Signs of old age

The years pass until National Public Radio reports a story on the Ryman Auditorium that includes details about an album you’ve admired for almost a quarter of a century.

How did that happen?

“Country music fans most associate the Ryman Auditorium with Grand Ole Opry, a live radio show broadcast from the Ryman for more than 30 years, starting in 1943,” according to NPR.

After the Opry moved to a new location in 1974, NPR says the Ryman was largely ignored and neglected until Emmylou Harris and the Nash Ramblers recorded At The Ryman Live in 1991. It’s an album I have listened to many, many times. I remember where and when I first heard it — a happy memory from a chapter in life that didn’t end happily ever after.

But that album survives 24 years after it was recorded. To put it in perspective, I’ve been listening to it for almost as long as the Opry graced the Ryman stage. And the span of time since Emmylou recorded this album is greater than are the years in between its recording and the Opry’s leaving the Ryman.

You could just say I’m getting old. Maybe so. But I stepped back in time a few years, thanks to NPR and Live at the Ryman, an album with a little bit of everything. And I listened to all of it again Wednesday for the first time in quite a while. It has aged well.

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MORE SIGNS OF OLD AGE: Author Cheryl Strayed, who wrote Wild and is only two years younger than I am, posted an image on Facebook the other day of a poster she put up in her new office. The poster, produced by these guys, uses the f-word 26 times. I think. I may have missed a couple of ’em.

I’ve never thought of myself as a prude. And I’ve used the f-word many, many times. But if you need to be that profane to make a point, you need to keep trying.

Just for the heck of it, I made a copy of the same poster minus the f-bombs. To me, it doesn’t diminish the message.