97th Birthday Of Grand Ole Opry, America’s Longest-Running Radio Show

The Grand Ole Opry celebrates its 97th birthday on October 8th, (tonight).

When I was a child on many a Saturday night the radio that always rested on the wooden buffet in the dining room would not only be turned on but equally importantly physically turned in such a fashion to best be able to hear WSM radio. The Grand Ole Opry was best able to be received in the cold months in our Hancock, Wisconsin home–as anyone who understands radio signals knows. It was always getting the radio in just the right location and also using the cord placement, that worked as an antenna, which allowed the nation’s longest-running radio show to fill our home with music and laughter.

I have been pleased to post many times about the music and the stars who have played such an important part in our country and also in my life. I have commented on their triumphs and felt sadness as they left us for the biggest stage of all. I have recalled the joys of attending the Opry and also being able to see some of those same ones perform in other venues where they were always content to let anyone who wanted to get an autograph or picture to do so. After all, as I was to learn from watching Porter Wagoner, Little Jimmy Dickens, or Charlie Louvin among others, the show was not really over until everyone had a personal memory to take home. They simply do not make entertainers like that anymore. My guitar attests to the truth of that statement with many signatures.

There is a richness that I carry with me from having had Saturday nights with the often scratchy signal from Nashville coming over the radio back home. Or telling ‘Whisperin’ Bill Anderson after a show, how as a kid, I used to impersonate him by standing on our picnic table in the backyard and pretending the garden hose was the microphone. Then came puberty and my country music career ended. I still see Bill laughing at that comment.

Many memories and thoughts will flood Americans around the nation as we celebrate this slice of Americana tonight when the big red curtain goes up at the Opry House. When trying to pick one song that sums up the mood and magic of the Opry over the decades I would opt for one of my favorite entertainers and singers who stood on the famed wooden circle. Not only would Roy Acuff, “The King Of Country Music” get people to tap their feet to the music but during the commercial breaks he would do tricks for the audience at the Opry House with his fiddle bow balanced on his nose or with his famed yo-yo tricks. He felt being an entertainer meant when one is on the stage they have a role to play. He played his part at the Opry with perfection for decades.

So Happy Birthday Grand Ole Opry! I add this audio of Roy and Minnie Pearl for the feel of the radio show. Truly awesome.

A Tribute To Country Legend Loretta Lynn, Dies At Age 90

There are many singers across the land, countless records pressed and sold, stories of kindness between the concert stage and the audience, and all are remarkable to hear and learn.  But when all those musical accounts are told and all the songs are played by artists young and old, one fact remains.  There is only one Loretta Lynn.

Today the classic country music legend died in Tennessee at the age of 90.  Her music was among the first voices I heard on our record player as a boy.  There was Jones and Haggard and Smith, of course, but there was always just one Loretta. Mom would remark that Lynn wrote songs about what she knew and the hurts she felt along the path of life. Such sentiments found their way into her penned lines again and again. Country music fans responded by requesting the music be played on country radio stations and then headed off to buy their own copy at stores like Woolworths. There was always a sense that Loretta was just like her fans, a person who made her mark by never forgetting her past.

Last year, I recorded a 17-minute podcast that in part pays tribute to Lorretta Lynn.  She is the first person treated with my thanks when I call out the best concerts I was privileged to attend. From memories of Loretta, Porter Wagoner, Dolly Parton, along with WSM radio announcer Grant Turner and others this tribute looks at how classic country music still resonates across the land.  Heartfelt memories galore! I take listeners on a journey to the stages of country music shows.  The fiddles are warming up, now.  

Loretta started her life in Kentucky’s coal fields and grew as a powerful female singer to know she resided in the hearts of millions. Simply a remarkable life, creating music that will never cease to be played.

Grand Ole Opry Airs 5,000th Broadcast Saturday Night On WSM Radio!

Most folks who have a broad sense concerning the evolution of radio in our country know of George D. Hay. He was affectionately known as the “The Solemn Old Judge”. He started the radio program WSM Barn Dance and shortly thereafter uttered a sentence that was a major step in creating the famed and deeply-loved Grand Ole Opry.

His one line has been repeated often in the annals of American broadcasting.

“For the past hour, we have been listening to music taken largely from Grand Opera. From now on we will present the Grand Ole Opry.

That was in 1927.

On Saturday night, October 30, 2021, the longest continuously running radio show on WSM will air the 5000th broadcast of the Opry! What a remarkable history has been recorded over those decades.

To lend my voice and delight with this weekend I recorded and released a podcast episode on Wednesday that pays tribute to classic country music, WSM, and Grant Turner, an iconic voice of the Opry from the stage where all the radio magic happened.

George D. Hay and his steamboat whistle that started each Saturday night’s radio broadcast.

We need to make sure this weekend Hay is remembered. I know the Opry will be front and center with his importance, and here is why.

Initially, he had been a newspaperman, on The Memphis Commercial Appeal. It was there that he earned his nickname, the Solemn Old Judge, covering jury trials and where he was first attracted to mountain music while attending a country hoedown in Mineral Springs, Ark. That gave Hay the inspiration for a “radio barn dance” after he became a radio announcer, first in Memphis and later at Chicago’s WLS, where he helped create “The National Barn Dance.”

Hay’s initial “WSM Barn Dance,” on Nov. 28, 1925, turned a lot of heads in Nashville; some people were horrified that the new prestige station of the National Life & Accident Insurance Company was allowing “those dreadful hillbillies” on its airwaves. In fact, Hay often had to fight the station moguls to keep the show on the air until it was noticed that “The Barn Dance” was selling an awful lot of insurance policies through its rural salesmen.

At 7 PM CST, nearly 96 years to the week the show made its debut, the Opry will take to the airwaves for the 5,000th time! The tradition continues!

And so it goes.

My New Doty Land Podcast: Tribute To Grant Turner, Classic Country Music Stars

Doty Land, my podcast, following a long hiatus due to truly swear-worthy technical issues and the pandemic which made it most difficult to have the equipment in our home worked on, is now back ‘on the air.’

Humbly written here, but I am mighty pleased with the 16-minute multi-track production which offers my sincere tribute to WSM radio announcer Grant Turner. I also offer my thoughts as to what essential quality the classic country singers had which then allowed for them to have such faithful fans many decades later.

You can hear Doty Land and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, iHeartradio, Spotify, Castro, and many other sites. Pandora and Amazon are the next sites I am working with that will be offering my podcast for your listening enjoyment.

You can also link here and head directly to my podcast page.

From memories of Loretta Lynn,  Porter Wagoner, Dolly Parton, WSM radio announcer Grant Turner and others this tribute looks at how classic country music still resonates across the land.  Heartfelt memories galore! Podcaster Gregory Humphrey takes listeners on a journey from his Hancock home to the stages of country music shows.  The fiddles are warming up, now.  

This project will not put me on the map, but it made me very happy if for no other reason than everything is working as the manufacturer of the studio equipment intended! Broadcasting and now its offshoots remains a great love of my life. Therefore, it was most rewarding to ramp up the production values for this episode. I admit to a few ‘bumps’ that perhaps my ear is more accustomed to discerning, but overall I am very content to offer this episode to the listening public.

Grandma Schwarz landed at this angle for the promo pic. As in radio days, I like to have photos of special people around as it makes for a more genuine type of conversation when recording. She seemed the one who would best connect with the topic of these recordings.

And so it goes.

Gregory Humphrey’s Tribute To Bill Anderson Makes Top Of Country Legend’s Website

Super pleased to find out tonight that my blog post this weekend on Bill Anderson made top billing on his website.

The country music legend celebrated 60 years on the Grand Ole Opry Saturday night. I wrote how I sang his songs as a boy while using the picnic table as a stage back home. And how my Aunt Evie, who lived next door, smiled about those ‘shows’ decades after the last one was performed.

Over time I have expressed how it felt when this little space on the intent highway has such a moment. Such as when the family of Porter Wagoner commented on my words following his passing, or the same type of interaction following the death of famed WSM announcer Grant Turner. In fact, my words about Turner are linked at the Tennessee Radio Hall Of Fame.

Tonight, I can say the picture below from Bill Anderson’s website tickles me completely and means more than money. After all, this has been a six-decade journey with smiles and memories still being made.

Bill Anderson Celebrates 60 Years On The Grand Ole Opry

It is not all politics here at Caffeinated Politics. This blog has always been home to the wide array of interests that make life delightful. From books, space, radio, and yes, the Grand Ole Opry. As such, it is time to post about Bill Anderson’s 60th anniversary this weekend at the Grand Ole Opry.

The Grand Ole Opry starts at 7 PM Central Time on WSM Radio, and don’t forget to catch Opry Live on Circle TV starting at 8PM Central Time.

Grand Ole Opry veteran Bill Anderson performs on the famed circle of wood at the center of the stage in the Grand Ole Opry House on Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2010, in Nashville. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

I am not a fan of contemporary country music.  Too much of it is struggling to be more than just country, while in search of a broader audience.  For me, the classic country sound of many decades ago is where the tire meets the road.  It is one of the musical types I often gravitate to when putting music on the stereo.

As a child, I would impersonate Bill Anderson in the backyard at the family home.   The garden hose would be my microphone, and the picnic table the stage.  Aunt Evie who lived next door smiled about those ‘shows’ decades after the last one was performed. The thing is, as I always told her, I still knew all the words to those old songs.  They are just as fresh in my mind now as when they were played endlessly on my mom’s record player.  The fact is that I have found it easy to sing much like ‘Whispering Bill’ all my life.  In my late 20s and 30s, I had given up the picnic table circuit for karaoke shows, however. But that now, too, is in the rearview mirror.

I have been able to meet and talk with Bill Anderson on several occasions both in Wisconsin and in Nashville.  He is one of the Opry legends who have signed my guitar. And this weekend he gets his night in the limelight at the world famous Grand Ole Opry.

When in the third grade my parents had tickets to see Bill Anderson and his singing partner at the time, Jan Howard, in Waupaca.  As the show date approached I came down with the stomach flu.  My mom said we probably would need to miss the concert.  Somehow, someway the flu was put aside and we all attended.  It was Jan Howard that missed the show that night for being sick!

Many decades from now someone, somewhere will be singing a Bill Anderson song.  His legacy is as much from the words he penned as the performing artist he became.  So on behalf of a grateful nation, Caffeinated Politics wants to congratulate Bill Anderson on 60 years at the World-Famous Grand Ole Opry.

So let’s go back to a time when country music had flavor and spice.  Bill Anderson as a young man in a suit that sparkled, as he sings his standard “Bright Lights And Country Music”.  At the end of each performance at the Grand Ole Opry Anderson leaves the stage with a line from this song.

This weekend will be no different.

Johnny Bush Dies, Still Sings On My MP3 Player

As I concluded the needed tasks this week so to prepare the flower beds, trees, and lawn for the winter season I had my mp3 player pumping music. I own two of them so that one is always charged and ready to accompany me with the tasks ahead. And on each one there are songs by Johnny Bush. From the classic country-side of your blogger and my past radio days comes the sad news of his death.

The singer and songwriter known for his distinctive operatic voice and for writing the top-10 hit “Whiskey River,” died at age 85. His start has one of those perfectly nostalgic feelings as an uncle who hosted a radio program on Houston’s KTHT-AM encouraged Bush and his brother to perform on the air. So many of the classic country music stars had a radio component to their initial start in the business.

In his later years, Bush was asked whether he’d retire after a remarkable career that spanned decades.

“Retire from what? Breathing?” he asked rhetorically. “People only retire from jobs they hate. Performing is not a job-it’s what I do and what I love.”

When it comes to selecting a song that gives a true feel for the range, tone, and feel of Bush’s voice this is the one I feel does it perfectly.

Ryman Auditorium Gets Major News Coverage From CBS Sunday Morning

In late June, theRyman Auditorium – a Nashville landmark for more than 125 years, and one-time home to the Grand Ole Opry – reopened for tours after closing due to COVID-19. CBS Correspondent Mark Strassmann looks at the history of the Ryman, which has hosted not just country musicians but also legends of folk, rock and hip hop; and talks with some of the artists (including Sheryl Crow and Ketch Secor, of Old Crow Medicine Show) who have graced its stage.