|
Combs
plays the Opry
By
Julie Rausch
J.C.
Combs played an unusual gig in November. He performed on the stage
of the Ryman Auditorium, the original site of Nashville’s Grand
Ole Opry. The show aired on National Public Radio.
After
being introduced by 80-year-old Little Jimmy Dickens, Combs filled
in on a Saturday night for the staff drummer with the Mike Snider
Band, "the most working string band outside of Ricky Skaggs,"
Combs said.
"It
was a thrill," Combs said of his experience playing on the
same stage that has hosted such legendary stars as Bill Monroe,
Hank Williams, Pasty Cline, Roy Acuff, Tammy Wynette and Porter
Wagner.
Snider’s
band followed popular country star Vince Gill.
"You’d
tend to think that’s a tough act to follow," said Combs,
"but what Mike’s doing is so unique, and it also goes
back to the roots of the music."
Combs
said the packed audience – the theater seats more than 1,200
– appeared "very enthusiastic about hearing the string
band style, which goes back to the Colonial days when the fiddle
was the most popular instrument of all."
Which,
by the way, is what his son, Nashville musician Matt Combs, plays
at Opry at the Ryman Friday and Saturday nights.
The
Ryman, which housed the Grand Ole Opry from 1943-74, was a church
prior to 1925. Fans still watch the shows on church benches. Although
Opryland is now the main site for the Grand Ole Opry, the Ryman
presents major musical acts, country and otherwise.
Backstage,
Combs said, "everyone was talking and playing licks on their
instruments. People mill around like they are at a family picnic."
Snider
gave Combs a standing invitation to play on the Opry any time he
visits Nashville.
In
addition to having the experience, Combs said, it will be useful
when teaching an American Popular Music course this spring.
"It’s
nice to have a firsthand account of one of the institutions of American
music."
|
