Rhonda Vincent and Scotty McCreery on the Opry Carnegie Hall show – photo by Fadi Khelr
After more than 50 years as a bluegrass performer, Rhonda Vincent finally go her chance to play Carnegie Hall last month as part of a special Grand Ole Opry package show. The concert featured a number of Opry members celebrating its 100th birthday and the America 250 year anniversary.
She said that it all she had hoped it would be, appearing at the iconic concert hall in midtown Manhattan where so many storied artists have strode the stage.
“It’s a dream come true to perform at Carnegie Hall. I’ve been asked all my life, ‘How do you get to Carnegie Hall?’ – to always hear, ‘Practice, practice, practice!'”
And she had the high honor on a show with top acts like Kelsea Ballerini, Henry Cho, and Wyatt Flores & The War and Treaty, to be asked to be the first to walk out, to open the show with her touring band, The Rage, and sing a Bill Monroe classic.
“To walk onto the Carnegie Hall stage, all alone, with just me and my mandolin was an incredibly surreal experience. As I stood in the spotlight, I could feel the essence of Bill Monroe, as if he was filling me with assurance, in knowing that he had stood in that very same place, playing his Loar mandolin, and singing the words he had written about a Blue Moon of Kentucky.
Special thanks to the Grand Ole Opry for this amazing opportunity!”
On the Broadway World site, reviewer Nathan Johnson described the March 20 show thusly, in a piece titled Country Music Never Sounded Better Than GRAND OLE OPRY at Carnegie Hall:
“I came for Rhonda Vincent—and she alone would have been worth the night.
Four years ago, I knew next to nothing about bluegrass. Then my parents dragged me to the Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival. Within an hour, I was hooked. And when Rhonda Vincent took the stage, it was over—I was converted. That voice and her perfectly chosen and arranged songs made me fall in love with a genre I never thought I’d care about.
When those iconic Carnegie Hall doors opened and she appeared in a dazzling green gown, it felt like royalty had arrived.
She opened with Blue Moon of Kentucky, beginning with an intoxicating, slowed-down intro before launching into a full bluegrass romp. It was classic—but unmistakably hers. She is effortless perfection. A voice that can build your heart as quickly as it can break it.”
A glowing review for your Carnegie Hall debut! She is the Queen, after all.
Many congratulations to Rhonda and The Rage.
