Rock On The Opry

Joe Casey · Post by **Joe Casey** » 24 Dec 1999 8:56 am

Bob.I would like to have said it as good,my feelings exactly.

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cjc

Janice Brooks · Post by **Janice Brooks** » 24 Dec 1999 9:16 am

Bob I will forward your comments to leeroy Parnell. At his opry debut he coverd Bob Wills and Doug Sahm before he did his current single.

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"BUS" ICQ 44729047
www.geocities.com/nashville/3886

Ray Cothren · Post by **Ray Cothren** » 24 Dec 1999 10:24 am

You nailed it b0b.

Bill cole · Post by **Bill cole** » 24 Dec 1999 11:17 am

First Bob don't have to say anything to Le roy He sucks and covering Bob wills don't make him country so Bob you have to say nothing. And secondly Bob you hit the nail right on the head send the Rott and rollers back to MTV and all there FFFFans to

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 24 Dec 1999 6:08 pm

I'm not against new artists, I just don't think that the Opry is the right place to promote your latest record. New artists should come in and show their respect by playing older songs in the traditional style. When their own songs have become country standards ten years old or more, then and only then should those songs be allowed on the Opry stage.

Now, I know I'm from the wrong coast, but if I ever make the trip to Nashville and go to the Grand Ole Opry, I'll expect to hear traditional country music. Why should I go there to hear Mr. Big Buckle belt out his latest country pop radio hit? I can hear him do that in my own town, because Mr. Big Buckle comes through here once a year singing his latest hits.

What I can't hear out here on the West Coast is the Nashville country music tradition. If the Opry loses that, I have no reason to visit Nashville.

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Bobby Lee

www.b0b.com/products
Sierra Session S-12 E9th, Speedy West D-10, Sierra S-8 Lap

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 24 Dec 1999 8:30 pm

Two big thumb picks up for Bobby Lee!

WELL SAID!

Lem Smith · Post by **Lem Smith** » 24 Dec 1999 9:17 pm

First, I guess I've just missed it somewhere along the line, but I didn't realize you were such a fan of traditional country music, b0b!

Secondly...RIGHT ON b0b!!!

Graham · Post by **Graham** » 24 Dec 1999 10:19 pm

b0b:
Seems to me that what you can't here most anywhere nowadays, is the Nashville country music tradition. Show me one "new country" artist who will have the staying power of a Jones, Haggard, Nelson, Strait etc. Most of them are one-hit wonders, then good-bye. Like George asked "Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes?" I say "Nobody!!" But when you think about it, who could, with the drivel the writers are turning out today? As close to traditional country as the proverbial bar of soap!! Just MHO.

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Rebel™
ICQ 614585

Perry Hansen · Post by **Perry Hansen** » 25 Dec 1999 4:01 am

Bobby Lee. You nailed it. I'm setting here right now just 40 miles from Nashville and after 55 years playing country music, I have no desire to drive to the Grand Ole Uproar. This is the first time I've ever been this close. I would like to meet the "Big E",though. Maybe next trip.
Perry

Joe Casey · Post by **Joe Casey** » 25 Dec 1999 5:45 am

Perry .Drive the 40 miles it's still worth the trip.

Next year might be a different story?

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cjc

Bo Borland · Post by **Bo Borland** » 25 Dec 1999 8:00 am

I like this thread... As a player who grew up on R&R , and came to country music in the mid 70's, having missed two generations of music. I spent a couple years listening to and appreciating the earlier stuff.
I also spent more than a few years in radio, programming & on-air, and in the clubs.
I tried to do it the right way, and was pretty sucessful at it.
Todays radio sux, in the bigger cities, all you hear are the same 20 songs, and once a week they pick a couple "classics" from 5 years ago and play the death out of them !!
The young country market thinks country music started with Garth. I know what most of you think about him, but his first two albums were pretty damn good. The problem lies with the CMA & radio. When the cutting edge was returning to a more traditional sound, ie. Ricky Skaggs & George Strait, they wanted to play Exile, Kenny Rogers, CRystal Gale, & Lee GReenwood. Now its' a more pop sound. They will not play a song if it is "TOO COUNTRY" for radio. PULEEZE!
I hear steel licks on the new Dixie Chicks album, that a beginner plays, same thing on the Shania tunes. I only listen to the radio to hear whats new... not what is good!!
Bobby Lee is right on the money, Twang TOwn is about music money, it is up to us to try to keep it country . Support the artists you like , forget the ones you don't! MErry Christmas

John Steele · Post by **John Steele** » 25 Dec 1999 12:24 pm

Does anyone have access to attendance statistics at the Grand Ole Opry?
I've never had much to do with the Opry, visited there once in 1979... we can't get it on radio or T.V. here, so it's kind of null and void; but (correct me if I'm wrong) the talk I've heard for years is that Opry attendance started to decline many many years ago... long before anyone coined the phrase "New Country".
Anyone have stats to back up the contention that the Opry was fiscally happy and healthy prior to the "new country" phenomenon?
-John
(Phenomenon-- that's the right word, ain't it? Applied to something not easily explained by logic?

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Andy Alford · Post by **Andy Alford** » 26 Dec 1999 6:34 am

Rock+COUNTRY=$$$$ The Grand Ole Opry is moving in the $$$ lane.I can't find traditional country music at the mall.Rap Country maybe the next $$$.Rock does Rule,and I hate it.

Bowie Martin · Post by **Bowie Martin** » 26 Dec 1999 6:09 pm

The Nashville folks went to sleep at the wheel, and that left the barn door open for Branson; Branson is the No. 1 bus tour destination in America; and still Nashville did not catch on...Then, Myrtle Beach opened their threates and guess what, they are the No. 3 bus tour destination in American (Washington DC is No. 2)..and then they close Opryland (with all the bad publicity that brings) and they wonder why the Opry is dying. First, they refused to mix in newer or more recent COUNTRY artists in good rotation to start drawing a middle aged group; in business we say you are either going forward or backward, and they started a backward trend that could take years to heal. I started playing steel almost fifty years ago, and honestly do like several types of music, but country (real country) is still my favorite. As long as we have some diehards that will provide good country music (with fiddle, steel, etc), it won't die, but like everything else will go and come in popularity. Out there somewhere is another Branson and Myrtle Beach, and then Nashville will drop another notch, thanks to the stupidity of a city that could have had it all...

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Terry Downs · Post by **Terry Downs** » 27 Dec 1999 12:38 am

You know I usually participate in the technical section of the forum, but I feel a little opinionated this morning.

There is no such word in the English language as "Opry". It is a slang term for opera. America's need for music styles that embellish our roots, those roots as pure as the red clay in the North Carolina hills, were alive and well in Nashville in early days!! The Grand Ole Opry was the "FORUM" for simplified music that common people could relate to. As a child of the 60s, I have vivid memories of hearing the Grand Ole Opry on an AM radio and was magnetized to the speaker in my Smokey Mountian Home. Now, at the turn of the century, there is a "opry" right here in Garland Texas and also nearby Mesquite Texas. They showcase true grit traditional country music everytime the door is open. The problem is business men in Nashville and TNN.

If executives are forcing alternative style to the Opry, then isn't this an indictment of our true heritage? In turn, if this is an indictment of heritage, isn't this also and indictment of our constitutional rights? Well gentlemen, I'm not going to let the TNN executives bad-mouth the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!!

Are you with me???

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Terry Downs
http://nightshift.net
terry@nightshift.net

Chris Walke · Post by **Chris Walke** » 28 Dec 1999 1:19 pm

Finally got around to reading this thread. Bill Cole, you sound like a bitter, mean old man. I hope you know that when you're talking about the younger generation, you're talking about my nephews and nieces, and some forumites' kids or grandkids. Most of them have "both oars in the water." As for R&R, it borrows heavily from all kinds of music, and there is as much tremendous musicianship in Rock as in country. You just have to know where to look.

For what it's worth, I think the opry should stay traditional, so generations to come can get a glimpse of the past.

Buddy Carter · Post by **Buddy Carter** » 30 Dec 1999 11:51 pm

I'm an avid fan of "AM radio" country. But, there isn't much of it left. I've noticed recently that the WSM-AM playlist has changed, with hot young country being favored at night now, when it used to be mostly traditional. I know traditions change, but all I can think of is this:

Louisiana Hayride
Ozark Opry
WLS Barndance

where are they now?
Answer: they "modernized"; in other words, they went for a bigger market, watered down their programs, and appealed to no one as a result.

I believe if traditionalists are going to survive, the future may lie with online broadcasting and distribution, as it breaks down geographic limits, but its sad to see institutions like the Opry languish and dry up.