Grand Ole' Opry

As a country music fan, I found today's lecture really interesting, particularly the part on the Grand Ole' Opry. I know that Professor Fink said that the Opry closed in 1974, but the Country XM station I listen to plays music from the "Grand Ole' Opry" almost every day. So I decided to look a little bit further into it.

Even after music was no longer played at the Ryman Theater, the Grand Ole' Opry lived on as a country music show and radio program.

You can see this week's lineup (filled with current country music stars) here: http://www.opry.com/shows/ThisWeek.html

I have always been fascinated by how country music continues on without ever really making any massive changes in style. I always say that if you stop listening to country radio for a few years, when you come back you will still recognize like 60% of the music being played.

Here is a video of the Charlie Daniels Band playing "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" at the (modern) Grand Ole' Opry. This song was first released in 1979, but you it is still played on many current radio stations regularly, which is how I heard it in the first time, probably like 7 years ago.

Also, you can recognize many of the same cues that we talked about in class today that signify country music, specifically, the playing of the fiddle.