At 100 years old, the Grand Ole Opry is the keeper of country music's legacy
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
When Gramma the tortoise was very young, a mere 41, the radio barn dance that came to be known as the "Grand Ole Opry" was first broadcast from Nashville. As the show celebrates its 100th anniversary this week, Jewly Hight of Nashville Public Radio looks at why it matters to country artists today.
JEWLY HIGHT, BYLINE: Lainey Wilson made her first visit to the "Grand Ole Opry" on a family trip to Nashville in 2001. She was just 9 years old, but witnessing a lineup full of country legends, including Little Jimmy Dickens, who first appeared on the show in the late '40s put her in a serious state of mind.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MAY THE BIRD OF PARADISE FLY UP YOUR NOSE")
LITTLE JIMMY DICKENS: May the bird of paradise fly up your nose.
LAINEY WILSON: My mom was like, Lainey, are you having fun? 'Cause I wasn't just, like, dancing around. And it was because I was doing homework. I was studying. I was just paying close attention to their every move.
HIGHT: Wilson's studiousness paid off. She's a country superstar with radio hits, sold-out arena shows and a Wrangler sponsorship. Just last week, she won three CMA awards while also hosting and performing on the show.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RING FINGER")
WILSON: (Singing) I got the ring. He got the finger.
HIGHT: Last summer, Wilson became an "Opry" member herself. Two of her heroes, Trisha Yearwood and Garth Brooks, made the official presentation.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
GARTH BROOKS: I just - I would say I'm so happy for you, but I'm so dang happy for the "Grand Ole Opry." I really am, man. It's just really rare you find somebody at your age that already gets it.
HIGHT: For the occasion, Wilson wore a gold lame suit with bell-bottoms and a flat-brim cowboy hat - a glammed-up version of her go-to outfit. The power of a signature look is a lesson she learned from iconic predecessors.
WILSON: If you could tell who somebody is from their silhouette - you know, you think of Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Dolly Parton - then you got something that people will be able to latch onto.
HIGHT: Listeners quickly latched on to the "Opry" when it hit the airwaves in 1925 on a Nashville station owned by an insurance company. Country music wasn't even a recognized genre yet, but a radio barn dance with old-time picking and down-home comedy struck a familiar chord. The "Opry's" popularity grew, especially when it went national.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Roy Acuff and his Smoky Mountain Boys lead off with that good old breakdown "Ida Red." Let her go, Roy.
HIGHT: It made stars of many performers, but it had its low points, too, as the country music industry evolved away from live radio. The "Opry" found its niche as a venerable showcase of the country music lineage it had helped define. Preservation took many forms. When the show left the Ryman Auditorium for the Grand Ole Opry House in 1974, a 6-foot-wide circle of wood was cut from the old stage and installed in the new one.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: Everybody.
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTISTS: (Singing) Will the circle be unbroken…
HIGHT: Performers now stand on that circle with reverence, says the "Opry's" associate producer, Gina Keltner, and invoke their forebears.
GINA KELTNER: There's, you know, maybe some Hank Williams or Patsy Cline DNA somewhere.
HIGHT: Keltner and the rest of the show's current leadership aren't swayed by what's hot right now. Their ideal "Opry" members make lasting marks on country music. These days, they'll belatedly induct veteran artists who displayed real commitment.
KELTNER: A few that were forgotten along the way, who didn't make it earlier in their careers and might have thought that maybe their time had passed.
HIGHT: Among them is the newest "Opry" member, Kathy Mattea, who had her commercial breakthrough in the mid-'80s. She handled her career with care and developed the vocal style she became known for by speaking her lyrics aloud, then singing them just as attentively.
KATHY MATTEA: And that was when people stopped saying, you sound like Anne Murray. You sound like Karen Carpenter. All of a sudden, all that fell away, and I had my own way into a song.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "EIGHTEEN WHEELS AND A DOZEN ROSES")
MATTEA: (Singing) Eighteen wheels and a dozen roses,10 more miles on his four-day run.
HIGHT: That's Matea's beloved 1988 hit "Eighteen Wheels And A Dozen Roses." She played the "Opry" back then, but her induction didn't happen until almost four decades later.
MATTEA: Now it feels like someone is looking at me going, we want to own you as one of our family. And to have it come now with the whole body of work that I have, it feels like someone patting you on the back and saying, you did good.
HIGHT: The "Opry" functions as a multigenerational family whose elders are worth listening to and whose younger stars, Wilson included, own their responsibilities. Wilson's longtime manager Mandelyn Monchick says her client makes it a priority to play the "Opry," despite the demands of fame pulling her in other directions.
MANDELYN MONCHICK: So it's a little bit because it's home and a little bit because it's just a respect thing and making sure she pays tribute to the people that paved the way for her.
HIGHT: Every single one of their names are on permanent display in the "Opry's" backstage, says Keltner.
KELTNER: They want to be on that wall to not just be significant today, but to know that hopefully a hundred years from now, they're still going to be known as a "Grand Ole Opry" member. That's never going to go away.
HIGHT: For NPR News, I'm Jewly Hight in Nashville.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "COUNTRY'S COOL AGAIN")
WILSON: (Singing) I was born in boots on humble ground. These kind of roots, yeah, they sure don't grow out. Yeah, even in a guitar town, my crooked drawl...
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