Recently, Christina & I made a trip to Tennessee & Arkansas.  Among the things we saw was the Grand Ole Opry and the legendary Ryman auditorium.

 

 

 

We went to the Opry our first night there

 

Little Jimmy Dickens.  He's 85 years old

 

Audie Blaylock (the fiddler) and his band.  He's blind and has been fiddler of the year 2 years in a row.

 

David Ball

 

Riders in the Sky

 

The legendary Ryman Auditorium built pre-civil war as a church and was the home of the Opry from the 40s - 1974.  The Opry returns there each winter.  The acoustics are 2nd only to the Mormon Tabernacle, even better than Carnegie Hall.  It was closed from 1974 until the late 90s, when they restored it and it's now a national historical landmark.

 

We took a backstage tour of the Ryman.  This is looking out from back stage to where Hank Williams and Johnny Cash played.  They were both later fired from the Opry for misconduct.  Elvis was booed off the stage early in his career and never played there again.  Every country music legend in the history of country music has played this stage.

 

Originally, there was only the bottom floor of pews.  They built the Confederate Gallery for a confederate soldier reunion held here in 1897. 

 

The new Opry building kept the tradition of pews instead of seats.  The Ryman is often called the Mother Church.