Terrific show with Johnny Cash kicking things off at the Opry. As he enters the building before a packed audience, he sings a number which also doubles for who's going to be on the show. Lots of great music, pretty much all performed live. Highlights are "Make A Little Magic", plus Alabama, Oak Ridge Boys & the Gatlins, a tribute to Hank Williams with young Bocephus and many more, a tribute to the Carter Family with Johnny and June, Crystal Gayle with Hoagy Carmichael, Loretta Lynn, Glen Campbell with then wife Tanya Tucker, Doug Kershaw playing an amazing fiddle, and possibly best of all, a Statler Brothers medley where they copy the styles of yesteryear just flawlessly. All in all, a GREAT SHOW! I have a video from the original telecast, but hope for an official DVD someday. Watch this one if you can find it!
2 Reviews
What a lineup! A "Who's who" from the early 1980's!
cadamsrjaquez20 September 2005
Johnny Cash open the 1981 show with a song written for the event, taped at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. The song mentions most of the performers appearing and Cash shakes hands with the audience members as he sings it. Later, he and June Carter appear in one of several tributes to the earliest country music. Other highlights include Doug Kershaw and his fiddle with the "Battle of 1814", Roy Clark who plays "Dueling Banjos" by himself, a star studded tribute to Hank Williams led by his son Hank, Jr., plus the Dirt Band with "Make a Little Magic". The Statlers also do a neat bit where the show what they might have sounded like had they lived in earlier eras. All this, plus Glen Campbell & young Tanya Tucker, Crystal Gayle, Oak Ridge Boys, Alabama, the Gatlins, Minnie Pearl, Roy Acuff, Hoagy Carmichael, Charlie Pride, and many more make this a can't miss for vintage country music fans. It's hard to find, but worth the effort!
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