Our first picture this month shows you what it can look like backstage when I arrive for a night at the Grand Ole Opry. It’s always fun to see the smiling faces, some of which I recognize and others which I don’t. I always try to make a few new friends with each appearance, though, and hopefully I succeed more often than I fail. In the second photo, I think I succeeded in making my granddaughter, Hallie, happy by taking her with me to the recent CMA Awards. She loves country music more than any of my other grandkids, and we had another great night of making some lasting memories together. In the last photo, I’m relaxing in my Opry dressing room…..the room called, “It All Begins With A Song.” This room is dedicated to the Opry members who are/were also songwriters, and as you can see, my picture hangs between Dolly and Hank. I’d say I’m in some pretty special company!

Our first picture this month was taken at the recent Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Dinner & Award Show when the great writer, Bobby Braddock, and I joined up for a  visit. Bobby, who has written some of the greatest country songs in history, had recently been honored with the Kris Kristofferson Lifetime Achievement Award, and I was congratulating him. If anyone ever deserved that honor Bobby most definitely did. The second picture is of the three hombres who wrote our new single record, “The Country I Grew Up With.” Left to right it’s Lance Miller, myself, and Bobby Tomberlin. We’re all three extremely excited about our upcoming release, but on the day this picture was taken we had been back in the writing room trying to crank out another one. Songwriters never seem to know when to stop pushing their luck! I wanted you to see the bottom photo if for no other reason than to show you how colorful the Opry stage is these days with our new illuminated barn backdrop. It recalls the rich, almost 100-year history of the Opry but in the style and brilliance of today. You can tell by the smile on my face that those of us who get to stand in front of it on a regular basis are the lucky ones. 

The Grand Ole Opry celebrates its 98th birthday this month, and people are always asking me how the show has changed over the years. It has evolved with the passage of time, of course, but one thing remains the same: That warm, special feeling of camaraderie and togetherness which exists in very few other places. I hope the spirit of the show and of its members never changes. Whether I’m on stage, as I am in the first picture here, or visiting backstage with fellow artists like Chris Janson (I told him I was NOT going to buy him a boat!) and T. Graham Brown, the Opry brotherhood/sisterhood is something unique and very special. And it includes not only the artists but their families as well. T. Graham’s wife, Sheila, sent me a fresh supply of her incredible homemade pimento cheese, a loaf of bread to make sandwiches, and some delicious homemade cookies last weekend, just because, as she wrote in a note, “we love you.” May the Opry continue to prosper and soar for at least another 98 years!