the milestone.
“Something could have happened in the 1920s, ’30sorduring World War II, and probably did,” says Rogers. “That wasn’t earth-shattering at that point, simply because the Opry hadn’t been around for 96years, and you could have missed a Saturday broadcast without raising a lot of eyebrows.” The Opry’s staying power grew, of course, the older it got. Its biggest threat, believes Anderson, was neither the pandemic nor the flood, but changing tastes in the 1950s.
“There were other country music shows scattered around the country, and most of them didn’t survive when Elvis and rock’n’roll came in in the late ’50s,” recalls Anderson. “Elvis was the greatest thing that ever happened to The Louisiana Hayride, but he was also the thing that killed it. I mean, people came to see Elvis, and then when he wasn’t there anymore, they didn’t come back to see the Hayride.” The Louisiana Hayride disappeared from KWKH Shreveport in 1960, around the same time that barn dance programs began to decline at WLS Chicago, WSB Atlanta, WLW Cincinnati, KXLA Los Angeles and KRLD Dallas. The Opry experienced its own dip in popularity — Anderson remembers attending a show as a fan circa 1958, when a raft of girls stayed just long enough to see The Everly Brothers, then left.
The Opry bounced back in the 1960s, but sagged again when it was allowed to become something of an oldies show. In the late ’90s, management made a concerted effort to program current hitmakers and new artists among the established members, and that decision — combined with Nashville’s growth as a tourist destination — revitalized the brand. “We need to have something for everyone,” says Keltner. “That’s important to me when I put the show together, that if a grandparent brings their grandchild to the Opry, that there’s going to be a little something for both of them.”
The big, strategic decisions, the day-to-day resilience and the dedication of the artists have helped the institution accumulate its 5,000 shows, creating a longevity — and a reliability — that Opry originator George Hay could not have predicted in 1925.And it’s a fairly safe bet that fans can count on the Opry being around long enough to reach another numerical milestone — its 100th anniversary as a live radio show — on Nov. 28, 2025. It’s not entirely impossible that it could begin its second century by introducing another new star.
“There’s some kid sitting in a high school English class right now tapping his pencil or her pencil on the desk, wanting to be writing a song instead of taking an English exam,” says Anderson. “That kid, in four years, could be on the stage at the Opry. You just don’t know.”
While all of the focus this weekend will be on Saturday night's show, let's not forget that there will be a Friday Night Opry also featuring Grand Ole Opry members John Conlee, Mark Wills, Riders In The Sky and Connie Smith, along with non-members Craig Campbell, Jason Crabb, Charles Esten and Exile.
7:00: John Conlee, Craig Campbell, Mark Wills, Jason Crabb
Intermission
8:15: Riders In The Sky, Charles Esten, Connie Smith, Exile
____________________________________________________________________
Now from 50 years ago, Saturday October 30, 1971:
1st show
6:30: Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper (host); Ernie Ashworth
6:45: The 4 Guys (host); Del Wood; Hugh X. Lewis
7:00: Charlie Louvin (host); Bill Carlisle; Tommy Overstreet; Lois Johnson; Diane McCall
7:30: Stu Phillips (host); Jean Shepard; Johnny Carver; Crook Brothers
8:00: Billy Grammer (host); Skeeter Davis; Dickie Lee; Bobby Lewis
8:30: Tex Ritter (host); Loretta Lynn; Merle Kilgore; Fruit Jar Drinkers
2nd show
9:30: Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper (host); Del Wood; Tommy Overstreet; Hugh X. Lewis; Lois Johnson
10:00: Charlie Louvin (host) and Diane McCall; Bill Carlisle; Johnny Carver
10:15: Tex Ritter (host); Jerry Clower
10:30: Billy Grammer (host); Skeeter Davis; Dickie Lee
10:45: The 4 Guys (host); Jean Shepard; Crook Brothers
11:00: Stu Phillips (host); Loretta Lynn; Fruit Jar Drinkers; Sam McGee
11:30: Marty Robbins (host); Bobby Lewis; Merle Kilgore
A lot of non-members that night.
________________________________________________________________
As the Grand Ole Opry celebrates it's 5,000th Saturday night show tonight, let's go back to one of the earlier Opry shows, back to October 30, 1943 (yes 78 years ago). Here you go:
8:00: Purina
Bill Monroe: Train 45
Uncle Dave Macon and Doris: Jenny Put the Kettle ON
Bill Monroe: Never More Blues
Daniel Quartette: The Sweetest Song I Know
Wilbur: Sweet Evalina
Curly Williams and The Georgia Peach Pickers: Home In San Antone
Ernest Tubb: Blue Eyed Elaine
Carl Story: Bile Them Cabbage On
Uncle Dave Macon and Doris: Chewing Gum
Bill and Clyde: In The Pines
Chubby Wise: Fishers Hornpipe
Bill Monroe: John Henry
8:30: Crazy Water Crystals
Paul Howard and The Arkansas Cotton Pickers: With Tears In My Eyes
Marie and Clyde Dillaha: I Can't Go On
Crook Brothers: 8th of January
Eddy Arnold: The Hand Is Writing On The Wall
Jack Shook and The Missouri Mountaineers: Be Honest With Me
Possum Hunters: Ragged Bill
Ford Rush: Silver Threads Among The Gold
Sam, Kirk, and the Boys from Tennessee: If I Had My Life To Live Again
Lonny and Tommy Thompson: You're My Darling You're My Sunshine
Smith Sisters: No Letter Today
Uncle Rufus: My Mother In Law
Gully Jumpers: Chinese Breakdown
9:00: Royal Crown
Golden West Cowboys: Better Quit It Now
Fruit Jar Drinkers: Rolling Down The Line
Ernest Tubb: Last Night I Dreamed
Curly Williams and The Georgia Peach Pickers: When The Sun Goes Down
Robert Lunn: Military Talking Blues
Little Becky Barfield: Don't Forget
Fruit Jar Drinkers: Old Hen Cackled
Ernest Tubb: My Time Will Come Some Day
Curly Williams and The Georgia Peach Pickers: Columbus Stockade Blues
Tex Summey: Hawaiian Sunset
Golden West Cowboys: I Can't Forget Loving You
9:30: Prince Albert
Roy Acuff and His Smokey Mountain Boys: Green Back Dollar
Roy Acuff and His Smokey Mountain Boys: Live and Let Live
Minnie Pearl: In the Shade of the Pines
Mack McGarr: D Chord
Hoe Down: Arkansas Traveler
Jug Band: Pistol Packing Mama
Old Hickory Singers: Birmingham Jail
Whitey Ford: The Duke of Paducah
Jimmy Riddle: Fox Chase
10:00: Wallrite
Bill Monroe: Turkey In The Straw
Sally Ann: Nobody's Darling On Earth
Blue Grass Quartet: Lord Lead Me On
Clyde Moody: The Face I See At Evening
Chubby Wise: Here and There
10:15: Weatherman
Daniel Quartet: Waiting for the Boys to Come Home
Uncle Dave Macon and Doris: Going Down This Road Feeling Bad
Possum Hunters: Take Your Foot Out of the Mud
Eddy Arnold: I'm Coming Home Darling
Marie and Clyde Dillaha: Someday You'll Be Sorry
Uncle Dave Macon and Doris: Take Me Back to My Old Carolina Home
Daniel Quartet: We Are Climbing
Possum Hunters: Durang Hornpipe
10:30: Cherokee Mills
Roy Acuff: Beautiful Brown Eyes
Roy Acuff: Mother the Queen of My Heart
Rachel and Oswald: Gathering Flowers from the Hillside
Jimmy Riddle: San Antonio Rose
Jug Band: Hi-Di-Ho-Baby
10:45: Lazyu
Crook Brothers: Chicken Reel
Uncle Rufus: The Cat Came Back
Sam, Kirk, Art and Goldie: While I'm Away
Robert Lunn, Floyd and Goldie: Riding Down the Canyon
Lonny and Tommy Thompson: Song of the Bandit
Gully Jumpers: Grey Eagle
Sam and Kirk: It's Too Late to Say You Are Wrong
Crook Brothers: John Henry
11:00: Roy Acuff Song Book
Roy Acuff: I'll Reap My Harvest In Heaven
Roy Acuff: Pins and Needles
Rachel and Oswald: Girl I Love Don't Pay Me No Mine
Velma Williams: Too Late
Jimmy Riddle: Wang-Wang Blues
11:15: Ernest Tubb Songbook
Ernest Tubb: When the World Has Turned You Down
Ernest Tubb: I'm Tired of You
Leon Short: Won't You Come Back to Me
Ernest Tubb: I'm Wondering How
11:30: Saf-Kill
Golden West Cowboys: Just That Kind
Little Becky Barfield: I'll Betcha' My Heart I Love You
Tex Summey: San Antonio Rose
Pete Pyle: That Cheap Look In Your Eyes
Jal Smith: Black Mountain Stomp
Trio: Old Dusty Saddle
11:45: Coyne Electric
Curly Williams and The Georgia Peach Pickers: I'll Get Along Somehow
Smith Sisters: Columbus Stockade Blues
Paul Howard and The Arkansas Cotton Pickers: I'm Sending You Red Roses
Fruit Jar Drinkers: 8th of January
Curly Williams and The Georgia Peach Pickers: So Long to the Red River Valley
Some long forgotten names and I wonder how many of today's Opry fans would remember any of them?
There you have it for this week. As you would imagine, I will be in Nashville this weekend and taking in the 5,000th Saturday night show. It should be amazing.
As always, thanks for reading and commenting and I hope everyone enjoys the Grand Ole Opry this weekend.
Being a numbers person, I did a little "ciphering". November 28, 1925 to October 30, 2021 is 35,035 days, which is 5,005 weeks. Going with 35,000 days from November 28, 1925 would have been September 25, 2021.
ReplyDeleteI do know that I looked forward 6-7 years ago when I heard an opening of a show from then when they announce "this is the xxxxth consecutive Saturday night performance and I've had this date on my calendar since then.
I do have the 50th Anniversay of the Grand Ole Opry House (March 16, 2024), the 100th Birthday Celebration (October 4, 2025) and the 100th Anniversary of the first show (November 28, 2025) on my calendar. I'm wondering how / if they'll commemorate each of those events?
Patrick, I have heard that the 100th birthday celebration will last several months and that the date you have (October 4, 2025), is the date I was given by the Opry ticket office back when I reserved my tickets for the 100th.
DeleteActually, your calculation of 5.005 is correct as I have seen that number written in another article regarding the 5,000th. So I am going to assume that they have taken into account the Saturday nights when the Barn Dance/Opry was not on the air. I know that in the early days of WSM, the station was off the air at times, specifically when the new tower went up, and maybe assuming the two confirmed Saturday nights that were missed, one in 1945 and the other in 1968.
Either way, I won't argue the point with those at the Opry. Somewhere along the line in their counts, it came to October 30th and I am fine with that.
Regarding the 50th anniversary of the Opry House, if you remember back to the 40th, they had two great shows that night so I am anticipating the same for the 50th. And yes, I plan on being there also.
Byron, thanks for clarifying and offering a possible reason for the difference between 5,000 & 5,005, that certainly seems plausible. As I mentioned, this is not a new "discovery" as they've been on track for this Saturday being number 5,000 for several years.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if Uncle Dave Macon was a part of the first show, but if he was, then the 96 years of the Opry can be linked together from him to Roy Acuff to Bill Anderson, one of them has been an Opry Member every year of its existence (not withstanding that "membership" wasn't really an actual term in the early years).
Really looking forward to watching this here in Europe.
ReplyDeleteGreat write up, that only Byron Fay could do. Bob
ReplyDeleteI wonder what artist has performed on the most shows of the 5000? With Tubb, Acuff, and other "big names" touring for many years, it would not surprise me at all if that honor may not fall to the late Herman Crook. He was there every weekend. Probably something we would never officially know, but only speculate on.
ReplyDeleteI don't want to come across as too much of a "numbers nerd", and it doesn't really matter, but as far as the number of weeks since the Opry began, this week's show will actually be the 5006th week, not 5005.
ReplyDeleteThe number of "Saturday nights" is always one more than the "number of weeks". November 28, 1925 was the first show, so December 5 was the second show. But December 5 was only one week since November 28. And December 12 was the third show, but it was only 2 weeks since November 25.... So you always need to add one.
Again, not that it matters, but I guess the Opry has figured there have been six Saturdays without an Opry.
I found this statement interesting and accurate. Good for Gina Keltner.
ReplyDelete"The Opry bounced back in the 1960s, but sagged again when it was allowed to become something of an oldies show. In the late ’90s, management made a concerted effort to program current hitmakers and new artists among the established members, and that decision — combined with Nashville’s growth as a tourist destination — revitalized the brand. “We need to have something for everyone,” says Keltner. “That’s important to me when I put the show together, that if a grandparent brings their grandchild to the Opry, that there’s going to be a little something for both of them.”
New talent is necessary. My only comment would be this. I like new talent, but for me it has to be genuine TALENT. I heard some 'Opry performances a while back that were terrible, artists only capable of putting together an album with computers/auto-tune/etc.
Absolutely bring on new talent, especially acts that understand what country music is all about.
Great work Byron. Thanks!
I agree totally with the need for new talent. The paradox is that country radio (which has fat pockets) is so completely disconnected from what we know and love as traditional country music and that's not going to change. They pay to get the flavor of the day on the Opry. They don't care if the artists can sing, if they look good and are marketable (I'm a marketer myself), the general audience eats it up. I was in the car on a road trip recently and was forced to listen to "country" radio for a week. Literally, same 10 songs, many of which were more hip hop beat with rapping than country, on getting tangled up naked in my bed, making love down by the river, oh baby baby, hey girl and a good cold beer. I get the Opry needs people the kids are listening to but I also believe there should be room for new traditional country artists, many of which can be found on Americana radio - Charley Crockett, Tyler Childers, Hayes Carl etc. - go listen to the Americana radar release each Friday on Spotify. My play list is full of new people whose songs have plenty of fiddle and steal. These people are there, they're singing good up-to-date country music with lyrics that say something and they're making a living filling up venues. The Opry has totally failed on incorporating that element into the shows. When the Nashville record companies figured out they could make more money pushing knock-off pop, that's what they did and they aren't going back. It all comes down to the almighty dollar.
ReplyDeleteI'm really not trying to be negative. It just pains me that as much as I love the Opry a trip to Nashville is now more centered around who's playing at the Ryman than a line-up of bubble gum pop hoping maybe I'll see Connie Smith/Jeannie Seely or Bill Anderson at the Opry - and that's not worth the ticket price.
RIP Sonny Osborne - an innovator if there ever was one, who caught plenty of crap for mixing steel guitar, drums and piano into bluegrass which broadened the audience while not straying so far from its roots. We will not see the like of people like Sonny again.
(oldtimeopry)
Ding.ding.ding. We have a winner here! :)
ReplyDelete1000% agree with this, and wish I had thought to say it!
"My play list is full of new people whose songs have plenty of fiddle and steal. These people are there, they're singing good up-to-date country music with lyrics that say something and they're making a living filling up venues. The Opry has totally failed on incorporating that element into the shows."
And, I share the lament on today's country radio. It's horrible! I can't listen to it.
Why was it missed in 1945..we all know why 1968:was missed…but didn’t they air reruns on those dates
ReplyDeleteThe 1945 show was not on the air due to the death of FDR. The NBC network ran special programming. Pee Wee King did headline a show at the Ryman but it was not broadcast.
DeleteI'm a bit obsessive about numbers also and from my calculations and research it is indeed the 5,000th broadcast. Tonight marks the 5,006th Saturday night since November 28, 1925, and there have been 6 Saturdays when the Opry did not air that I've been able to find.
ReplyDelete~ December 11, 1926—Janaury 1, 1927: WSM ceased braodcasting for the installation of a new 5,000 watt transmitter, there were no shows on these dates.
~ April 14, 1945: There was an Opry show on this evening, but it was not broadcast on WSM as the station was running NBC network programming commemorating the life and death of FDR.
~ April 6, 1968: There was no show due to a 7pm curfew that was imposed on the City of Nashville following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. two days earlier in Memphis.
Congrats to the Opry and I can't wait to be in the audience tonight!
Eager to get Byron's report on the trip. I can say that beginning with Whisper singing a tribute to Mr. Acuff was the right idea. I wish they all had said HOW-DEE at the end of the opening, though.
ReplyDelete