Nashville....The Grand Ole Opry, what else?!

Here we are at The Grand Ole Opry after a stressful commute in stopped freeway traffic. We were hoping that we hadn't driven umpteen thousand miles to miss the show because of a freeway being closed. But,alas, the freeway opened up and away we flew to the Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville. The Opry used to be at the Ryman, many years ago (as the last year was 1971) but it was brought back into service after the big flood in Spring of this year. The Opryhouse was severely flooded and the show was brought back to the Ryman. It is a very neat historic building. I imagine it was moved in later years because it had gotten too small. We sat on church style pews. The accoustics were awesome.

Here is Dave and Brooke, waiting for the show to start. I didn't realize that the Opry is also a radio show. It is broadcast live. So, you watch and listen to the announcer do the advertising between songs. The stage is being changed while you watch and made ready for the next performers. It was very interesting to watch.

Here is Minnie Pearl and her escort before the show. She actually did the first introductions before the show.

Here's a inside shot. Dave was down at the stage looking back towards the audience. The audience is always welcome to take pictures at any time during the show. They don't mind anyone coming down as close as they'd like to take pictures of the singers. They DO mind videos. Brooke missed that memo. :)

Ok, Opening act was Marty Stuart. He's the one with the big hair going on in the middle of the photo.

We had a surprise visit by Mary Chapin Carpenter. She was in town doing another show and popped in to the Opry. We found out she lives in the mountains outside of Charlottesville. I'm sure she's Kelsey and Wesley's neighbor....

This is Little Jimmy Dickens singing a song about Raggedy Ann. He must be over 80 years old.

Riders in the Sky....think "Sons of the Pioneers". We enjoyed them!

Ok, all you folks our age, remember Mel Tillis from the 70's? He sounds the same but looks much older, imagine that.

Here are the Opry backup singers. They usually stood in the back, in fact, Dave didn't see them until about half the show was over. This time they're up front.

This is Jesse McReynolds and The Virginia Boys. They did some absolutely awesome Bluegrass. The young lady in the middle is his granddaughter, she sang with him. Jesse was phenomenal on the mandolin. In fact, this group was the only group who got a standing ovation and then performed an encore.

The Opry show is a smattering of many types of Country/Western music. There is something from every era, that way it appeals to every age group there. We enjoyed it very much! It was definitely "an experience".