What Is the Grand Ole Opry?
At eight o’clock in the evening on Saturday, November 28, 1925, a new kind of radio show went on the air. It was called the WSM Barn Dance. The show’s host, who called himself the Solemn Old Judge, welcomed listeners and asked them to write to him at radio station WSM to request songs. Then he handed the microphone to his first guest, Uncle Jimmy Thompson, sitting in a comfy chair in the studio with a fiddle on his knee, ready to play. The studio quickly became packed with fans, all eager to see the live show.
Uncle Jimmy started fiddling. He played for a whole hour while his niece Eva Thompson Jones played the piano. The music was lively and full of spirit. It wasn’t just a performance—it was like a big community celebration. The musicians played happy, toe-tapping tunes that made everyone want to get up and dance. The fans were all caught up in the excitement of hearing these familiar, feel-good songs on the radio, especially since most other radio shows played fancy classical music. This was something totally new.
When the show was over, the Solemn Old Judge blew a steamboat whistle. Its long, low, echoing tone told the musicians to get off the stage. Uncle Jimmy wasn’t happy.
“Well, shucks,” he said, “a man doesn’t even get warmed up in an hour!”
In fact, shortly before he came on the show, Uncle Jimmy had won an eight--day fiddling contest in Dallas, Texas, where he played for hours every day for more than a week. He felt like he could have gone on all night!
Listeners at home felt that way, too. Before Jimmy had even finished fiddling, they began to send messages to the station requesting their favorite songs. The WSM Barn Dance was a hit!
Two years after it first aired, the show’s name changed to the Grand Ole Opry. Today, it is the longest-running radio show in the United States.
When people think of country music, they think of the Grand Ole Opry. Every Saturday night, the Opry is still broadcast from Nashville on station WSM. Each year, more than a million people travel from all over the country to see the Opry in person.
The people in charge at the Opry often don’t know which artists will be onstage until forty-eight hours before the show. But that’s part of what makes the Opry special. People may not know exactly who they’ll see when they come, but they know it’ll be great. The Grand Ole Opry is all about giving the audience the country music they love. Its story is an important part of the history of country music—and the history of America.
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