Hollonville Opry

[electricflyer]

This is close to you Wade, the Hollonville Opry House about 10 miles west of Griffin on GA Hwy 362. Have you ever been there? The reason I ask is that 4 ham radio friends perform on stage there about once every 2 months. They are Homer - ND8F and his wife Jessie - N4QLT, Robert - NB4F and his wife Ann - WI4FEY. They have a group called "The Dixie Renegades". They just did their performance July 11 so it will probably be September before they are back. The music is a mix of country, bluegrass, and gospel and occasional 50/60's. There are some VERY good musicians on stage. They get no pay for their performance.

You can check the show schedule at: www.hollonvilleopry.com If you happen to go see any of the shows the cost is FREE, but a donation is appreciated. (I usually kick in $20 for a great night of entertainment, and food) They usually have 3 performances each Saturday night that last about 45 minutes each. The music starts at 6:30pm and goes to 10:00pm. Go early for the potluck snacks (chili dogs, sloppy joes, cake, pie, soft drinks, sandwiches) before the music starts and again you can bring something for the mix (cookies, cake, soda, buns, something like that) and it is also free with the donation appreciated. If you have never been there you may just want to check it out. It is a very friendly bunch of people that have a good time there.

[NN5I]

When do they do Madama Butterfly, La Traviata, and Rigoletto? But that's all kind of recent. How about Endimione e Cintia, which is a couple hundred years older? Sample: Scarlatti (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CjREcNiuq0&index=5&list=PL4HiTvKjXoBEwjMF4FAyDL7TjL8CqpJSg)

Singers who can actually sing, and players who can play, and composers who can compose, make all the difference.

Music is like painting or literature. 99% of it in any year is crap, but the crap doesn't last long. Stick with whatever is at least 50 or 100 years old, and time will have eliminated the crap so you can listen to the really good stuff.

[Radio]

I have driven right by the place. Our church has a mission church there in Hollonville.

There was a guy in out local radio club and ARES group that would go down there for what he called "pickin' and grinnin' " on Saturday night. He played guitar.

I really should put that on my bucket list.

[Radio]

As an aside, here's the music side of the family...

SIL Pam, Sweet Wife Kathy on fiddle, BIL Steve and niece Joy.

I myself have no musical talent.

[NN5I]

I myself have no musical talent.

Nor do I. Our condition is common in the music industry these days, and is no barrier to success. I think the music industry exempiifies hearty concurrence with the motto: Hire the handicapped. In restaurants and supermarkets I often hear what I am pleased to call the musical Special Olympics.

[electricflyer]

I guess we won't expect Carl to be in the audience. I've seen the Grand Ole Opry twice in Nashville. The first time we were in the last row of the top balcony and the people on the stage were like ants. The next time one of my customers told me she had a friend that sold the tickets and to let her know ahead of time and would get me good seats which is what we did and were only 12 rows back from the stage. The show there is actually a radio program open to the public. A lot of people moving around on the stage while performers were playing, others standing further back talking to one another. DW said that's rude that those people did that, I had to explain to her that it was a radio show although it televised now so they have cleaned it up a little. I did meet Porter Wagoner at the Shoneys across from the Opryland Hotel. He was having lunch in the booth right behind me.

[NN5I]

I guess we won't expect Carl to be in the audience.

Not if I can pay someone to help me escape.

[wa8yxm]

Will have to bookmark that and visit when next I have a working engine in this house.

That is about 180 miles from where I'm stuck.

[Radio]

I guess we won't expect Carl to be in the audience.

...snip...

The show there is actually a radio program open to the public.

Carl needs to expand his musical horizons! :poke:

Sweet Wife has a B.S./Music Ed. Degree. Her major instrument was flute with a minor in Strings. Her flute private lessons were with the Principal Flutist of the Atlanta Symphony. Her string teacher was the head of the string dept at Georgia State. That's where she learned the masters, Bach, Mozart
who will work the daylights out of any flutist, and Beethoven who will pummel a string player.

Her daddy and her uncles taught her mountain music. And there is a definite science to bluegrass, a reason a 5 string banjo has a drone tuned to G, and rules that must be followed, just like in a sonata, or it's junk and not bluegrass. :violin2:

She does both equally well.

I don't know which I like best, provided both are done well. But mountain music makers will let you sit in amongst them, for free. The Symphony won't let you do that for any price of ticket!

Now the first time I ever heard the "Grand Ol' Opry" was a proper initiation into the genre. I was about 6. We were visiting my grandparents way back in the mountains of Cumberland Gap, TN. We were there to get the tobacco harvest into the barns.

Supper had been server and the sun was setting. 'Pap Paw' had a radio set the size of a small chest o' drawers. (They had no TV) The inside of this thing lit up like a small city at night. With some deft of hand my uncle dialed in "The Grand Ol' Opry" from Nashville on a wire that ran 50 ft across the yard.

Children were advised to keep silent. The arms on Pap Paw's chair were 18 inches across and made a place for me to sit. I had never seen a family gather around a radio with such interest. When they broadcast a gospel song, the family would sing along.

Now that, Carl, was hiring the musically handicapped! :whistle: Which explains, now that I revisit my ancestors in my memory and think about it, why I have NO musical talent. :bag:

They were good Christian people and took seriously the imperative to "make a joyful noise"

That is about 180 miles from where I'm stuck.

You are STILL stuck? So we need to mount a rescue mission?

[NN5I]

Carl needs to expand his musical horizons!

It's more than fifty years since the last time someone told me that. It was written in a birthday card accompanying a Frank Zappa tape. Yuck.

The college friend who wrote it never listened to anything that wasn't played on electric guitar.

I gave him a tape of classical guitar (Laurindo Almeida) to start him off. He'd never heard that stuff before, nor had he ever heard (or even heard of, I think) bassoons, oboes, cellos, etc. He had heard of trumpets, but was amazed to learn that they come in various sizes and tonal ranges. Same for flutes, clarinets and such.

He categorized all non-guitar music as "classical" and affected disdain for it. I think he was afraid of it. I got him to listen to renaissance, baroque, romanticism, actual classical, neo-romanticism, and even ragtime (Joplin -- Scott, not Janis) and jazz for the first time. Oh yes, and Brubeck. He even grew to like some of it, especially Joplin, which I love. Joshua Rifkin plays it best.

He never succeeded in expanding my musical horizons, though. I'm still the same narrow-spectrum, one-eared old stick-in-the-mud I've always been.

[electricflyer]

I know how to send a REAL chill up Carl's spine. BLUES

[NN5I]

I know how to send a REAL chill up Carl's spine. BLUES

What's wrong with blues? I don't listen to it much, but that's just 'cuz the 1% good hasn't sorted itself out from the 99% crap yet. Give it a while longer, some of it is aging well.

[NN5I]

I also seek out flashmob videos like this one. Glorious music, and I especially enjoy watching little kids experience real music for what may be the first time in their lives, and learning how very different sounds can combine.
.
The solemn little girl standing there throughout, the kid on the light pole, the other little guys, all charm me completely. How could they not?

Flashmob (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbJcQYVtZMo)

[Radio]

I'll call your flashmob and raise you...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1mQT1u_45I&index=14&list=PLD8tVgPY6C1kXXb83cFaX_6xvSnnGvvYO

Possibly the worlds largest brass section, and an audience moved to tears.

(This could get to be fun!)

[Radio]

Throw in a few bagpipes (just enough, not too many mind you) and more tears...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GD-5mRyaJw&list=PLD8tVgPY6C1kXXb83cFaX_6xvSnnGvvYO&index=5

[NN5I]

I'll call your flashmob and raise you...

Wow, Wade, that's truly great.

Rieu, I think, is one of the best presenters of music in the world. I have saved many links to Rieu videos. He widens people's familiarity and understanding worldwide, and he finds and promotes stunningly good performers, both adults and youngsters; Melissa Venema (trumpet) comes to mind. Who'd think a 13-year-old would play so well?

(This could get to be fun!)

It's already fun. I'd like to continue trading links, but I think it's time to start a new thread, so I'll do that later this evening. I kind of hijacked this one, I think.

[Radio]

HANG on Carl... we'll jump back on topic with a little Stringbean!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQpu2Zk1SYQ

He was one of the best to ever play the instrument

[electricflyer]

Give some downloads from your Slim Whitman albums Wade.

[Radio]

Give some downloads from your Slim Whitman albums Wade.

Dang. Fresh out of Slim Whitman. Remember when the Hawks used to have him at halftime at their games? :jitter: