At the Opryland.

 Our next stop after the Smokies has been Nashville, Tennessee, or at least as close in to Nashville as the Opryland Hotel.  We love to stay at this place with its marvelous indoor gardens and water features.

Since we were here and since the Grand Old Opry has opened back up full scale, we got tickets to the Friday night show.  There is a walkway directly from the hotel to the theatre and it takes less than ten minutes to walk over there.  There was rain predicted, but, we saw and felt none of that.

On our way!

The most fun about going to the Opryland is being part of the live event itself. We had seats on the front row of the balcony just over the side edge of the stage so we could see the audience as well as the performers.  They both provided us with a great show. Rhonda Vincent did a good job and a real treat was stand-up comedian Brad Upton.  Check him out.

The headliners were Crystal Gayle and Billy Ray Cyrus, but, there were several fine performers throughout the show.  The Opryland stage band and backup singers are always amazing as they accompany and back up anyone who is in the limelight.

Crystal just keeps going!

When we got to the headliners, Crystal Gayle upheld her reputation as a long-term and consistent star.  Then there was Billy Ray Cyrus.  We could have gone home happier if he had stayed home.

In face, he almost did! He brought with him his Pentecostal preacher brother and sister in law to sing Pentecostal songs with him.  They were awfully happy to be there!  Then he turned a whole song over to an Australian girl named Firerose whom he found somewhere.  Finally, after daring the audience to not ask for  Achy Breaky Heart, he got everyone standing up and screaming the song along with him to cover up his absent voice.  It was not a good ending! (And security had to come in to settle things down in one corner.)

Rough!

All in all, it was a great show of music, jokes, and people watching. Not like the old days at the Ryman!