It’s hard to overstate the significance of the Grand Ole Opry’s role — for both better and worse — in defining the public identity of Nashville and capital-C Country Music, our city’s biggest cultural export. The show’s Opry 100 series has been celebrating the program’s centennial since late 2024 and will continue into 2026, but Friday’s pair of broadcasts are extra special: They mark 100 years to the day since radio station WSM premiered the WSM Barn Dance with fiddler Uncle Jimmy Thompson, which became the Grand Ole Opry a few years later. As contributor Margaret Littman wrote in her recent Scene cover story, the show’s trajectory hasn’t been a straight line, but it has maintained its status as a major cultural landmark. The lineup is the same for both early and late shows, and as you might expect, they are packed to the brim with top talent. All the guests are Opry members and most have been well-known for many years, like Connie Smith, Marty Stuart, Suzy Bogguss, Charlie McCoy, Gary Mule Deer, Mandy Barnett, Vince Gill and Lorrie Morgan. Dustin Lynch and Scotty McCreery are well-established artists who are nonetheless a little newer to the scene, and they’re also slated to perform.
7 & 10 p.m. at the Grand Ole Opry House
600 Opry Mills Drive
