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Charlie Daniels January 19, 2008
Charlie Daniels is partly Western and partly Southern. His signature “bull rider” hat and belt buckle; his lifestyle on his Twin Pines Ranch (a boyhood dream come true); his love of horses, cowboy lore, the heroes of championship rodeo, Western movies, and Louis L’Amour novels identify him as a Westerner. The son of a lumberjack and a Southerner by birth, his music – rock, country, bluegrass, blues, gospel – is quintessentially Southern. Daniels’ annual Volunteer Jam concerts, world-famous musical extravaganzas that served as a prototype for many of today’s annual day-long music marathons, always featured a variety of current stars and heritage artists and are considered by many music historians as his most impressive contribution to Southern music. A winner of countless awards, Daniels counts the Opry membership he earned in January 2008 among the most meaningful of his 50-year career in music.
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Dierks Bentley October 1, 2005
Because Dierks is touring non-stop all year, the Opry decided to take the invitation "on the road" to him. Opry member Marty Stuart briefly interrupted Dierks' performance in Los Angeles at the House of Blues to issue the welcome invitation. Dierks had no idea Stuart or the Opry officials were in the house. Stuart walked onto the stage an hour into Bentley's set and said, "Will you do it...will you marry the Grand Ole Opry? "Hell yeah!," Dierks replied. On Stuart's command the Opry microphone stand was positioned at center stage. After the invitation, Bentley was left speechless and had a hard time getting through his next song. “This is the greatest night of my life. Thanks you guys for sharing this with me,” he stated to the packed house. “I had no idea what was going on.” On October 1, 2005, Dierks became the youngest current member of the Opry.
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Terri Clark June 12, 2004
An independent-minded artist who’s as serious about her guitar playing as she is about singing and songwriting, Terri Clark has blended classic and modern influences to become one of the distinctive female artists of the “New Country” era. Culminating a dream since her childhood days, Terri joined the cast of the Grand Ole Opry on June 12, 2004. Twelve years and seven albums after signing with Mercury Records, Terri's contract came to an end leading her to sign with BNA Records in 2007. Her newest project, In My Next Life, has given her just that, a new life.
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Trace Adkins August 23, 2003
In 2003, Trace Adkins became a member of the prestigious Grand Ole Opry. The 6’6” country music star looked 4’11” Opry star Jimmy Dickens in the eyes—a stepladder was involved—and accepted Little Jimmy’s invitation to join the Opry cast. It was an emotional night for Trace, who says the event was a huge honor and definitely one of the biggest highlights of his professional career.
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Diamond Rio April 18, 1998
There has not been a slew of groups inducted into the Opry cast in the modern era. That makes it all the more notable that Diamond Rio made its first Opry appearance in October, 1991, and in 1998 became the first group since The Whites, 14 years earlier, to receive Opry membership. With their lighter-than-air harmonies and intricately woven instrumentation, this six-man group has been turning songs into standards since their debut album in 1991 helped to define the “young country” movement. Diamond Rio has been awarded top vocal group honors six times in total from the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association and sold more than 10 million records, with more than 20 Top 10 singles.
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Hal Ketchum January 22, 1994
Unlike many of the Opry’s stars, Hal Ketchum didn’t grow up listening to the show. “I came to the Opry with a certain innocence,” the New York native recalls. “I knew a lot of the music, through my father’s record collection. I did not know the radio show. I played the Opry the first time, shortly after ‘Small Town Saturday Night’ in ’91. There is an indescribable place on that stage where it feels like you are a part of history, a very fine history. And I really like that a lot. I felt the magic of the Opry the first time, and so, I came to it in amazement.” Through his father, Hal knew the music of country legends like Marty Robbins and Patsy Cline. As a youth, he even joined Buck Owens’ fan club. Hal started playing drums at age 15, though he later switched to guitar. Although he enjoyed music, he spent nearly 20 years as a carpenter and furniture builder before getting his break in the music business.
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Joe Diffie November 27, 1993
Known for his vocal range, Joe Diffie is a much-respected interpreter of both traditional and more modern country songs. His warm voice and clear phrasing of lyrics have proven to be crowd pleasing whether he’s singing ballads or more rambunctious novelty numbers. Joe recalls his first appearance at the Opry well. “It really is, you know, a scary thing,” he says, “especially when you’ve revered the Opry, heard so much about it, and cared so much about it. So to get to come out there and sing was just terrifying—really scary. But now it feels comfortable, of course!”
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Alison Krauss July 3, 1993
Alison Krauss learned violin at age five, started fiddling at eight, and was winning contests with her bow a few years later. She earned her first record contract at 14, won her first of 17 Grammys while still in her teens, and was inducted into the Opry at age 21. Recording with music legends such as John Waite, Sting, James Taylor, and Brad Paisely among others has catipulted Krauss to stardom among fans from a multitude of music genres. Her most recent project, Raising Sand, is a collaborative effort between Krauss and Robert Plant, former frontman for Led Zepplin. Debuting at number two on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart, the album has become an instant success. Krauss is not only Raising Sand, but raising the bar for artists of all genres as Grammy nominations continue to beat down her front door.
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Emmylou Harris January 25, 1992
God didn’t make honky-tonk angels, but if he had, he would have broken the mold with Emmylou Harris. With her crystal-clear soprano, lissome beauty, impeccable instincts, and uncompromising integrity, Harris redefined the image and role of women in country music. Few if any artists have so successfully erased boundaries between country, folk, and rock ’n’ roll. In 1999, Billboard magazine recognized her distinguished career achievements with its highest accolade – the Century Award. Harris continued earning high praises and in 2005 she earned a Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance in respect of "The Connection." 2008 presents Emmylou Harris with the highest honor in country music as she will be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. The night she joined the Opry, Emmylou summed up her feelings about her music: “Music is like food, sustenance. You certainly don’t do it for the spotlight. ... You do it for the amazing exhilaration of singing, the feeling of the music going through you.”
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Vince Gill August 10, 1991
As one of country’s most accomplished singers, songwriters, and musicians, Vince Gill is truly regarded as a triple threat. Vince has won more Country Music Association Awards than any other artist in history, having claimed 18 since 1990. He also holds the record for the most Grammy Awards won by a male country artist, and in all, he has won more than 70 industry awards recognizing his work as a singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His career record sales have exceeded 22 million. Gill found himself among the most elite country music greats in 2007 when he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. The following year Gill released, These Days, which includes four CDs containing forty-three new recordings of diverse musical stylings. His masterpiece earned him a Grammy for Best Country Album in 2008.
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Alan Jackson June 7, 1991
On record and off, Alan Jackson has been a rock-steady supporter of traditional country music. He’s maintained a plainspoken style that foregoes the rock-influenced material and stage shows of many of his contemporaries. He’s released an album that pays tribute to his musical influences and recorded pointed commentaries on the state of country music. And when the CMA wouldn’t let George Jones perform more than a snippet of his award-nominated song “Choices” on its 1999 awards show, Alan made his displeasure clear by interpolating a few lines from the song into his scheduled performance. Fourteen years earlier—in 1985, the year Alan moved to Nashville—George had sung a song, “Who’s Gonna Fill Their Shoes,” that asked who would take the place of giants such as Haggard, Twitty, and Jones himself. In the time since, Alan Jackson has become the leading exemplar of traditional country, and shown that those shoes fit him to a T.
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Clint Black January 10, 1991
It’s hard to imagine a stronger move out of the gate than the one Clint Black enjoyed. Clint emerged at the end of the 1980s as one of a number of “hat acts”—tall, usually handsome singers of songs rooted in honky-tonk but buffed with a contemporary sheen—but he quickly pulled away from the pack with his debut, Killin’ Time. The album’s very first single, “A Better Man,” went to No. 1, and was followed by three consecutive chart-toppers. The album itself went triple platinum. Its success led to the CMA Horizon Award and the ACM Male Vocalist, Single of the Year and Album of the Year Awards in 1989 for Clint, and CMA Male Vocalist honors in 1990. Not a bad start, although Clint wasn’t exactly an overnight sensation. The Texas-raised singer had put in almost a decade prior to his breakout, playing the club circuit in and around his hometown of Houston and writing songs, drawing not only on the country music that his father had played when he was a kid, but also on the pop and rock music of the ’70s with which he and his friends had grown up. Killin’ Time was traditional-sounding country through and through, but Clint would incorporate those pop and rock influences into every album that followed.
GrandOleOpry's LifePath entries
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