It was such a Grand time

Oh it was such a GRAND time at the Grand Ole Opry.  I had no idea I would have so much fun there.

The Opry Building is surrounded by a HUGE mall (of course!) that appeared to be "high end". We had dinner there at Romano's Macaroni Grill (thank you very much Chad) and boy was it great. We had never eaten there - mainly because I had this vision of elbow macaroni with whatever kind of sauce you wanted and that was it ~ WRONG.  Rick had chicken marcella ravioli and I had a huge hunk of halibut ~ oh so good.

So back to the Opry post.  I, of course, had no idea what to expect.  In my mind the Grand Ole Opry is Minnie Pearl with the foolish hat and price tag - not all that an appealing vision of how I wanted to spend a Saturday evening.   But the logic of "when in Nashville" came to view so if we were here we really had to go!  Let me say, there were no Minnie Pearl wanna be's or anything close to her there.  And, much to my surprise the entire show was not all "country" music.

Here is the line up for last night:

• Jimmy Dickens
  
• Jimmy C. Newman
  
• The Whites (in the photo above)
  
• Alan Jackson
  
• Jim Ed Brown w/Helen Cornelius
  
• Darius Rucker
  
• Little Big Town
  
• Jean Shepard
  
• Jack Green
  
• Katy Mattea
  
• Opry Square Dancers
  
• Riders In the Sky
  
• Bobby Osborne and the Rocky Top X-Press
  
• Charlie Daniels Band
  

Of course we'd never heard of 3/4 of that list but it certainly was a nice mix.  As usual, the photos aren't great but here they are anyway.  Another thing of note here ~ at most concerts (and even Graceland) you aren't allowed to take flash photos but that wasn't the case at the Opry ~ my interpretation, for what it's worth, was that "they" were glad you were there and wanted you to be as "comfortable" as possible so there was not a three page list of things that were not allowed (nice concept isn't it!).

Alan Jackson is to the right ... another thing about photos there - you could go right down to the stage and take as many photos as you wanted during the performances - as long as you didn't stand up and block the seats behind you - so if you could kneel down and take pictures it was perfect (my knees, however, got quite a work out but it was most definitely worth it)

 

Probably my least favorite performance was "Little Big Town" (to the right).  I had heard the name but was unfamiliar with them - how they fit into the country genre is beyond me, but apparently they just won a CMA for something (or were nominated for one).  Oh well to each his own for sure

Next was Kathy Mattea - awesome, just awesome.  I was familiar with her somewhat because of my love of "folk" music.  I believe my two sisters just saw her in Stowe, VT (or was that the concert that was outside in the pouring rain Candy/Kim?)  Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed her.

Next was "Riders In the Sky" who I was also unfamiliar with but Rick knew of them and was looking forward to seeing them - they were great and very funny. 

Another of the "neat" things about the Opry was it was a two hour performance, divided into four "segments" but the entire thing just moved along so smoothly - not like when you are at a concert and the opening act plays for 30 minutes then there is a 30 minute break before the "headliner" comes on stage ... this went from one "act" to the next in less than 30 seconds ...  and between the four segments the curtain would go down and two minutes later the curtain would rise and the next segment would begin.

The photo to the right is Bobby Osborne and the Rocky Top X-Press.  A terrific blue grass performance.  God I love this Tennessee we've seen - every part that we've been to has just been great, warm, welcoming, relaxing and just FUN.  It is so interesting to me that some areas just want you there and others (Utah?!?) just would prefer you be elsewhere (which as we all no, is just the way it will be with me and Utah in the future!)

Last for the evening was Charlie Daniels.  Of course, he was great and has "aged" nicely.  I can remember when he would be at the South Shore Music Circus year after year - I wonder if he still gets there these days!

We didn't get a photo of Darius Rucker (Hootie and the Blowfish fame) but I enjoyed him also.

We had talked about going down to the Titans Stadium today to get some tickets and see them play (I've never been to a pro football game).   Well I decided I'd rather watch the Patriots and see how Matt Cassel was going to do - yeah well remember because of the great shade trees here we don't have our satellite coverage?  Well I also assumed (yup silly Tracey) that because the Titans play 10 miles down the road that there game would be blacked out here so of course CBS would televise the Patriots - wrong .... we are watching the Titans on TV and Rick is on his phone "watching" the Patriots in a pickle at the moment!  UGH ..... we may end up out somewhere cause I want to see the Patriots - which brings back memories of the Patriots game we watched in Ocala, FL at Hooters (which is probably where we'll end up today and neither of us is a Hooters fan but they do have NFL games) - remember that Hooters game Chester and those nasty, gross, disgusting wings we had ..... oh god the thought of it!

Well I think we are out of here tomorrow morning, although I can't seem to line up a place to land tomorrow so we shall see!

In the meantime ............ Happy Trails to YOU