Opry music on a Saturday night...

When you hear twin fiddles and a steel guitar
You're listenin' to the sound of the American heart
And opry music on a Saturday night
Brings a smile to your face and a tear to your eye
-- from "Heartland," by George Strait

As I type this, GAC is re-running the tape of last night's Opry Live broadcast. That seems like an appropriate soundtrack to tell you about my evening at the Grand Ole Opry.

In December when I was hanging out with Jason Michael Carroll, he asked me if I was going to see him at the Opry before Christmas. I couldn't make it that night, but when he told me he'd be at the Opry in February, I promised him that I'd go. After I went to the Opry last month when Dierks was here, I knew that I had to go see Jason.

Jason Michael Carroll is an amazing artist and a great guy. It'd have been easy to fulfill this promise just because I support his music. However, it was even easier when I saw the line-up for the evening.

Joe Nichols.
Ashley Monroe.
Ricky Skaggs.
Connie Smith (who is somehow related to me).
The Del McCoury Band.
and George Jones.

George Jones. I know some people call George Strait "King George," but let's face it: George Jones is country music royalty.

And it was at the Ryman for the last night until next fall. Until you've seen the Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium, I don't honestly believe that you "get it." The Mother Church of Country Music is a small, intimate venue. You actually sit in church pews. Aside from the state-of-the-art A/V equipment, very little seems to have changed from Captain Tom's day.

There's not a bad seat in the house. I bought our tickets for this practically sold-out show on Friday afternoon,and our seats were great. They were right across the aisle from our seats in January. I don't know that I'll ever be that close to George Jones again.

Even if "Alyssa Lies" isn't being performed, I always tear up at the Opry. When I was growing up, my Grandpa Snowball loved country music. He wasn't a wealthy man, but I remember that he had cable before everyone had cable, and his TV was always tuned to TNN. And some of my earliest memories were on Saturday nights when the little transistor radio in his kitchen was tuned to The Opry. You had two choices: 1) Be quiet and listen or 2) sit on the porch until it was over. Although it's nearly impossible for me to be quiet, I didn't want to sit on a porch for three hours.

All the heroes of country music and Martha White biscuit mix commercials still get to me. Last month it was Ralph Stanley and Charlie Pride. Last night it was George Jones, Connie Smith and some of my favorite new artists.

I can't possibly give you every little detail of the show. They pack a lot into the two-and-a-half hours at the Opry. So, here's a "highlight reel."

• Ashley Monroe is one of my favorite new artists, and I loved hearing her sing last night, especially "I Don't Want To." That song is fantastic, and her voice is like an angel's. Not that I'm comparing her to Allison Krauss, but that wouldn't be a bad thing, either.
• Jason made me proud to be his fan last night. We were celebrating the fact that his debut album is white-hot, and I love seeing how people react to "Alyssa Lies." I just wish that Timmy would've dressed up. It's the Opry, for goodness sakes!
• Ricky Skaggs is amazing. I never knew you could do those things with a mandolin. Bluegrass music is unbelievably cool. If you haven't gotten into it, do that.
• It was great to finally see Connie Smith live. I got excited when she asked if there were any Ohioans in the audience. I doubt she's made it back to Ohio in years, but nice that she remembers us. It also made me remember my Great-Grammie, who is the person who was related to her. I miss my Great-Grammie a lot, and now that I've moved away I wonder if I'll ever get back to Dungannon again.
• Joe Nichols is adorable, and I think that Jim Ed Brown was a total class act to give his young friend more stage time so he could sing "Brokenheartsville."
• Jason Byrd is going to be great. I'd been hearing buzz about this young man who's opening for The Possum, and it's all true. He made a fan in me.
• George Jones. Even if he hadn't sang songs from my current favorite CD Kickin' Out the Footlights Again, I would've still loved it. But Jones sang Haggard, and I was in heaven.
  

If you've never managed to get to the Grand Ole Opry, you need to put it on your agenda at some point. It's absolutely the best way to spend a Saturday night, especially when the show's downtown and you can duck out the back door of your favorite honkytonk and run over to the show.

Just like Hank Williams and Patsy Cline did all those years ago...

The Next Nashville Star

As I write this, I'm listening to self-titled Chris Young's debut album. I'm slightly surprised by that, because until this year I've never been impressed with Nashville Star, with the exception of the Buddy Jewell. I absolutely loved "Can I Help Pour Out the Rain" and "Sweet Southern Comfort." Then, Buddy seemed to vanish into thin air. He lost his music contract, and I have no idea what happened to him. The Nashville Star winners who followed seemed to suffer a similar fate. Aside from Chris Young, I'm not sure if I could name them, and I surely couldn't recognize them on the street.

I think Chris might just make it. He has a classic country sound, and I think we're headed back that way, despite the shocking popularity of Rascal Flatts. Buddy Cannon produced this CD, and he is definitely one of the best in the business. Most people wouldn't argue that Kenny Chesney's music improved by leaps and bounds when Buddy started producing him.

That was a lot of lead in to say that I normally do not watch Nashville Star. The past seasons I just didn't see the talent or potential in the contestants. And frankly, with the exception of Miranda Lambert, they haven't had the success of their American Idol counterparts. Even Josh Gracin, who came in 4th on AI, has had more success than every winner of Nashville Star.

I decided to go to Nashville Star because it was free and a fun way to spend a Thursday night. I've been having a blast going to the tapings, and I've realized that Blake Shelton is Nashville's resident cutie-patootie. However, when I got there the first night, I realized that all the men and women on the stage were extremely talented, and this was going to be a real competition. The first night, when Tim LaRoche got voted off, it was already a hard decision. Despite the fact that Tim is an extremely talented musician, someone had to be cut. Each week, it's gotten much harder.

I started out supporting Meg Allison, whom I'd met at the finals for the tryouts at The Stage in November. Meg's a great writer and singer, and I was pleased that she made the show. While I wasn't sure how fans would react to a country singer from Chicago, she hit it out of the park each week and she stayed in the running right up until the second she was voted off. I expect very good things from her in the future.

It's now down to five contestants, because no one was voted off last week due to technical difficulties. The five remaining are: Whitney Duncan, Joshua Stevens, David St. Romaine and Angela and Zac Hacker, who are sister and brother.

It has been hard to choose one of these talented individuals to back. I think David is an amazing entertainer. I think Whitney is pretty and has a nice voice, but might be a little green. (I'm thinking of the night the judges asked her why she didn't play guitar and she said the song was too hard because it had too many chords. Imagine if Brad Paisley did that.) I think a lot of people like Joshua Stevens, and I was impressed with his original song last week, but I'm just not sure he's country-music-star material.

That leaves the Hackers.

Angela is an amazing woman. She has a strong, beautiful voice. She reminds me a lot of Gretchen Wilson in her story and in her attitude, but in a good way. I am impressed with her every week, and even though she didn't want to sing it, I still have goosebumps from her version of "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool." Honestly, I suspect that Angela Hacker is our next Nashville Star, and that's fine by me, because she's great and I'm not sure if she'd get a record deal any other way. And I say that not because she's not talented -- she's etremely talented -- but because there are still a lot of biases in this town and I don't think she fits the mold. So, even though she's not my favorite, I kinda-sorta secretly hope Angela wins.

And frankly, I don't think that my favorite would be disappointed if she won, because she's his older sister.

I am now a huge Zac Hacker fan. When Meg left, I voted for David the first week. His performance really wowed me. But after original song night, I'd absolutely, positively love for Zac Hacker to win this whole thing.

Why?

He's very talented. His voice is soulful and amazing. It moves me. He's an excellent guitarist, and I think his song-writing skills are right where they need to be. And he's only 23 years old. If Zac could win this and keep doing what he's doing, I think he could have a very long career in this town. He made me cry last week. I'm pretty sure he made everyone cry. (To be fair, I was on the edge of my seat with Josh's song too.) Basically, Zac took something not-so-great from his life and made a song that we can all relate to.

And that, my friends, is what a good country musician does.

So, after all this blabbing, I guess I wanted to say that I think it'd be nifty if it gets down to Angela and Zac to win it all. If either won, I'd be happy. If either makes a CD, I'll be the first in line to buy it.

I'm not sure who'll get voted off tonight, but whoever it is, it'll be a damn good musician. And with this field, whoever wins is going to be a star that I think'll shine for quite a while.