The Grand Ol' .... Mothership?

...Or is it, Mother Church?

This photo was taken by my 11 year old son during our recent weekend in Nashville at the IBMA World of Bluegrass. He was standing on stage at the Ryman Auditorium, home of the Grand Ole Opry and the destination for many a country music and bluegrass pilgrim.

Yeah, it's a little dark, and it was one of those throw-away cameras. (He's eleven. Working without a flash was his mission the entire weekend.) But I like the way he caught the windows and a sense of how big the place really is.

The Ryman was built as a church by Capt. Thomas Ryman, a showboat captain, and opened its doors in 1892. In the 1920s and 1930s it became a theatre space, attracting the likes of Miss Fanny Brice, W.C. Fields, Helen Hayes, and Bela Lugosi. Cleveland's dear old Bob Hope took a tour, as did the lovely and incomparable Katherine Hepburn.

The Ryman became home to The Grand Ole Opry in 1943, and remained so until the 1970s when the Opry season moved out to Opryland. (Booooooo!) While it holds a special place in history for performances by greats like Patsy Cline or Bill Monroe (and once, just once, by The King), the Ryman today is very much a vibrant performance space used year round by traditional bluegrass and contemporary popular artists alike. By the way, the acoustics rock.

,,,

That was a special weekend for us. My kids are six years apart, which is a little like having two only children. When his sister arrived, our world of spending all that one on one time together doing whatever we wanted, pretty much evaporated. Of course we adore her. Still, being able to stroll down to the Ryman and stand backstage, or hang out in Minnie Pearl's dressing room, or look at the sound board (the edges of which are visible in the center set of windows) was a fun thing for just we two.