RON POPE SET TO MAKE HIS GRAND OLE OPRY DEBUT ON MAY 10

RON POPE SET TO MAKE GRAND OLE OPRY DEBUT ON MAY 10

AMERICAN MAN, AMERICAN MUSIC LP OUT NOW

VIA BROOKLYN BASEMENT RECORDS

STREAM: AMERICAN MAN, AMERICAN MUSIC

Nashville-based platinum recording artist Ron Pope will make his Grand Ole Opry debut on Saturday, May 10th. Of this momentous opportunity, Pope says:

“The most important song from my childhood, the very first song I can distinctly remember hearing was ‘My Special Angel,’  which was a big crossover hit, a Country #1 for Bobby Helms in 1957. It’s my grandparents’ wedding song; it seemed to come on like magic every time we went out to dinner. It was played at every family event, every wedding, and every birthday party. I’ll remember them dancing to that song, Grandma smiling up at The Old Man, long after I’ve forgotten everything else. Great songs like that one have been woven into every part of my life from the very beginning. To my core, I’m a song guy. I’ve cared for my family with songs, bought our home with them, nourished my people with songs. You come to dinner at my house? That chicken was paid for by songs. What does it mean to me that I get to take my very own songs to The Grand Ole Opry? Some of the most compelling tunes in American history have been sung in that circle. There is no place I want to be more than standing on that stage, taking my place in that magical continuum of American songwriting.”

Pope’s latest LP, American Man, American Music, which received accolades from NPR, No Depression, The Tennessean, Holler, The Bluegrass Situation, WMOT, Nashville Lifestyles, The Nashville Scene, Americana Highways, and many more, was released via Brooklyn Basement Records on February 14th. 

For Pope, the road was his ticket to a different life. From the time he was a teenager, the New Jersey-born, Georgia-raised songwriter was on tour, playing some form of rock, country, or soul with his buddies. Pope has been doing that for more than half of his life, visiting every corner of this country (along with many others) in the process. That experience defines how he views the world: the man he’s become, the musical community he’s built, the unforgiving passage of time, and the complicated truths at the heart of American life. 

“I never really felt at home anywhere growing up,” Pope recalls. “For a long time, living on the road felt tailor-made for someone like me. And then I found love, grew up, and developed a sense of home centered around that love. But America is a character in my personal story in a way that it might not be for other people.” It’s a long road to that state of contentment, though. American Man, American Music reaches back to a time of humiliating gigs in Georgia bars and long stretches of making trouble with friends before the complexities of adult life started to kick in. Then Pope falls in love, gets dealt some crushing losses, and begins to take a closer look at the struggles of his community, like swaths of blue-collar areas decimated by opioid addictions. 

Through it all, Pope’s empathy comes through in the album’s open-hearted messages: we all deserve to have a place to call home, we all deserve to have a shot at building a life, and we all have a family, whether blood or chosen. “This is an ode to the life I'm living now,” Pope says, “the journey it took me to get here and all the people I've known and loved along the way.” 

Earlier this year, Pope completed his “Neon and Glass World Tour” - 28 dates spanning the UK, EU, and the US, with Emily Scott Robinson, Zach Berkman, Andrea von Kampen, Thunderstorm Artis, and Denitia opening. Be sure to follow Ron Pope at the links below for all the latest news and updates.

CONNECT WITH RON POPE:

WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE | X | BANDCAMP | TIKTOK | SPOTIFY

Photo credit: Blair Clark