The Grand Ole Opry on Saturday Night Will Endure
Well here we sit on the eve of the Ides of March, just a few days removed from live music Armageddon the likes we’ve never seen before in history, in a moment we’re sure to remember keenly for generations to come. Fears of the spread of the Coronavirus have now reached every sector of music, and affected every county and municipality in North America and the world. Concerts, festivals, and tours have been cancelled, bands and artists are making their way home or are already there. Only a few straggler live dates are still left out there on the calendar for select performers, and everyone’s getting ready to wait out the wave of disease like a cold winter, despite the first glimmers of spring blooming right outside our windows. All we can hope for now is that the hiatus won’t last very long.
And it’s not just music affected by the moratorium on congregations of course. From Broadway, to basketball, to venues and events big and small, the collective decision has been made to shut it down. All of it. And so here we are.
One of the oldest institutions of American culture, The Grand Ole Opry, is not immune to this mothballing of American life. Announced late this week, the 94-year-old radio and stage show that gave birth to country music as a relevant American art form is forgoing their Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday night performances due to the COVID-19 outbreak. But it’s not going completely dark. As they scale back operations like everyone else at least until April 4th—if not longer depending on the severity of the outbreak—they’ve decided the Saturday night Opry performances will remain. Saturday is the original night the Opry broadcast emanated from WSM in Nashville, and was simulcast all across the country across scores of affiliates. There will be no audience, but there will be the Grand Ole Opry. And as we say in country music, the circle will remain unbroken.
Only one time can historians recall when the Opry went completely dark, and did not have an audience. It was on April 6, 1968 after Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis, and riots were breaking out all over the United States. A citywide curfew in Nashville kept the Opry off the air, at least a live performance from the hallowed stage. WSM did play a previously-taped show in the slot, while Opry godfather Roy Acuff and other performers organized a makeshift show at a dance hall in town for Opry fans that afternoon.
There is more than a little bit of symbolism in the Grand Ole Opry keeping with its Saturday night tradition, even in this most unusual and dark of times. There’s a reason the Country Music Hall of Fame rotunda where the legacies of all the honorees are held in state is adorned with a radio antenna reaching to the sky, and a corresponding antenna pointing down into the hall itself. It’s because radio was how country music reached people across the country and world with entertainment, transporting them to a different time and place from their current troubles, whether it was the farmer in the Midwest, the coal miner encamped in Kentucky, or the factory worker in Pittsburgh. It connected them all together, and reminded them of a time that was much more simple, more wholesome.
“The sick and shut in” is who some older radio DJs and performers would often dedicate songs, performances, or specific programs to. Taken from religious notions of visiting those who could not make it to congregate with their community due to age, injury, or medical ailment, the advent of radio allowed music and message to reach those who were apart from society, but wanted to feel connected. In this moment of crisis and quarantine, sending out songs, thoughts, and prayers to “the sick and shut in” feels utterly apropros.
It’s not just the music, sports, movies, and theatrical performances we’ve been divested from. It’s our sense of community and oneness that has been usurped from our souls, leaving a hollow feeling. Today, television, the internet, and an array of entertainment options makes the idea of tuning into a live radio show seem obsolete for many. But there’s still something comforting, however arcane, that can make the radio more reassuring than other mediums. It’s about radio’s ability to stoke the imagination, and connect you with others. It’s this ever-present digital convenience of too much information that has made the modern day feel so impersonal, and face to face interaction so much more pertinent and valuable. You can make the definition as high as you want on a live video feed, but it will never replace the feeling of enjoying a musical moment right beside each other with the performers feet away from you. Radio is the next closest thing, because at least it allows you to imagine it.
For the Grand Ole Opry, the bond is even stronger and more magnanimous due to the institution’s ties to the past and its extraordinary lineage. Country music has been a continuum throughout the ages that is comforting and assuring because it pushes back on the incessant march to modernize, instead choosing to draw its inspiration from the past, and preserve those modes that are most familiar to us. You can’t find toilet paper on the shelves. But you can count on country music. It’s always there for you no matter how the winds of change blow, or how dire times may get. From World War II to 9/11, country music stepped up to encapsulate and soothe our collective concern.
Months, and years from now, we will be looking back at the moments we’re living in currently with sharp recollections, wonderment at what happened, and remembering where we were when everything ground to a halt. But the Grand Ole Opry remained beaming its signal out on Saturday night like it always has—connecting us through the magic of radio, singing to the sick and shut in, allowing us to forget our troubles, and remember the past in warm recollections, and reminding us that we are not alone.
Terry
March 14, 2020 @ 12:07 pm
In this time of uncertainty, it is nice to have the Opry keep going on Saturday night.
We need some positives and hope!
Jake Cutter
March 14, 2020 @ 1:14 pm
“It’s this ever-present digital convenience of too much information that has made the modern day feel so impersonal“
-Amen to this. I’ve tuned as much of it out as I can. Will be cool to listen to this.
sandyH
March 14, 2020 @ 1:53 pm
have you listened to kelly clarkson song from the trolls ost ( born to die ) ? its written by timberlake and stapleton , i want to know what you think of it cause i liked it
Dan Morris
March 14, 2020 @ 4:03 pm
For any one that is interested the entire Opry broadcast will be live streamed at OpryFacebook for the first time ever tonight at 7pm central time.
wayne
March 14, 2020 @ 4:41 pm
Thanks for the head’s up Dan.
Kevin Smith
March 14, 2020 @ 5:06 pm
I’m watching it live. Crazy surreal to see an empty theater. Tonight Sam William’s, Bocephus son is gonna be on as will Mandy Barnett, a favorite of mine. The house band is very stripped down tonite, they are playing entirely acoustic sets. Never seen anything like this.
Jeff W
March 14, 2020 @ 5:58 pm
God Bless The Opry for a break from the real world
Kevin Smith
March 14, 2020 @ 6:47 pm
I thought that Mandy Barnetts set was great as you would expect. She took Blue Eyes Crying in The Rain and smoked it! And she did Oh Lonesome Me quite well also. Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper were AWESOME. He is THE best fiddler out there period.
Sam William’s was fine, he did an interesting take on his grandpa’s Ramblin Man. I will say his voice seems more suited to rock or pop, no real twang to it. I don’t see him taking off like 3 did. But he’s a William’s, so I’m sure he’ll find an audience.
A weird night at the Opry, no dancers, no comedians, no house band jamming and an empty house with no applause. Still, I’m glad they did it.
Trigger
March 14, 2020 @ 8:54 pm
Tuned in right in time to see Michael Cleveland tearing it up. Best fiddler I’ve ever heard. Closing out with “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” was cool too.
JB-Chicago
March 14, 2020 @ 10:06 pm
Trig take the “Like” thumbs down for now if they don’t work. It’s more aggravating than if they weren’t there at all. If it takes 2 weeks to fix em like it has you either need a completely new system or a new IT web page coding guy. It’s one more daily aggravation in this current CoranaV climate that no one needs. My drunk right now 2 cents…lol It’s been a brutal week in life sorry. 🙁
Trigger
March 14, 2020 @ 10:33 pm
Folks, I know the “like” buttons not working is annoying, and I can express to you the effort that has been gone through to fix them. To fix them, they must remain up, and giving into public pressure to take them down the first time is what has elongated the process. Most sites don’t have “likes” on their comments sections. Most sites don’t have comments sections, period. I try to provide cool feature to encourage conversation, but this has been an extremely complex issue for years that we are trying to fix for good. I appreciate your patience.
King Honky Of Crackershire
March 14, 2020 @ 9:51 pm
Trigger,
I doubt very many of your readers except me and Fuzzy Two Shirts listened to it tonight. I don’t think the Opry is hipster enough for your audience.
Trigger
March 14, 2020 @ 10:30 pm
Well Dan Morris, Kevin Smith, and Wayne are all commenters who piped in here and appeared to be excited to listen/watch just in this comments section, so I’m not sure you’re correct in your assessment.
Jake Cutter
March 15, 2020 @ 7:57 am
Count me in that list as well. I enjoyed it.
It is interesting though the lack of certain commenters who can’t find a political statement to make. Priorities…
wayne
March 15, 2020 @ 1:37 pm
I watched the whole thing and glad I did. Michael Cleveland is surreal.
Dee Manning
March 15, 2020 @ 4:45 pm
Well, someone who has 20 million twitter followers tweeted about how people should watch it so that might have helped…. [insert snarky smiley face here…]
albert
March 14, 2020 @ 11:36 pm
Trigger….this is just a terrifically comforting and insightful piece . Its heartfelt , thoughtful and at least as necessary to ( country) music fans as anything else we regularly find here at SCM . Good job and thanks, my friend .
Di Harris
March 15, 2020 @ 7:59 am
Awesome what the Opry did.
The Italians are singing to each other, during their quarantine.
Standing in their doorways, and at their windows.
Someone will break out in song, & others will join in.
Isn’t that Beautiful?!
God Bless the human Spirit
Anna
March 15, 2020 @ 11:24 am
I listened and thought the Opry did a wonderful thing by keeping the show going.
Anthony
March 15, 2020 @ 2:44 pm
This article was a well-written articulation of a lot of what I believe in, and what SCM readers collectively believe in is why we must continue fighting to save country music. The music that’s trying to replace it, and largely succeeding in the mainstream, generally empties the soul rather than comforting it.
Ann Stokman
March 16, 2020 @ 4:11 am
Love that the show must go on even if scaled back to only Saturday!