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Reflections From the Circle
RFD-TV viewers are about to get a lot closer to some of their favorite country music artists. Reflections From The Circle, premiering on the network November of 2011, is set to feature fan favorites including Trace Adkins, Dierks Bentley, Charlie Daniels, Vince Gill, and Josh Turner reflecting on their personal lives and careers with award-winning radio and TV personality Eddie Stubbs. Each artist will share a conversation from country music’s home, the stage of the Grand Ole Opry. Guests and host will both be very much at home on their interview set, a famed circle of wood on the Grand Ole Opry stage. The six-foot circle of oak was moved from the Ryman Auditorium to center stage of the Grand Ole Opry House when the Opry took up residence in its new home in 1974. Consequently, virtually everyone who has crossed the Opry stage over the past 70 years has stood on those iconic boards which Brad Paisley has suggested still contain the dust from Hank Williams boots. “That circle means the world to all of us who love country music,” Paisley said. The circle also holds personal significance on innumerable levels for all the artists who’ll reflect with Stubbs on their lives in and out of the public spotlight there this fall. Josh Turner was officially welcomed to the Opry family there by Vince Gill, who says he’ll always remember singing his career-making “When I Call Your Name” while the King of Country Music, Roy Acuff , looked on just a foot away. In addition to career highlights on the Opry stage, Adkins took time out from his Opry debut to propose marriage and years later announced from the circle that he and his wife were expecting a baby. Bentley celebrated his official Opry induction inside the circle with his beloved dog Jake. Daniels invited one of his favorite acts, Montgomery Gentry, to join the Opry family while they stood on the circle of wood, then returned with the duo to sing “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” on the night the Opry House re-opened following last year’s Nashville flood. The interview show promises to be a combination of compelling guests and the most informed of hosts. When country icon Little Jimmy Dickens, who has been in the music business more than 70 years, calls Stubbs “a walking encyclopedia of country music,” you know Stubbs’ credentials as an interviewer are rock solid. But Stubbs says artists on Reflections From The Circle will spend time sharing stories that wouldn’t necessarily appear in an encyclopedia and might be quite unexpected for viewers. “It’s always good to have a game plan for where you want the show to go and what ground you’d like to cover with an artist,” Stubbs begins, “but oft en we find ourselves going down a road we might not have expected to travel with the artist telling a story they haven’t shared before. We’re blessed to have the trust of the people we interview, and sometimes to be quite honest, we’re just flying by the seat of our britches out there!” Stubbs is already familiar to many RFD-TV viewers, appearing as the on-camera announcer for “The Marty Stuart Show” the past three years. Stuart is just one of the dozens of country personalities Stubbs has been pleased to meet over the years. Reaching back in his signature style to quote names and dates with ease, Stubbs recalls that he and Stuart met at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. when he was 15 years old and Stuart was 18. Stubbs was there to watch one of his musical heroes, Lester Flatt , perform, and he chatted with Stuart, at that time a member of Flatt ’s band. “It was February 27, 1977,” Stubbs recalls, sharing what Stuart had to say to Flatt about the young fan: “I like this guy. And you need to get to know him, too.” Having worked the past 16 years as an announcer at the Opry, Stubbs says he’s a lucky man to have witnessed incredible musical moments from his Reflections From The Circle guests and to now be able to reflect on those moments with his artist friends and RFD-TV viewers. Some might say he’s come full circle.
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