There is another full week of Opry shows on the calendar beginning with the Tuesday Night Opry. There are only two Opry members on the Tuesday schedule, Rhonda Vincent who will open the show and The Isaacs who will close. Comedian Killer Beaz and The Tennessee Four are among the artists on the schedule, along with Mark Geiger, who will be making his Opry debut.
Tuesday June 23
7:00: Rhonda Vincent, Elizabeth Nichols Mack Geiger, Trey Hensley
Intermission
8:20: The Tennessee Four, Killer Beaz, Dillon Carmichael, The Isaacs
There are three Opry members on the Wednesday schedule: Dailey & Vincent, T. Graham Brown and Charlie McCoy. Also on the schedule is Adam Sanders and Mike Reid, both of whom will be making their Opry debuts.
Wednesday June 24
7:00: Dailey & Vincent, T. Graham Brown, Adam Sanders, Ty Herndon with special guests Michael Passons & Melissa Greene
Intermission
8:20: Mike Reid, The Brothers Comatose, Emily Ann Roberts, Charlie McCoy
Finally, the Thursday Night Opry features members Chris Janson and Mandy Barnett, Also scheduled is Rhett Akins, who has been making a few Opry appearances lately, Chris Scruggs and The Stone Fox Five, RaeLynn, Tigirlily Gold and Tyler Ramsey & Carl Broemel.
(The Thursday running order has not been finalized as of yet)
I find it hard that Wednesday night will be the Opry debut for Mike Reid. He received his degree in music from Penn State University in 1970. But that achievement was considerably overshadowed by his reputation on the football field. At Penn State he was an All-America selection and won the Outland Trophy as the country's outstanding collegiate lineman. He was the first-round draft pick of the Cincinnati Bengals that year and at the end of his first season in the NFL, was named Defensive Rookie Of The Year.
Reid's success continued when he was voted NFL All-Pro in 1972 and '73. In spite of these honors, Reid decided he would rather play music than football for a living. He retired from the Bengals and in 1980, moved to Nashville to pursue song writing.
Since 1983 when Mike Reid scored his first number one country hit song "Inside" by Ronnie Milsap, he has composed more than 30 top ten country and pop hits. Twenty-one of those records have gone all the way to number one on the charts.
He has been the recipient of ASCAPS' "Songwriter of the Year" award and one of the many songs that Milsap recorded, "Stranger In My House", has earned a Grammy award.
In addition to Milsap, Reid has had his songs recorded by Bonnie Raitt, Anita Baker, Bette Midler, Prince, George Michael, Nancy Wilson, Etta James, Kenny Rogers, Ann Murray, Wynonna Judd, Alabama, Joe Cocker, Tanya Tucker, Willie Nelson, Collin Raye and Tim McGraw. Among the songs that Mike has composed are "I Can't Make You Love Me" (Raitt, Michael and Prince), "My Strongest Weakness" and "To Be Loved By You" (Judd), "In This Life" (Raye and Midler), "Sometimes I Wonder Why" (Baker), "Forever's As Far As I'll Go" (Alabama) and "Everywhere" (McGraw).
Mike Reid had a brief but nice run as a recording artist, too. I'm surprised he wasn't on during that time.
ReplyDeleteJ in OK
With the recent passing of Don Schlitz, and the success he had as an Opry Member, one has to wonder if they are shopping around for other songwriters that may be a good fit for the Opry.
ReplyDeleteI have a feeling we will see Rhett Akins invited to become a member fairly soon. I believe he would be a great addition.
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