Tootsie's Orchid Lounge 5oth Anniversary Celebration

Overall, a lot of good performances, a few great and a few unbearable. They should have ended the show with Kris Kristopherson, not with current local acts. The final song was a cover of a Kid Rock song and it felt more rock-n-roll than country or bluegrass or even honky-tonk. When the show ended it just ended with a dud - there was no final "Goodbye and Thank you for 50 years" - there was no final jam with all the evening's performers. It all felt really rushed and awkward. I stayed until the bitter end, but a good portion of the audience left early - I felt embarrassed for the people still having to come on to perform with a quickly shrinking audience.

Amazing performances by all the greats! Finale to the show was more disappointing - while those modern day country rockers did possess great talent and great voices and great pep, their spots in the lineup were misplaced. Didn't quite fit in with the legends. The rest of it was great, though. The backup singers and musicians were fantastic and I loved that they were all folks that play at Tootsie's now. Added so much more character to the whole show.

Tootsie s 50th Anniversary Concert November 7, 2010 at The Ryman Auditorium featured several legendary artists but few legendary moments. The three-plus hour show would have been much better had it been trimmed down to about ninety minutes. The great performances by Kris Kristofferson, Terri Clark and Jamey Johnson were spaced between some marginal and mediocre acts such as Scott Collier and Colt Ford that seemed like they were included because organizers didn t want to leave anyone out. Same with the MC s who wasted valuable stage time saying nothing. They should have tapped WSM s Eddie Stubbs to MC this historic milestone. The house band which featured four fiddlers and four backup singers was excellent as was Tootsie s alum Joanna Smith who sang her new single "Getting Married" and "Stand by Your Man." Mel Tillis sounded excellent on Love Revival, but did more joking than singing. His protégé Kenyon Lockry was my great discovery of the night. Lorrie Morgan was elegant; Mark Chesnutt great as always and Little Jimmie Dickens did the same five jokes that get me every time I hear them. The best performance of the night was Terri Clark who really tapped the spirit of the event with her Tootsie s story, a great sense of humor and several classic country covers which she did Tootsie s style with just her and a guitar. The show ended (for me) with an unannounced performance by Jamey Johnson, who did a duet with Randy Houser on Hank Jr s Dinosaur and his signature song In Color. Jamey s surprise appearance is the kind you hope for when you see this kind of show at the Ryman. Happy anniversary Tootsie s, but my favorite place in Nashville is two doors down at Roberts Western World.

I think everyone in the audience just about was there to see Kris Kristofferson and there was a lot of acts that we could have done with out but it was still a great show.

The Tootsies's Celebration was fatastic. A wide variey of great talent!

Would have been OK if it were 5 bucks or even better....FREE! Not worth ANY of the hype! Little Jimmy was funny as heck. The Grand Finale was down right lousy. If you don't believe me it was taped. You'll see. Glad I didn't buy my wife a shirt. Lorrie Morgan great as usual. Mandy Barnett great rendition of "Crazy". Joanna Smith was the new commer surprise of the evening. She will go somewhere quick! Kris, well, he never could sing. Jamey Johnson, nice song, thinks he's better than he really is. Oh yeah, Randy Houser sounded good. Still it wasn't worth the $$$$$

The celebration was great. Lots of country stars. Our seats were far to the side and could only see about half of the band.

To celebrate this awesome event with fans from all over was unbelieveable!!!! Country fans thank Tootsie for all she did for country music!!!!

I love the fact that Nashville is embracing its own music history, and staying wide open to the future at the same time. The Tootsie's show bowed gracefully to Patsy Cline, Roger Miller, Hank Sr., Tammy Wynette. It celebrated the members of the music scene who are the links between then and now (Jimmy Dickens, Mel Tillis, and unforgettably Kris Kristopherson)... but the show also included Colt Ford (country hip hop!?!?!?), Randy Houser, and again, unforgettably, Jamey Johnson!!! The fellow next to me up in the balcony, a gentleman maybe in his late seventies, had to ask me "Who is that guy?" when Randy came up and then again when Jamey joined him....but I guarantee you, he will know their names next time they play!!! Thanks for a great show.

Classic Nashville music experience. Enjoyed evolution of music from Jimmy Rogers to Jamie Johnson.

I felt there was too much time spent promoting "Tootsie's' new locations. The MC's talked too much - but the talking filled in for lack of preformance. Disappointed that there were no suprise entertainers. There are more suprises at the Opry than there were at this event. Really suprised that the event being the week of the CMA's didn't have more stars there. No one cared about seeing the house band from Tootsie's we can go see them for free!!

The event started out great, with Little Jimmie Dickens cracking up the crowd and an amazing performance by Kris Kristofferson and Teri Clark. It started down hill after that when Mel Tillis decided to be the comedian instead of singer and by the end of the night it was pretty brutal to watch. I think they really misjudged the crowd when they started playing the watered down rock called new country. Cole Ford, an obese country rapper, was comically bad. Randy Houser decided to try out his new material, which would be fine if this was his concert, but it came off as a sad self promotion and the songs were predictable Nashville pop. The appearance of Jamie Johnson was a surprise but he seemed angry about something and pulled his plug and walked off before the band even finished his song. Usually you put the light weight acts up front and the big stuff at the end, but they reversed this and by the end of the night the Ryman was 60% empty. You don't go to the Ryman to see overweight white rappers and long speeches by the mayor, you go for true country music. Thank god Kristofferson was there or this would have been a total waste of time.

My husband and I wanted to do something special to celebrate our 32nd wedding anniversary so we decided about 2 mths ago to get tickets to the Tootie's celebration. I cannot tell you how much we enjoyed the show. It was fantastic from start to finish! To see Kris Kristofferson was something we both had wanted to do form many years, what a thrill!! I also loved Mel Tillis, Dean Miller, Jamie Johnson, Mark Chestnut, Lori Morgan and especially Little Jimmy Dickens. Everyone was great!! If this comes out for sale on video, I would love to buy it for my Dad.