Grand Ole Opry: OPRY 100

The Read

A hundred years on, the show still runs on the same logic: stack generations on one stage, give everybody two or three songs, let the contrasts do the work. The lineup for this date is announced late, which is a feature rather than an oversight — the Opry has always sold the format before the names. (Lineup updates on announcement.) Every performer steps onto the six-foot circle of oak cut out of the Ryman floor, the literal continuity between 1925 and now. Fast turnover, live-radio pacing, a staff band that has played everything. It is not one artist’s concert. It is the oldest variety-show structure still operating in America, and it is worth seeing on an ordinary Tuesday rather than a marquee one.

The Room

Grand Ole Opry House

2804 Opryland Dr

The Opry left the Ryman on March 15, 1974. President Nixon played piano on opening night. Roy Acuff supervised the installation of the circle of wood cut from the Ryman stage.