Grand Ole Opry: OPRY 100 with Ashley McBryde

The Read

McBryde writes hard-edged narrative country about small towns, bad decisions, and the people who stay — the kind of writing the Opry claims to be built on and does not always book. She is a member now, which means the stage is her workplace rather than a guest appearance, and it shows in how loose she gets on it. The rest of the bill fills in around her in the usual Opry way: short sets, quick turnover, generational contrasts, everyone stepping into the circle cut from the Ryman floor. Saturday at seven, in a room designed for broadcast rather than atmosphere. Come for her, stay for whichever eighty-year-old fiddle player steals the second half.

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.