On the season finale of The Voice Tuesday evening (5-21), Reba McEntire surprised Lainey Wilson with the official invitation. Reba is currently a judge on the show, and Wilson was performing her latest single .
Fans of the staunch country music Outlaw will have ample opportunities to see him in 2024 as Whitey will be hitting the road hard and heavy this spring and summer, including opening some big shows for close friends.
Scheduled to perform at the tribute are Jamey Johnson, William Michael Morgan, The Gatlin Brothers, Georgette Jones, Chris Janson, Johnny PayCheck’s son and fellow performer John PayCheck, and Jesse Keith Whitley.
Started in 2019, the Grand Ole Opry’s NextStage program looks to highlight rising talent by featuring them more regularly on the Opry stage, and across the Grand Ole Opry’s various programs and properties.
T. Graham Brown is one of the numerous country music legends who’s performed on the Grand Ole Opry hundreds of times in his career, but for whatever reason has always evaded a formal invitation as a member.
Almost immediately as the news spread and outlets started reporting on King’s drunken performance, some came forward to claim that the criticism Elle King was receiving constituted a double standard.
Fans love Elle King for her “devil may care” attitude and over-the-top presentation. She’s a lot, and that’s fine. But the Grand Ole Opry stage is supposed to be a family friendly environment, and it’s not the time or place.
“I was gonna write a speech,” Johnson said as he took the podium. “But like everything else I did while I was here at Jacksonville State I have procrastinated until the last possible second.”
Scotty McCreery will be the newest member of the Grand Ole Opry. Surprised on stage Sunday evening, December 3rd, Garth Brooks did the honor by coming out on stage and handing McCreery a gift box.
When The Circle Network launched on January 1st, 2020 as a joint venture between Gray Television and the Grand Ole Opry’s parent company Ryman Hospitality, everyone had big hopes for it.
On this day fifty years ago, November 10th, 1973, Stringbean Akeman frailed his final phrases on a Vega #9 five-string banjo, did his signature hand wave and hat flip one last time, and stepped off the Opry stage.
Saturday night, October 14th, 2023, was a special night at the Grand Ole Opry. Instead of presenting the regular Saturday night slate of performances, the Opry presented a tribute to country music legend Keith Whitley.
It turns out that the people of country music chose Morgan Wallen to be the inaugural People’s Choice Country “Artist of 2023” and other major awards. But you would have no clue this happened by watching the awards.
Yes, there was actually a country music awards show on Thursday night (9-28). But unless you are a massive Dan + Shay fan or just a glutton for punishment, you probably didn’t even notice or know about it.
There is still a point of contention that comes up regularly whenever the name of the Grand Ole Opry is evoked in certain circles—the strained relationship between the Grand Ole Opry and the Hank Williams legacy.
Beyond the big headlines and the culture war back-and-forths, the regular rhythms of country music continue on, like the rare but vaunted invitations to join country music’s most storied institution.
It is a mournful week in country and bluegrass as we’ve lost two mandolin playing legends, two influential titans of the bluegrass discipline, and the two oldest members of the Grand Ole Opry in a span of five days.
30 years ago today—May 1st 1993—Charley Pride took the stage of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville as he had done many times before, but this time it was special.
Becoming the first California-born artist to become a Grand Ole Opry member makes the invitation historic, and speaks to how the Opry continues to try and expand its membership beyond the institution’s conventional borders.
There’s just about nothing bigger for a girl from Kentucky than being recognized by the Bluegrass State’s Governor and playing the Grand Ole Opry. Brit Taylor is about to experience both in as many weeks, and it’s well deserved after earning worthy praise for her recent album ‘Kentucky Blue.’
In the media business, you’re not supposed to acknowledge your supposed competition, unless you’re lambasting them for doing something wrong or bad. You’re supposed to pretend they don’t exist, lest your readers/listeners/fans figure out they have other options, and jump ship.
Nothing has ever happened on the Grand Ole Opry stage, good or bad, that tops the moment that the recently-minted Country Music Hall of Famer and the even more recently dearly departed Jerry Lee Lewis enacted when he made his Grand Ole Opry debut 50 years ago.
During a special Facebook Live presentation on Friday night (1-6) from backstage at the Grand Ole Opry, radical preservationist and Opry member Marty Stuart invited comedians Henry Cho and Gary Mule Deer to both be the next official members of the Grand Ole Opry … the first time in nearly 50 years.
In 2022, something happened at the Grand Ole Opry that is only fair to label as historic. More so than any other year in its nearly 100-year existence, the coveted Grand Ole Opry debut was doled out to deserving artists from across the panorama, checking off bucket list items, populating glowing resume points…