The view from the front

A few weeks back I talked about being on the Opry stage and standing in the circle - last night I got to experience the stage from the front - in the pews, as a fan! I can't remember the last time I did that. It was really neat, the Opry is so well orchestrated, and even more interesting to see how they do radio and television so seamlessly - yet so differently. The whole night was a big commercial for the new Barbara Mandrell tribute album, which was all right with me. A few notable notes -

Lorrie Morgan was apparently having a bad day, and didn't mind letting everyone know it. She was without her wedding ring.

Randy Owen singing Tennessee River - alone - was just plain wierd. The Opry House Band sounded great on the song. But Randy on stage by himself just wasn't right. There are a LOT of things he could have sung by himself with an acoustic guitar that would have been ok, but him on stage with the electric guitar singing Alabama's first #1 song... it wasn't right.

Pete Fisher stage manages for Grand Ole Opry Live. Very odd to see him giving time signals to the WSM announcer. You'd think they'd hire underlings to do such things.

I didn't recognize Blaine Larsen. He has a new grown up hairdo - and looked good. For a kid younger than my stepsons.

On his records, Rodney Atkins sounds so much like Tim McGraw it's crazy - I've caught myself more than once going "I don't know this Tim song..." Turns out, he doesn't sound that way live, at all.

Barbara's daughter-in-law was signing backup with Carolyn Dawn Johnson.

I hope to have photographic support for this entry soon... I'm waiting for my "date" to share photos - I hear they've been uploaded to a laptop....