Ryman Auditorium

	Ryman Auditorium
	U.S. National Register of Historic Places
	U.S. National Historic Landmark
	The Ryman Auditorium
Location	116 Fifth Ave. N; Nashville, Tennessee
Area	1 acre (0.40 ha)
Built	1891
NRHP reference No.	71000819
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	May 6, 1971
Designated NHL	January 3, 2001

The Ryman Auditorium is a 2,362-seat live performance venue located at 115 5th Avenue North in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S., and is best-known as the historic home of the Grand Ole Opry. It was previously known as Grand Old Opry House and also as Union Gospel Tabernacle.

History

The auditorium first opened as the Union Gospel Tabernacle in 1892. It was built by Thomas Ryman (1843–1904), a riverboat captain and Nashville businessman who owned several saloons. Ryman conceived of the auditorium as a tabernacle for the influential revivalist Samuel Porter Jones.^[3] After Ryman's death, the Tabernacle was renamed Ryman Auditorium in his honor. Famous builder "Mark Ludwig" designed the structure.

It was used for Grand Ole Opry broadcasts from 1943 until 1974, when the Opry built a larger venue just outside Nashville at the Opryland USA theme park. The Ryman then sat mostly vacant and fell into disrepair until 1992 when Emmylou Harris and her band, the Nash Ramblers, performed a series of concerts there (the results of which appeared on her album At the Ryman). The Harris concerts renewed interest in restoring the Ryman, and it was reopened as an intimate performance venue and museum in 1994. Audiences at the Ryman find themselves sitting in pews, the 1994 renovation notwithstanding. The seating is a reminder of the auditorium's origins as a house of worship, hence giving it the nickname "The Mother Church of Country Music".

The Ryman Auditorium was included in the National Register of Historic Places in 1971, and was further designated a National Historic Landmark in 2001.^[2]^[4]

Performers

Many country music greats have performed at the Ryman since its inception including the legendary Hank Williams, Bill Monroe, Kitty Wells, Jim Reeves, Roy Acuff, Johnny Cash, Tammy Wynette, Garth Brooks, Patsy Cline, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Emmylou Harris, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Glen Campbell, Reba McEntire, Conway Twitty, Dolly Parton, Porter Wagoner, Marty Robbins, Ernest Tubb, Dottie West, Crystal Gayle, Gretchen Wilson, Willie Nelson, and The Judds.

Besides country, the venue also features alternative, bluegrass, blues, classical, gospel, jazz, pop, folk, and rock, as well as musical theatre and stand-up comedy shows.

Among the countless other artists who have performed on the Ryman stage are Widespread Panic with Charlie Daniels, Tegan and Sara, Paramore, Cheap Trick, Seal, 70 Volt Parade, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Presley, The Black Crowes, Tallulah Bankhead, Ethel Barrymore, Sarah Bernhardt, Victor Borge, Jackson Browne, Ryan Adams, Damien Rice, Bright Eyes, Fanny Brice, James Brown, The Byrds, Neil Young, Enrico Caruso, Carol Channing, Charlie Chaplin, Kelly Clarkson, Neil Diamond, Ani DiFranco, Bob Dylan, Wilco, Elvis Costello, Oasis, R.E.M., The String Cheese Incident, O.A.R., Hootie & the Blowfish, Needtobreathe, W. C. Fields, Judy Garland, Betty Grable, Erasure, Helen Hayes, Interpol, Katharine Hepburn, Bob Hope, Anna Pavlova, Norah Jones, Garbage, ZZ Top, 'N Sync, Matt Costa, Death Cab for Cutie, Tori Amos, Alanis Morissette, Van Morrison, Jonny Lang, Robert Plant & The Strange Sensation, The Smashing Pumpkins, Nick Jonas & The Administration, The Strokes, Kings of Leon, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Modest Mouse, Belle & Sebastian, Sigur Rós, The New Pornographers, Regina Spektor, The Shins, Sufjan Stevens, Lou Reed, Wayne Newton, Eddie Vedder, Sara Bareilles, B.B. King, Lyle Lovett, Erasure, Neko Case, The Avett Brothers, Adam Lambert, Arcade Fire, Ben Folds, Vampire Weekend, and Coldplay, who released a limited edition autographed poster from their performance there. On January 30, 2003, Patty Griffin recorded her live album A Kiss in Time at the Ryman Auditorium.

In 2005, Neil Young recorded the movie "Heart of Gold" with Jonathan Demme at the Ryman. In April 2006, Josh Turner recorded a live album at the Ryman [1], and Nickel Creek planned to record a live DVD at the auditorium in late 2007. [2]; however, plans for the video shoot were scrapped. [3] Also in 1999, Bill Gaither recorded The Cathedrals' Farewell Celebration video and album there with various other artists such as the Statler Brothers, the Oak Ridge Boys, Guy Penrod, and Sandi Patti. In May 2006, the English band Erasure recorded a live album (both on CD and DVD) titled On The Road To Nashville. In 2009, the Jonas Brothers also performed a concert which included a cover of the song "Free Fallin".

Miscellany

Ryman Auditorium has been featured in several movies, including Robert Altman's Nashville (1975) starring David Arkin, Barbara Baxley, Ned Beatty, and Karen Black; W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975) starring Burt Reynolds, Jerry Reed, Ned Beatty, Don Williams, Mel Tillis, and Art Carney; Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) starring Sissy Spacek and Tommy Lee Jones; Clint Eastwood's Honkytonk Man (1982) ; and Sweet Dreams (1985) starring Jessica Lange and Ed Harris. Neil Young used the venue in his 2006 film Neil Young: Heart of Gold.

The Denishawn Dance Company appeared at the Ryman on December 14, 1923, with Martha Graham, Louise Brooks, and Nashville native Doris Humphrey among their performers.

The Ryman Auditorium was the venue for The Johnny Cash Show, which ran on the ABC network from 1969 to 1971.

The Ryman Auditorium was named Pollstar Magazine's National Theatre of the Year for both 2003 and 2004, beating out such venues as New York's Radio City Music Hall and Hollywood's Gibson Universal Amphitheater.

Each dressing room behind the stage is dedicated to a legendary performer such as Johnny Cash and Minnie Pearl.

The visitor tour claims that the Ryman Auditorium has been rated as having the second best acoustics in the world (after the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's home, the Salt Lake Tabernacle).

When the Grand Ole Opry House opened in 1974, a circle approximately five feet in diameter was removed from the Ryman stage's original floor and inlaid into the stage floor in the new Opry House where it remains today behind the lead singer's microphone.

The Grand Ole Opry currently returns to the Ryman Auditorium annually for a run from November through February.

Because of the 2010 flooding of the Cumberland River that rendered the current Grand Ole Opry House temporarily unusable, the Ryman Auditorium was the primary venue for the Grand Ole Opry when it was available.^[5] This arrangement continued until the restored Opry House reopened on September 28, 2010. Because of its location away from the river, the Ryman Auditorium was unaffected by the flooding.

Notes

^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2009-03-13.
^ ^a ^b "Ryman Auditorium". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Retrieved 2009-09-08.
^ Williams, Peter W. (2000). Houses of God: Region, Religion, and Architecture in the United States, p. 123. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-06917-X.
^ ____ (, 19). Template:PDFlink. National Park Service. {{cite book}}: |author= has numeric name (help); Check date values in: |date= (help) and Template:PDFlink
^ http://search2.opry.com/?view=events

References

Eiland, William. Nashville's Mother Church: The History of the Ryman Auditorium. Nashville, 1992.
Graham, Eleanor, ed. Nashville, A Short History and Selected Buildings. Hist. Comm. of Metro-Nashville-Davidson Co., 1974.
Hagan, Chet. Grand Ole Opry. New York, 1989.
Henderson, Jerry. "A History of the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, 1892-1920." (Ph. D. Diss., Louisiana State University) Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 1962.

External links

Official Web Site

[nris-1] "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2009-03-13.

[nhlsum-2] "Ryman Auditorium". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Retrieved 2009-09-08.

[3] Williams, Peter W. (2000). Houses of God: Region, Religion, and Architecture in the United States, p. 123. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-06917-X.

[nrhpinv2-4] ____ (, 19). Template:PDFlink. National Park Service. {{cite book}}: |author= has numeric name (help); Check date values in: |date= (help) and Template:PDFlink

[5] ttp://search2.opry.com/?view=events

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