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The Opry is only TWO hours now?
- Thread starter 650AM
- Start date
650AM said:
This started earlier this year during some months. WSM has been running vintage Opry shows in place of the later show when there has not been a later Opry on Saturday night. I looked on the ticketing information and saw that The Opry will resume the 7-11:30 schedule next Saturday through the middle of December. This is probably due some months being slower and not selling as many tickets to the later show and due to the fact many of the stars of the Opry are not getting any younger. I don't know what will happen when people such as Jimmy Dickens and Jimmie C Newman are no longer able to preform. I hope that they will be able to find more viable younger performers who will be regulars. I hope some of the newer Americana and Bluegrass artists they have been playing on WSM in the last year will become Opry members.
this was a serious concern twenty years ago when i managed a music store in gallatin. we did a LOT of business with opry stars such as billy walker, chet,barbara mandrell, etc at the time..they were concerned then that as the opry stars aged and the audiences did also..that both would tend to die off so to speak about the same time..and there were no upcoming acts that would drive a younger audience to the opry as the former stars did for over fifty years to perpetuate the opry legend and image. plus a lot of country acts at that time had the attitude "why tie myself down to X number of weeks at the opry for scale..when i can make a ton more on the road"..i haven't been in the music/radio biz since 1993..so i can't say what the mindset is now with current artists...but if i'm taylor swift..and the opry wants me for X number of weeks at scale..and i can make 1000 times that on the road..no brainer..(just picked her name at ramdom, has nothing to do with talent)...
The Grand Ole Opry has basically been two hours from the beginning of this year. The OPry use to run from 6:30 to 9 for the first show and from 9:30 until 12 midnight for the 2nd show. When they moved back to the Ryman during the winter months, they cut back to just one show after Christmas and cut back that show from 2 1/2 hours to 2 hours. They brought back the 2nd show during the spring when they moved back to the Opry House, but basically kept them both at 2 hours each instead of going back to the usual 2 1/2 hour format. Even the Opry Plaza Parties, which have been a mainstay for the last 10 years or so, were cancelled this year.650AM said:
The Opry use to sell out weeks in advance (sometimes even months during the summer) but from what I've been told, good seats can still be bought to each show even up until the show starts.
I have listened to the Opry a few times since Little Jimmy Dickens has come back from his health problems and he has basically done same act since he has returned. He sings the same 2 or 3 songs and tells the same 3 or 4 jokes, especially about having a stiff neck as he was applying toilet water to the back of his neck.catfishal said:
I can't help but think that Americana/bluegrass musicians (as mentioned earlier) but also Southern gospel groups could keep the Opry going for a while longer. And I also can't help but think that if the Opry goes, then WSM (at least as a country station) can't be far behind. After all, as I've said before, the Opry is the tradition; WSM as a country station has only been around since sometime in the '80s.
I have to disagree with you. Even though WSM has only been a fulltime country station since 1979, they have been mostly a country station in the nighttime hours since the 50's save for some sports broadcasts. For a country singer in the late 50's and the 60's, getting your record played on Ralph Emery's show was a big deal. There weren't too many fulltime country stations in the world in those days.firepoint525 said:
I have listened to the Opry a few times since Little Jimmy Dickens has come back from his health problems and he has basically done same act since he has returned. He sings the same 2 or 3 songs and tells the same 3 or 4 jokes, especially about having a stiff neck as he was applying toilet water to the back of his neck. well first when was the last hit he had ? been years ago..second the old timer fans come to see the old stars sing the hits they had back then..so most of the old timers..the ones who are left still do the hit(s) that made them famous. ten years ago i worked on a TNN project for Al Gannaway productions involving one hour info shows of the opry he had made back in the fifties..with the old original opry stars, in their prime in 35mm color..i was not a country fan at all..but found myself LMAO at some of the comedy routines of minnie pearl and rod brasfield, and others..the stars sang their hits of the day, and the staff band included chet,floyd, and a host of those killer session pickers of the day..little jimmy would sing "take an old cold 'tater and wait" and "sleeping at the foot of the bed"..so i imagine he's still singing them at the opry today for the same fans that listened to them back then...at least the ones still around. those fans from that era are extremely loyal..and want to hear the same music from their favorite artists...same way for us old rock and rollers...wouldn't be right for mick and the boys not to do "satisfaction" or "jumpin jack flash" for their fans..
Not exactlly true ole young one! Chet was turned down on the Opry, but managed to get on when he became a member of the Momma Maybell singers. Floyd,, like Chet, was interested in playing on the Opry, but after 'Last Date' and a number of other hits, was signed to RCA and made regular appearances on the Opry, but as far as I can find, nether he nor Chet were members. I guess Kyle Cantrell or Eddie Stubbs have the answer. I can recall attending the Opry with family members in the 40s...and seeing Chet plalying with the Carters on the Prince Albert Show which was the NBC network show. It is true they were a part of the Nashville Sound and in much demand in the studios.
If someone has bettter info please let us know...but this is all I could find on line...and I'm not great with that.....so I'm leaving myself an out.
i should have added this caveat..but didn't think it mattered..but i see now it does make a huge difference. those shows were not shot at the ryman..the opry would not give al gannaway permission to film there..sooo...he built his own sound stages complete with haylofts,audience pnut galleries, and band stand. now it's been ten years since i co-produced this thing..but i know chet and floyd are there playing..i would have to look at my copies and see if indeed they are in the band..could be i remember them there..but as guests players..these shows had all the greats of the day..the carters,ernest tubb,webb peirce,lonzo and oscar,moon mulligan, etc...i have a dvd of the one hour special i worked on as well 10 vhs tapes of the different shows i plan to dub to dvd soon..i better get the dvd out and see if it shows the band members...see olebud..just left me an out too..lol..
B
bub
Guest
jwk1979 said:
Glad you said he was applying toilet water as opposed to drinking it, unless he does that offstage.
deltas69 said:
I know it was a TNN project but did you have Martha White and Cracker Barrel as sponsors then?
that was the one thing missing from the stage now that i think about it..no corporate sponser messages at all...i still don't know how he was able to get the opry stars to do all that since i'm sure they were under opry contracts..that was one reason he had to build the sets since the opry wouldn't allow it to be filmed at the ryman..apparently the opry had no sayso on playing in a private venue and being filmed/recorded at the same time..these shows were filmed in the mid 50's..and really is quite good considering the technology at the time..
If the Opry goes away, WSM (as a country station) loses its primary reason for being. They've been little more than a mouthpiece for the Opry in recent years.catfishal said:
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