Grand Ole Opry 2/17 & 2/18

It's been a couple of busy weeks at the Grand Ole Opry House. Two weeks ago, there was the unveiling of the new Grand Ole Opry stage and backdrop, while last Saturday night saw the induction of Henry Cho as the Opry's newest member. 

This week, things look a little quieter at the Opry. The "big" news this for this weekend is the return of Opry members Old Crow Medicine Show. The group is on the schedule for the Friday Night Opry, and it will be the group's first Opry appearance since 2021. 

Joining Old Crow Medicine Show on Friday night are Opry members Dailey & Vincent, The Isaacs and Jamey Johnson. Only four, but a good group. Just to note: Connie Smith was on the original schedule but was taken off. 

Opry Next Stage Artist Nate Smith is among the non-members scheduled, along with The Gibson Brothers, Ella Langley, who will be making her Opry debut, and a return appearance Carlos DeFord Bailey, who is the grandson of one of the Opry's earliest members, DeFord Bailey. 

Looking at the lineup for Saturday night, Grand Ole Opry members John Conlee, Lorrie Morgan and Del McCoury. For Del, this will be his first Opry appearance for 2023. Also listed is Bill Anderson. I wanted to mention that this will be Bill's last Opry appearance for a while. He wrote in his monthly newsletter that he will be having minor surgery which will keep him from performing for the next month. 

Among the non-members for Saturday is Country Music Hall of Fame member Dean Dillon. I find it very hard to believe, but this will be the first Opry appearance for this legendary writer. As much as he was in Nashville during the early part of his career, I can't believe the Opry missed having him on. 

Also on the schedule is Brittney Spencer, Zach Williams, and another artist making his Opry debut, William Prince.

Friday February 17
7:00: Dailey & Vincent, The Gibson Brothers, Old Crow Medicine Show, Carlos DeFord Bailey
Intermission
8:15: Nate Smith, The Isaacs, Ella Langley, Jamey Johnson

Saturday February 18
7:00: Opry Square Dancers, Del McCoury Band, William Prince, John Conlee, Brittney Spencer
Intermission
8:15: Bill Anderson, Dean Dillon, Opry Square Dancers, Zach Williams, Lorrie Morgan

As mentioned, Ella Langley will be making her Opry debut on Friday night, while Dean Dillon is debuting on Saturday. 

Ella Langley was raised in Alabama. She started to make a name for herself in Nashville in 2021, when she signed her first publishing deal with Sony Music. In addition, she has hit the road with Randy Houser, Koe Wetzel, Cody Johnson, and Jamey Johnson and has also supported rising stars Lainey Wilson and Parker McCollum. Her breakup anthem “If You Have To” (over 15.5 million streams to date) has quickly grown her following. 

Ella’s most recent track “Country Boy’s Dream Girl” began a new chapter as her first release since officially becoming part of Columbia Records. While paving the road for her touring career, Ella has hit her stride in songwriting. Elle King's latest single, "Out Yonder," co-written with Matt McKinney and Bobby Hamrick, has earned Ella her first label cut. Announced earlier in November, Ella also has five (5) cuts on Elle King’s upcoming project, “Come Get Your Wife,” expected January 2023. 

Dean Dillon is a name everyone should be familiar with. Arriving in Nashville in the early 70s, he was signed initially with Sun Records, where he had limited success.  In 1976 he landed the role of Hank Williams in Opryland’s Country Music Show, USA., after which he signed his first publishing deal with Nashville producer, publisher Tom Collins.  Among his early songwriting successes were Jim Ed Brown and Helen Cornelius's #1 hit “Lying Here In Love with You” a song he co-wrote with Gary Harrison, and the George Jones hit, "Tennessee Whiskey," which also peaked at #1. 

While he had some success as a singer, and made several well received albums, Dean made the decision to devote himself to songwriting.  His association with George Strait over the years has brought him to an ICON STATUS in country music. It’s the relationship with Strait that has, to a large extent, defined both of their careers. And in a genre built on great songwriters writing for great singers, there has never been another team like it. Dillon has composed or co-written 55 songs for Strait, including 19 singles, 11 which went to number 1. Even in a career like Strait’s, the Dillon titles stand out: “Marina del Rey”, “The Chair”, “I’ve Come to Expect it From You”, “Easy Come, Easy Go”, “She Let Herself Go”, and “The Best Day.” 

The awards he has won are too numerous to mention. In 2002 he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriter's Hall of Fame, and more recently, into the Country Music Hall of Fame. 

William Prince is the final Opry debut this weekend. He is from Canada released his solo debut album, Earthly Days, on December 11, 2015. The song "Breathless" reached #22 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts in 2018. His next album, Reliever, was released on February 7, 2020. In October 2020 William released his third studio album, an album of country gospel songs called Gospel First Nation. His fourth album, Stand in the Joy, is slated for release April 14, 2023, on Six Shooter Records.

William Prince won the Western Canadian Music Award for Aboriginal Artist of the Year in 2016. He received a Canadian Folk Music Award nomination for Aboriginal Songwriter of the Year at the 12th Canadian Folk Music Awards and won the Juno Award for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2017 for his debut album Earthly Days. His song "The Spark" won the 2020 SOCAN Songwriting Prize.

His 2020 album Reliever received a nomination for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2021. He won two Canadian Folk Music Awards at the 16th Canadian Folk Music Awards in 2021, for Contemporary Album of the Year and English Songwriter of the Year.


Now from 45 years ago, Saturday February 18, 1978: 

1st show
6:30: Bill Anderson (host); Stu Phillips
6:45: Del Reeves (host); Wilma Lee Cooper; Willis Brothers
7:00: Ernest Tubb (host); Skeeter Davis; Charlie Louvin; Stonewall Jackson; Jim and Jesse
7:30: Roy Acuff (host); David Houston; Ray Pillow; Billy Grammer; Ernie Ashworth; Crook Brothers
8:00: Wilburn Brothers (host); Roy Drusky; Justin Tubb; Del Wood; Bill Carlisle
8:30: Hank Snow (host); Jimmy C Newman; Osborne Brothers; Jerry Clower; Lonzo and Oscar; Fruit Jar Drinkers

2nd show
9:30: Bill Anderson (host); Charlie Louvin; Willis Brothers; Ernie Ashworth; Mary Lou Turner
10:00: Ernest Tubb (host); Skeeter Davis
10:15: Roy Acuff (host); Wilma Lee Cooper; Jim and Jesse
10:30: David Houston (host); Billy Grammer; Justin Tubb
10:45: Jerry Clower (host); Ray Pillow; Crook Brothers
11:00: Hank Snow (host); Roy Drusky; Osborne Brothers; Fruit Jar Drinkers; Del Wood; Kirk McGee
11:30: Jimmy C Newman (host); Wilburn Brothers; Lonzo and Oscar; Stu Phillips; Bill Carlisle

(Porter Wagoner was scheduled to host the 8:00 and 10:30 segments but cancelled. Del Reeves was scheduled for both shows but only appeared on the early show, while Stonewall Jackson only was scheduled for the first show). 

Looking back, it was on Saturday February 18, 1995, that Charlie Douglas announced on the Grand Ole Opry for the final time. While we remember Charlie from his days (or nights) at WSM and at the Grand Ole Opry, he was more famous for hosting his overnight truckers radio program. 

Here is the article that was published by WWL in New Orleans when he passed away in 2011.

Charlie Douglas, the radio announcer whose 'Road Gang' radio show on WWL invented a genre of overnight programming for truck drivers nationwide, died on Thanksgiving Day. He was 78. Douglas' onetime co-host and eventual successor on WWL, Dave Nemo, called Douglas a pioneer of the overnight talk genre, geared toward truckers.

'Trucking radio lost the man who invented the genre. He will live on in the memories of all who rode through the night with this great friend of the truck driver,' said Nemo, who now hosts a show on Sirius/XM radio.

Douglas, whose real name was Doug China, first brought the 'Road Gang' to WWL in 1971. The station's clear channel signal meant that the program, which featured country music, weather reports and homespun humor, could be heard by truck drivers nationwide.

'Charlie went to WWL and said, 'You've got a signal that is a flame thrower out there,'' Nemo recalled. 'He said, 'You've got all these truckers with nothing directed towards them. Why don't we start a program aimed for the trucking audience exclusively?'' The program would later earn the attention of Time magazine.

'Six nights a week at 9:30, Charlie Douglas sounds two beeps on a truck horn, and thousands of truck drivers on the road all over the country cock an ear,' explained the magazine in a 1973 article. 'For the next 71/2 hours, over WWL, a clear-channel New Orleans radio station at 870 on the dial, they can hear not only country music but business information that could be vital.'

Nemo said that the show was not just about entertainment, but also public safety. 'The mandate for the program was to keep truckers awake, and therefore alive,' Nemo said.'The best compliment we could get was for someone to say, 'Man, you really helped me make it through that night.' We took that very seriously.'

Douglas himself boasted of the program's wide reach, saying that when he once asked listeners to send in shoulder patches 'just to find out who was listening,' he received patches from police and fire departments, sanitation crews, even Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops, and of course trucking firms. He said the country music he played fit with the trucker's lifestyle. 'It's about being lonesome,' Douglas said, 'and workin' hard.'

Nemo said that the program also served as a lifeline between truckers and their families back home. 'In those days, telephone communication with the folks back home was limited to pay phones at a truck stop,' Nemo said. 'So, the song dedications and birth announcements helped bridge that gap.'

Country music and truckers' talk may not have been the first thing listeners of WWL, the station whose studios were at one time in the Roosevelt Hotel, may have expected, but Douglas made the program into an institution.

'The whole thing seemed a bit off center at the time,' wrote Ronnie Virgets in a 1985 Times-Picayune profile of Nemo, which credited Douglas with inventing the format. 'A country format in jazzy New Orleans, no local sponsors and a floating audience of unknown size and desires. But Douglas made the whole thing work.'

His 'Road Gang' show, broadcast at various times from 9 p.m. or 11 p.m. until 5 a.m., continued on WWL for some 13 years before being picked up nationally on satellite and spawning dozens of imitators.

Douglas also worked stints as an announcer and host on WNOE in New Orleans, as well as on WSM-AM in Nashville, and stations in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Buffalo and Oklahoma City.

He began his career in 1953 at KLIC in Monroe, La.

He was inducted into the Country Music DJ Hall of Fame in 1994. He retired from radio a year later to work full-time for CDX, the country music distribution business he established with business partner Paul Lovelace in 1991.

Charlie normally announced during the late show and would exchange greetings with Roy Acuff and Hank Snow. He had a smooth style and was very personable with the audience.

Here is the running order from Saturday February 18, 1995: 

1st show
6:30: GHS Strings
Bill Monroe (host): I'm On My Way Back to the Old Home
Roy Drusky: The Waltz of the Angels
George Lindsay: Comedy
Bill Monroe: Bluegrass Breakdown

6:45: Country Music Hall of Fame
Mike Snider (host): Foggy Mountain Chimes
Bill Carlisle: Leave That Liar Alone
Mike Snider: Snuff Dipper/Foggy Mountain Breakdown

7:00: Shoney's
The Whites (host): San Antonio Rose
Jeannie Seely: One Step Away (From Coming Home)
Jim and Jesse: Air Mail Special
Jimmy C Newman: Allons oh Lafayette
Ray Pillow: One Memory to Another
The Whites: Doing It By the Book/Keep on the Sunny Side

7:30: Standard Candy
Jimmy Dickens (host): (Did Not Sing Due to Throat Trouble)
Stu Phillips: Blue Canadian Rockies
Hal Ketchum: Stay Forever
Doug Stone: Faith in You; Faith in Me
Charley Pride: Kiss an Angel Good Morning/Kawliga
Jimmy Dickens Band: Steel Guitar Rag

8:00: Martha White
Porter Wagoner (host): Dooley
Charlie Louvin: Every Time You Leave
Charlie Walker: Pick Me Up on Your Way Down
Jean Shepard: I'm Tied Around Your Finger
Opry Square Dance Band and The Melvin Sloan Dancers: Durang's Hornpipe
Porter Wagoner and Coleen Walters: If Teardrops Were Pennies
Porter Wagoner: Freight Train Boogie

8:30: Kraft
Hank Snow (host): Gonna Find Me a Bluebird
Osborne Brothers: Midnight Flyer
Jack Greene: You Are My Treasure
Connie Smith: Did We Have to Come this Far to Say Goodbye
The 4 Guys: River of Dreams/Catfish John
Hank Snow: Linda Lou

2nd show
9:30: Dollar General
Porter Wagoner (host): Company's Coming
Brother Oswald: Eunita
Stu Phillips: Wicked Greed for Gold
Charlie Walker: A Way to Free Myself
The Isaacs: I'm Gonna Move
Porter Wagoner: Y'all Come

10:00: Goody's
Bill Monroe (host): Sweetheart, You've Done Me Wrong
Ray Pillow: That Ain't No Way to Treat My Heart
Bill Monroe: Bluegrass Stomp/Mule Skinner Blues

10:15: Sunbeam/Tennessee Pride
Jeannie Seely (host): Go Down Swinging
Osborne Brothers: Flying South
Jeannie Seely: Too Far Gone

10:30: Gruhn Guitar
Jimmy Dickens (host)
Mike Snider: Bending the Strings/Born To Ship/Look What They've Done to the Dominico Hen

10:45: Fairfield Communities
Jean Shepard (host): Wabash Cannonball
Jim and Jesse: Orange Blossom Special
Opry Square Dance Band and The Melvin Sloan Dancers: Turkey in the Straw
Jean Shepard w/Jim and Jesse: The Violet & A Rose

11:00: Coca Cola
Hank Snow (host): Weary River
Charlie Louvin: In The Cross
Jack Greene: Oh, Lonesome Me
Connie Smith: I Can't Stop Loving You
The 4 Guys: It's All Right to Have a Good Time
Hank Snow: My First Night Alone

11:30: Cates Pickles
Jimmy C Newman (host): (?)
Charlie Pride: All I Have to Offer You is Me/Mountain of Love
Hal Ketchum: Every Little Word/No Easy Run
Jimmy C Newman: Jambalaya

There you have it for this week. As always, thanks for reading and commenting and I hope everyone enjoys the Grand Ole Opry this weekend.