The Grand Ole Opry
The Making of an American Icon
Introduction
There wasn't an empty seat at the Grand Ole Opry's eightieth birthday
celebration in October 2005. Among the cast members onstage that night, there
was one-Little Jimmy Dickens-who'd first appeared on the show in 1948. Back
then, he'd mingled with veterans of the show's earliest days. At the eightieth,
he stood backstage with Opry stars from the last fifty years. In the
half-light, they formed a ragged, unbroken circle.
Today's Opry members coexist happily with the ghosts. No one who plays
bluegrass can forget that Bill Monroe introduced the music from the Opry stage.
Today's Opry members know that the torch has been passed to them, and that they
in turn must pass it on. Away from the Opry, today's top stars can play to
stadiums full of fans; at the Opry, they play to four thousand people, some of
whom have little idea who they are. They have just a few minutes to win over the
crowd while artists from the last fifty years watch from the wings. That's what
makes the Grand Ole Opry one of the premier stages in American music.
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