The Grand Ole Opry is a regular live country-music radio broadcast originating from Nashville, Tennessee, on WSM, held between two and five nights per week, depending on the time of year. It was founded on November 28, 1925, by George D. Hay as the WSM Barn Dance, taking its current name in 1927. Currently owned and operated by Opry Entertainment, it is the longest-running radio broadcast in U.S. history. Dedicated to honoring country music and its history, the Opry showcases a mix of famous singers and contemporary chart-toppers performing country, bluegrass, Americana, folk, and gospel music as well as comedic performances and skits. It attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world and millions of radio and internet listeners.
Alan Eugene Jackson is an American country music singer-songwriter. He is known for performing a style widely regarded as "neotraditional country", as well as penning many of his own songs. Jackson has recorded 21 studio albums, including two Christmas albums, and two gospel albums, as well as released three greatest-hits albums.
Béla Anton Leoš Fleck is an American banjo player. An acclaimed virtuoso, he is an innovative and technically proficient pioneer and ambassador of the banjo, playing music from bluegrass, jazz, classical, rock and various world music genres. He is best known for his work with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. Fleck has won 17 Grammy Awards and been nominated 39 times.
The Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality works in the bluegrass music genre. Honors in several categories are presented at the ceremony annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position".
Alison Maria Krauss is an American bluegrass-country singer and fiddler. She entered the music industry at an early age, competing in local contests by the age of eight and recording for the first time at 14. She signed with Rounder Records in 1985 and released her first solo album in 1987. She was invited to join Union Station, releasing her first album with them as a group in 1989 and performing with them ever since.
Ryman Auditorium is a historic 2,362-seat live-performance venue and museum located at 116 Rep. John Lewis Way North, in the downtown core of Nashville, Tennessee, United States. A Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Landmark, National Historic Landmark, and the former home of the Grand Ole Opry, it is one of the most influential and revered concert halls in the world. It is best known as the home of the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 to 1974. It is owned and operated by Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. Ryman Auditorium was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and was later designated as a National Historic Landmark on June 25, 2001, for its pivotal role in the popularization of country music. A storied stage for Rock & Roll artists for decades, the Ryman was named a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Landmark in 2022.
Jonathan Denis Langford is a Welsh musician and artist based in Chicago, Illinois, United States.
Rhonda Lea Vincent is an American bluegrass singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist.
Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. is a hotel, resort, entertainment, and media company named for one of its assets: the Ryman Auditorium, a National Historic Landmark in Nashville, Tennessee. The company's legal lineage can be traced back to its time as a subsidiary of Edward Gaylord's Oklahoma Publishing Company, however the backbone of the modern entity was formed with the company's acquisition of WSM, Inc. in 1983. This purchase resulted in the ownership of the Grand Ole Opry and associated businesses, including the company's flagship resort property, then known as Opryland Hotel. As such, Ryman Hospitality cites 1925 as its origin year.
Gerald Calvin "Jerry" Douglas is an American Dobro and lap steel guitar player and record producer. He is widely regarded as "perhaps the finest Dobro player in contemporary acoustic music, and certainly the most celebrated and prolific." A fourteen-time Grammy winner, he has been called “dobro’s matchless contemporary master,” by The New York Times, and is among the most innovative recording artists in music, both as a solo artist and member of numerous bands, such as Alison Krauss and Union Station and The Earls of Leicester. He has been a co-director of the Transatlantic Sessions since 1998.
The Greencards are an American progressive bluegrass band that formed in 2003 in Austin, Texas, and relocated in 2005 to Nashville, Tennessee. The band was founded by Englishman Eamon McLoughlin and Australians Kym Warner and Carol Young. The musicians originally performed in local Austin bars, and soon found increasing acclaim. They released one independent album, Movin' On, in 2003, and two albums, Weather and Water and Viridian, on the Dualtone record label. Their fourth album, Fascination, was released on Sugar Hill in 2009. Their fifth album, The Brick Album (2011), was self-produced with the direct support of their fans. Pre-production donors were recognized with their names inscribed on the "bricks" that make up the cover art.
Broadway is a major thoroughfare in the downtown area in Nashville, Tennessee. It includes Lower Broadway, an entertainment district renowned for honky tonks and live country music.
Dean Buffalini, known professionally as Dusty Drake, is an American country music artist. Drake played various venues in his native Pennsylvania for several years before moving to Nashville, Tennessee, co-writing a 1996 single for Joe Diffie. By 2003, Drake was signed to Warner Bros. Records as a recording artist. That year, he released three singles from his self-titled debut album, including "One Last Time", his first Top 40 entry on the Hot Country Songs chart. Drake released a fourth single for the label before exiting in 2004.
The Chicks are an American country band from Dallas, Texas. The band consists of Natalie Maines and sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer. Maguire and Strayer, both née Erwin, founded the band in 1989, with bassist Laura Lynch and vocalist and guitarist Robin Lynn Macy. They performed bluegrass and country music, busking and touring the bluegrass festival circuits and small venues for six years without attracting a major label. In 1992, Lynch replaced Macy as the lead vocalist.
The Grascals are a six-piece American bluegrass band from Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in February 2004, the band has gained a level of fame by playing on the Grand Ole Opry and bluegrass festivals around the country, as well as with Dolly Parton.
The Time Jumpers is the name of a Western swing band formed in 1998 by a group of Nashville studio musicians who enjoyed jamming together. Country star Vince Gill was a member of the group between 2010 and 2020. The 11–member group started playing occasional local gigs until they agreed to take a regular slot playing at the Station Inn, a venerable Nashville bluegrass venue. They later moved to a larger venue, Nashville's "3rd & Lindsley", and were called by Tennessean writer Juli Thanki, "One of the hottest shows in town". Some of their guest artists on the weekly live show have included Joe Walsh, Robert Plant, Norah Jones, Bonnie Raitt, Reba McEntire, Jimmy Buffett, Kings of Leon, and Toby Keith. Amy Grant said, "You can't hear that caliber of musicians every Monday night for a cover charge in any town in America except here". The group rarely travels, but in 2010 they performed at New York's Lincoln Center. In 2007, they recorded a live album entitled Jumpin' Time and in 2012 recorded The Time Jumpers. At the 2017 Grammy Awards the group won "Best American Roots Song" for Vince Gill's composition "Kid Sister".
The SteelDrivers are a bluegrass band from Nashville, Tennessee. Members include fiddler Tammy Rogers, bassist Mike Fleming, guitarist/vocalist Matt Dame, mandolinist Brent Truitt, and banjoist Richard Bailey. Past members include Kelvin Damrell, Chris Stapleton, Gary Nichols, and Mike Henderson. The band has recorded four albums on the Rounder Records label and one independent live album recorded at The Station Inn. The band has received several Grammy nominations and won a Grammy for the album The Muscle Shoals Recordings.
Christopher Alvin Stapleton is an American country singer-songwriter, guitarist, and the husband of Morgane Stapleton. He was born in Lexington, Kentucky, and grew up in Staffordsville, Kentucky. In 1996, Stapleton moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to get an engineering degree from Vanderbilt University, but dropped out to pursue his career in music. Subsequently, he signed a contract with Sea Gayle Music to write and publish his music.
Gangstagrass is an American bluegrass and hip hop group, most known for the theme song of the FX television show Justified. The group is founded and led by Brooklyn producer Rench, and combines authentic bluegrass and rap into a new genre.
The Vespers are an Americana band from Nashville, Tennessee. The band is made up of two brothers, Taylor and Bruno Jones, and two sisters, Callie and Phoebe Cryar. Bruno plays upright bass, guitar, a little banjo, ukulele, and mandolin. Taylor Jones plays drums, percussion, vocals, and mandolin. Callie plays guitar, ukulele, banjo, electric bass, lead vocals, and low harmony. Phoebe plays guitar, banjo, accordion, mandolin, ukulele, lead vocals and low harmony.
