The Grand Ole Opry may have moved on to Opryland over 40 years ago, but to many of us who grew up listening to the country music show over WSM, Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium was and is the “mother church” of country music.
And it’s not surprising that it looks like a church: It was built as one by Thomas Ryman, a rich but repenting businessman who had it built in 1892 for an evangelist he had first come to heckle. It cost today’s equivalent of about $2.5 million. After his death, it was named for him.
The Opry’s performances were broadcast regularly on Nashville’s WSM. As a “clear-channel” 50,000-watt station, it could be heard far and wide, especially late at night, thanks to the physics of AM Radio, and rules that put its less powerful rivals off the air at sunset. I listened in the 50s from eastern Kansas, and in the 60s from northern Virginia.
Although most of the shows are at Opryland (give me a break!), in winter and for special occasions, Ryman is still in use. And even when it’s not in use, it draws hundreds of thousands of visitors who come to see the exhibits of the history of the Opry of country music, and to sit in the hallowed pews, and look at the stage where Minnie Pearl made us laugh, and Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Dolly Parton, Patsy Cline, Roy Acuff, Loretta Lynn and oh, so many more sang.
If you sit still and listen carefully, you can hear them still…
