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Nashville's Mother Church--the Ryman Auditorium

 The Ryman Auditorium, revered as the “Mother Church” of country music, has been an anchor of the Nashville music scene for more than a century. The Grand Ole Opry moved in to the Ryman Auditorium in 1943 with live music shows broadcast weekly across America's airwaves every Saturday evening on WSM 650 AM radio until 1974 when it outrgrew the Ryman and moved into its new home, The Grand Ole Opry House at Opryland.

From Hank Williams and Flatt & Scruggs, Chet Atkins, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Johnny Cash, to Patsy Cline and Bob Hope, the list of luminaries who have performed at the National Historic Landmark Ryman, is a literal Who’s Who of the America's 20th Century music scene.

This show originally broadcast in 2017 is reposted as a Best-of-the-Best Journeys of Discovery show in celebration of its 32nd anniversary producing NPR affiliate KCBX on-air and digital media shows featured on NPR One.

Underwriting support for Journeys of Discovery provided by Nashville's Big Back Yard economic initiative focused on rural communities in the southwest quarter of Tennessee and the Shoals Region of Northern Alabama.

You are invited to subscribe to the Lowell Thomas Award-winning podcast travel show, Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer, featured on the NPR Podcast DirectoryiHeartRadioApple Podcast.

Tom Wilmer produces on-air content for Issues & Ideas airing over KCBX and is producer and host of the six-time Lowell Thomas award-winning NPR podcast Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer. Recorded live on-location across America and around the world, the podcasts feature the arts, culture, music, nature, history, science, wine & spirits, brewpubs, and the culinary arts--everything from baseball to exploring South Pacific atolls to interviewing the real Santa Claus in the Arctic.
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