Goodbye Dear Old Ryman

On By dekeriversIn Blogroll, Country Music, Grand Ole Opry, Music, Nashville, Radio, Ryman Auditorium, WSM

With this being the 94th Birthday weekend for the Grand Ole Opry, and the fantastic Ken Burns documentary on Country Music concluded on PBS, I want to post a long ago forgotten song.

In 1974 the Opry moved from downtown Nashville to a new home about six miles down the Cumberland River.  The Ryman Auditorium had such an acoustically perfect sound that it was restored in later decades, with the winter months of the famed radio show once again broadcast over WSM from that stage.

But at the time of the final show in 1974 it was mighty sad.  In the Hank Locklin song, Goodbye Dear Old Ryman, the background voices of  The Jordanaires can be heard.  They were also the voices that sang background on so many Elvis recordings.