Grand Ole Opry 9/11 & 9/12

This weekend on the Friday Night Opry, the Opry will celebrate 50 years of Little House on the Prairie, which will include a cast reunion. While the reunion will be taking place the entire weekend, the big night will be Friday at the Opry. Over a dozen members of the cast are scheduled to attend including Dean Butler, Todd Bridges and Alison Arngrim. 

Among those scheduled to appear on the Friday Night Opry are John Carter & Ana Cristina Cash, along with Carlene Carter. For those who might remember, Johnny Cash and June Carter appeared on one episode of the show, on an episode that was one of the highest rated during the entire run of the show. 

Also scheduled are Opry members Gary Mule Deer, Dailey & Vincent and Charlie McCoy. Rounding out the show is Nashville fiddler Matt Combs

On Saturday night, Gary Mule Deer and Charlie McCoy return to make it a two-show weekend. Joining that pair are Opry members Connie Smith and Mandy Barnett. Guesting are Caleb Caudle and Riley Downing and Nicole Atkins, both of whom are making their Opry debuts. 

Friday September 11
7:00: Dailey & Vincent, John Carter & Ana Cristina Cash, Matt Combs, Dean Butler w/Matt Combs
Intermission
8:20: Gary Mule Deer, Carlene Carter, Little House Cast, Charlie McCoy

Saturday September 12
7:00: Opry Square Dancers, Mandy Barnett, Connie Smith, Riley Downing, Grand Master Fiddle Champions
Intermission
8:20: Caleb Caudle, Gary Mule Deer, Nicole Atkins, Charlie McCoy

Yes, it's time for the annual Grand Master Fiddle Championship. It is nice to see that the Opry continues the tradition of having the winning fiddlers appear on the show. 

Riley Downing is a native of small-town Missouri who once worked as a backroad trashman before becoming one of music’s weathered journeymen. He may be best known as a member of noisemaking Americana outfit The Deslondes, a New Orleans-born band that he co-founded after a clandestine meeting with likeminded musicians at a folk festival in Oklahoma. 

Nicole Atkins is “a retro-pop auteur and one of the few singers of her generation for whom the term chanteuse accurately applies.” All the world’s a stage on Drama, her seventh studio offering and first in six years. Produced by Pat Sansone (Wilco) in Nashville and written by Atkins, Drama creates a world securely rooted in the past while remaining deeply personal. Arriving on the legendary Sun Records via the Wicked Game imprint of her longtime friend and collaborator Chris Isaak, Drama is an out-of-time instant classic from an artist whose voice and vision are unmistakably her own.

Those who woke up on Saturday September 12, 1998, found this news in the Nashville Tennessean: 

After managing the renovated Ryman Auditorium for five years, Steve Buchanan becomes president of Gaylord Entertainment Company's Grand Ole Opry Group, with responsibilities including direction of the Grand Ole Opry itself. 

Buchanan, 41, succeeds Bob Whittaker, who retires at the end of the year. In his new post, Buchanan will oversee the Grand Ole Opry, the Ryman Auditorium and Opryland Productions. He will not continue as general manager of the Ryman Auditorium. A successor will be named later. 

A Gaylord veteran, Whittaker joined the company in 1971 to staff Opryland theme park for its opening. He was named vice president and general manager of the Grand Ole Opry in 1993 and became president of the Grand Ole Opry Group in 1996. 

Among the country stars who joined the Opry during his tenure are Diamond Rio, Hal Ketchum, Joe Diffie, Johnny Paycheck, Martina McBride and Bashful Brother Oswald. Whittaker owns the farm that belonged to the late Grand Ole Opry star Bill Monroe, and he intends to retire and take up farming. 

A Vanderbilt graduate and former booking agent for Buddy Lee, Buchanan joined Gaylord in 1985 and was marketing manager for the Opry before moving to the Ryman in 1993 to oversee its renovation and reopening as a concert hall. He has brought a strong lineup of talent to the Ryman including Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Merle Haggard, James Brown, Jerry Lee Lewis, Beck, Sheryl Crow and Matchbox 20. 

During his first term at the Opry, Buchanan was close to many members of the show's cast, and he produced a Grammy nominated album by bluegrass founding father Bill Monroe. 

"I feel like the Opry is everchanging," he said yesterday. "What I want to do is help direct and focus that change. We're considering a lot of different things for the Opry as we look to the future. We always are, and that hasn't changed. It's important to us that the Opry always be the crown jewel that it is to Gaylord Entertainment Company, to Nashville, to Tennessee and to music fans around the world. Our focus is to help it grow." 

Buchanan planned to talk to members of the Opry at shows last night and tonight. 

With the closing of Opryland theme park last year, the Grand Ole Opry played a reduce schedule this summer. There was one show on Friday night instead of two, though the tradition of two shows on Saturday night was maintained. As a result, overall, Opry attendance declined this year, but on a per-show basis, attendance figures stayed flat, a Gaylord spokesman said. 

"I have tremendous respect for those who have come before me as managers of the Opry," Buchanan said. "The Opry is a very different entity, and it truly deserves special attention."

At the time, little did we know what kind of changes would be coming to the Opry. One of the first moves that Steve Buchanan made was to appoint Pete Fisher as the general manager of the Opry. That move would take place the following year. It has been said that one of the reasons Bob Whittaker retired was that he saw the future and what changes were going to be mandated for the Opry and felt that he was not the person to carry those changes out. And change did come to the Opry. 

Here is the posted line up for the Opry shows that weekend: 

Friday September 11
7:00: Porter Wagoner (host): Oswald & Charlie, Skeeter Davis, Jim & Jesse, Jimmy C Newman
8:00: Jimmy Dickens (host): Jeanne Pruett, Bill Carlisle, The 4 Guys
8:30: Bill Anderson (host): Linda Feller, The Whites, Jeannie Seely
9:00: Johnny Russell (host): George Hamilton IV, Jean Shepard, T. Graham Brown
9:30: John Conlee (host): Billy Walker, Jack Greene, Charlie Louvin, Wylie & the Wild West

Saturday September 12
1st show
6:30: Jack Greene (host): Jean Shepard
6:45: Ray Pillow (host): Wilma Lee Cooper
7:00: Porter Wagoner (host): Oswald & Charlie, Skeeter Davis, Bill Carlisle, Jeanne Pruett
7:30: Jimmy Dickens (host): Wylie & the Wild West, George Hamilton IV, Ernie Ashworth, Doyle Dykes
8:00: Bill Anderson (host): Jimmy C Newman, Billy Walker, The 4 Guys, Opry Square Dance Band, Melvin Sloan Dancers
8:30: Johnny Russell (host): Jeannie Seely, Jan Howard, The Whites

2nd show
9:30: Porter Wagoner (host): Stonewall Jackson, Stu Phillips, Ray Pillow
10:00: Jimmy C Newman (host): Jeanne Pruett
10:15: Jimmy Dickens (host): Wylie & the Wild West
10:30: Jean Shepard (host): Wilma Lee Cooper
10:45: Bill Anderson (host): Opry Square Dance Band, Melvin Sloan Dancers
11:00: Johnny Russell (host): Doyle Dykes, Jeannie Seely, The Whites
11:30: The 4 Guys (host): Jack Greene, Billy Walker