Longview's Opry

I've been feeling rather poorly this past weekend. I think it's my sinuses' reaction to various allergens and all that extra drainage is turning my stomach sour, my throat and ears itch, and I'm more tired than usual~~which is lots. However, on Saturday, I was feeling pretty good, so I went to my writers group, then My Jerry and I went to an exhibition men's basketball game at MSU. That was cool and I do think I like basketball much better than football. In large part cuz the game moves instead of taking four hours, it only takes two. So it builds momentum and keeps it. Whereas with football, it seems to me like more time is spent off the field than on~~and so it seems like an inefficient use of time and energy. It gets to be a contest of the viewers' patience more so than a game between teams. But I digress...

Saturday, My Jerry and I went to the local Opry. And when I say "local", I mean like a mile or so down the road. And when I say "opry", I do mean various muscians performing various formats like country {both old and new, we heard some stuff from the thirties, some Hank Williams, some Johnny Cash, some contemporary}, Elvis Presley, gospel, and lots of blues. In fact, I think it's fair to say that blues was the main flavor of the evening, which was great.

The format is simple and not very formal: the main guest plays two sets of twenty minutes and the stage is free to anyone else the rest of the time. There were usually enough musicians on stage to fill it, usually between three to nine, with five or six most of the time. There were some folks that were more seasoned, having performed for others most if not all of their lifetimes. And there were a few newbies as well, taking the stage for the first time ever, at the age of fifty or so.

My husband's mother had gone to school in that building, before the students from this area began to be bussed into Starkville {seven miles further down the road} back in 1948. The building itself is a large open rectangle with a kitchen area and restrooms, a cloak room, and of course the performance area~~which is about half the building. The stage was just a step up, but fully equipped and quite large to accomodate all the pickers, belters, and beaters.

The audience can sit down in rather comfortable chairs, lined up in rows. Lots of socializing occurs, but some serious listening is the rule of the night. There is a small area just to the side of the stage, and couples dance, as well as several ladies who formed lines to dance in unison with "Boot Scootin' Boogie" which was just as entertaining as what was going on up on the stage!

Most folks were in their late sixties and older, altho the "young" folks put in a good showing too. In fact, at first, when we settled into our seats at a lil after six in the evening, Jerry commented on the fact that we were the youngest present. As the evening progressed, the composition of the crowd shifted from elderly to a bit younger {forties and fifties} with some clusters of those in their twenties and thirties~~I think most of those folks were there not entirely against their will, but pretty close!

It was a very comfortable evening, and we plan to return. The only things I didn't care for was not unique to there, they're things that I don't particularly like about any live performance. It seems to me that the drums are usually disproportionately louder than the rest of the musical line~up and that the vocals are never quite as clear as I'd like. Most folks don't seem to realize that they don't need to swallow the microphone in order to be heard thru~out. But I find that to be a pet~peeve even when attending more professional concerts.

The other thing was that some of the women douse themselves with perfume and that aggravated my sensitive sinuses to the point where I was blinking tears from my eyes and as soon as we stepped from the building, I gulped the fresh cold air of the local pines, and promptly engaged in a sneezing~fit that lasted way more than necessary. As I said tho, those complaints are not unique to the Opry, and the enjoyment far outweighed the discomfort.

I'd've typed this up earlier, but I couldn't spell "wirth shyte" most of the weekend.