Well, I must say that my personal highlight of the weekend happened outside of the Grand Ole Opry House. I was at the entrance and I happen to notice two women being interviewed by someone with an XM satellite radio microphone. That usually gets me curious enough to observe. I edged in closer and heard the interviewer say this is for the show that takes place in between the Opry performances. Aha. "Inside the Opry Circle" and it was host Shannon McCombs. Position, position, position. I waited for her to wrap up and caught her glance. I said "I listen to your show" and she said "great, let's talk on the radio." So we did a little interview and then she asked if I knew a bit about country music trivia and could I match songs with performers. Music trivia and writing happen to be the two talents I have confidence in. A couple of them were sticky, but with slight hints managed to get those answers, and I blew her away by being able to pretty much call what year some of the early 60's songs in the trivia came out (that's a quirk to the talent I have). So like I said once, if you've got a bet riding on some 60's or 70's or maybe 80's music trivia question, I'm your first call. Shannon asked me what artist I was at the Opry House to see, and I of course said "Mark Lowry". Only thing is, I didn't get a chance to hear the broadcast because it airs when the early Opry show I was at ends. But it was fun and it was a personal boost I needed. Thanks, God.
The Opry was great, as it usually is. Little Jimmy Dickens is amazing at age 87. Only the top of his hat was visible as he stood by the announcer's podium when someone was on stage. The Opry announcers, by the way, are all 650 AM WSM DJs that I listen to each day or evening (Keith Bilbrey, Mike Terry, Eddie Stubbs--who I guess was in the later broadcast), so it was fun to watch them do their thing here. The artists were all excellent, though I had my favorite songs -- I was glad to hear the Whites do "Big Wheel" and Lorrie Morgan sing "Dear Me". I always love seeing Bill Anderson and Connie Smith, two of my big favorite artists, and the Opry Square Dancers were very entertaining. One pretty young singer, Emily West, may be one to watch for--she was very impressive and obviously thrilled to be making her Opry debut.
The main attraction was of course, Mark. Since he wasn't Vince Gill or some other top name Opry attraction (yet), as with last year there was nothing stopping me from making a dive to the front of the stage to kneel down and take lots of pics...and of course, cheer him on. LordSong and Stan Whitmire joined him on stage for "Sweetest Song" and "Be The Miracle".
Sunday's shaping up to be busy...more later.
1 comment:
The entire weekend was unbelievable. A friend and I were at this event. This is by far one of the best weekends I've ever had. Having the Gaither's show up just topped it off.
Thank you Mark and everyone else who was involved in the weekend. The only way to sum it up is, WOW!!
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