Experience the best in bluegrass on the very stage
where bluegrass was born over 60 years ago...

The Ryman Auditorium, the Mother Church Of Country Music and the home of the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 to 1974, is sacred to the history of country music.

Especially important to the history of the Ryman is its significant role in the history of bluegrass music. Although Bill Monroe had been a member of the Grand Ole Opry since 1939, it wasn't until a Saturday night in December of 1945 when bluegrass music as we know it today was born when a twenty-one year old young man by the name of Earl Scruggs stepped up to the WSM microphone on the Ryman stage playing the five-string banjo with a three-finger roll. This was the final ingredient in what we now know as bluegrass music.

Although it wasn't known as bluegrass at the time, there was something very unique and special about this edition of Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys with Earl Scruggs which also included guitarist/lead singer Lester Flatt, fiddler Chubby Wise, and bass player Cedric Rainwater. Their weekly broadcasts on the Opry at the Ryman Auditorium over WSM, their Columbia recordings, and personal appearances through early 1948 provided the architectural ground work for all of bluegrass music.

The well documented careers of Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs, Jim & Jesse, and the Osborne Brothers, all legendary bluegrass acts, also became Grand Ole Opry members in their own right on the Ryman Auditorium stage.

Also important are the virtually dozens of well known bluegrass musicians who came through the ranks of the aforementioned bands appearing on the Ryman stage.

Text by Eddie Stubbs, 650 WSM Personality, Grand Ole Opry Announcer
& Host of Bluegrass Nights at the Ryman

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Bluegrass Nights at the Ryman
June 25 through July 30, 2009 - Thursday Nights at 7:30 pm

Bluegrass Passes for All 6 Shows Available at the Ryman Box Office

	Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver with Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper Thursday, June 25 at 7:30 pm	Tell A Friend!
	Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder Thursday, July 2 at 7:30 pm	Tell A Friend!
	Rhonda Vincent & The Rage with Bobby Osborne & The Rocky Top X-Press and Next Best Thing Thursday, July 9 at 7:30 pm $25.50	Tell A Friend!
	Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys and Jim Lauderdale Thursday, July 16 at 7:30 pm $25.50	Tell A Friend!
	The Dan Tyminski Band with Steep Canyon Rangers Thursday, July 23 at 7:30 pm $25.50	Tell A Friend!
	Dailey & Vincent and The SteelDrivers Thursday, July 30 at 7:30 pm $25.50	Tell A Friend!

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