Dierks Bentley photo courtesy of artist.

It rained. And rained. And rained some more.

Nashville took in over 13 inches of water in a 48-hour period in May, and some areas of the region were swamped with as much as 20 inches. It was more than the rivers and streams could handle, and by May 3, the drainage system was overflowing. The stage and much of the floor seating at the Grand Ole Opry House was covered, water seeped into one room at the Country Music Hall of Fame, LP Field — the site of the CMA Music Festival — became a swamp, and an instrument storage unit was drowned, destroying guitars and equipment owned by Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, Toby Keith and Vince Gill, among others.

It took a while for people to notice outside of Middle Tennessee. The focus of the major news organizations at the time was on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. So Music City rolled up its sleeves and started digging out on its own.

The Nashville flood is No. 1 on the list as GAC concludes its countdown of the top country news stories of 2010.

The flood really was a whopper. The first floor of Kenny Chesney’s home was completely submerged, and water got into parts of the second floor as well. Opry member Jeannie Seely was forced out of her home when the Cumberland River overflowed. Julie Roberts was rescued from her house via boat. And Dierks Bentley Tweeted a now-familiar photo in which he battled water in his basement.

Even before the week was out, Nashville was holding hands as it started the rebuilding process. The Grand Ole Opry never missed a beat, hopping from venue to venue to venue while crews began airing out the show’s home venue and renovating the building. Strangers literally visited flooded neighborhoods with food plates or helping hands. And country’s stars stepped up in a big way.

Among the contributions of time and money:

• A WSMV telethon, “Working 4 You: Flood Relief With Vince Gill & Friends,” pulled in $1.7 million. Vince and Amy Grant kicked off the evening with a $100,000 donation, and Taylor Swift called in with a $500,000 pledge. Keith Urban, Buddy Jewell, Darius Rucker and Alison Krauss were just some of the acts who came forward on short notice to help the cause.

• Reba McEntire donated $100,000 to the American Red Cross.

• Lady Antebellum, Brad Paisley, Keith Urban and Dierks Bentley led the charge in a GAC special, Music City Keep On Playin’ — A Benefit For Flood Relief, which raised at least $1.8 million. Brad and his wife, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, started the night off with a $100,000 donation as the event brought in acts from Nashville’s multitude of styles — contemporary Christian, Americana, blues, gospel, pop and country.

• Dolly Parton donated $250,000, collected through Dollywood and her Dixie Stampede.

• Kix Brooks, Luke Bryan and Little Big Town took part as the Country Music Association delivered half of its CMA Music Festival proceeds — $1.46 million — to flood relief.

• Tim McGraw and Faith Hill organized Nashville Rising, a concert that contributed more than $2 million to rebuilding efforts. They were joined in the event by about 20 acts, including Miranda Lambert, Jason Aldean, Carrie Underwood, LeAnn Rimes, Martina McBride, Blake Shelton, Trace Adkins, Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus.

• Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood presented nine concerts in six days during December, raising more than $3.5 million. Steve Wariner guested, and the event helped demonstrate that Nashville as a whole is back on its feet, even though some of its citizens are still struggling to recover from life-changing setbacks.

Jeannie Seely eventually moved back into her house. And the Grand Ole Opry House reopened in a spectacular manner, with Brad Paisley and Little Jimmy Dickens leading a slew of members in “Will The Circle Be Unbroken.” Many features of the building were upgraded, from the dressing rooms to the facility’s technology. The flood was devastating for many, but not debilitating for most.

“There’s a lot of people still hurting,” Brad said at the reopening. “It’ll take ‘em a long time. But I think this place did not feel sorry for itself — the city, I mean. It did not for a second sit around and boo hoo. It was ready to go to work. The artists did, the media did, the Opry did, and the city has as well.”

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(l-r) Keith Urban, Brad Paisley & Steve Wariner jam during the Opry's return to the Grand Ole Opry House on Tuesday, September 28, 2010. © 2010 Grand Ole Opry® Hollo Photographics

The Grand Ole Opry House reopened Tuesday in a GAC special hosted by Nan Kelley, and many of the acts who took part — including Keith Urban, Brad Paisley and Martina McBride — will join Nan on this weekend’s edition of GAC’s Top 20 Country Countdown.

The Opry House was deluged with water when the Cumberland River overflowed its banks in May. The flood poured some 46 inches over the top of the Opry House stage, and the 85-year-old radio show was forced to hop scotch from venue to venue in Nashville while its regular home underwent a renovation. Five months later, Country Comes Home: An Opry Live Celebration delivered an all-star homecoming edition of the Opry with Jason Aldean, Josh Turner, Trace Adkins and Blake Shelton, who was invited to become the newest member of the cast.

The Opry House wasn’t the only place that was damaged by the flood. Thousands of homes were hit — including houses owned by Jeannie Seely, Dierks Bentley and Kenny Chesney. The Bridgestone Arena, LP Field and the Country Music Hall of Fame all took in water downtown. And the Schermerhorn Symphony Center is still shut down while the venue recuperates. Still, it was the Opry House that brought the story to the rest of the nation.

“I think that the flood goes completely unnoticed if this building’s not underwater,” Brad said. “I think the whole country would’ve said, basically, ‘Yeah, there’s another city with a flood.’ [The Opry House] being flooded — this is the most famous export from this city. This is what you think of — there’s a reason it’s on ‘Welcome to Nashville’ road signs. And so it’s, like it or not, completely metaphorical [for Nashville’s] destruction as well as its recovery.”

The Opry House’s recovery includes the renovation of the backstage area from a rather sterile atmosphere to one that’s more functional and very reverent toward the Opry’s history. The auditorium itself now has new video screens, new seats and a mostly new stage floor. The legendary “circle” — a six-foot block of oak that was transferred from the Opry’s prior home at the Ryman Auditorium when the Opry House was built — has been preserved, allowing the building to move into the future while holding onto its legacy.

“I think it was 10 years ago I first came and played on the Opry,” Keith said that night, “and that feeling of standing on that circle is as profound this afternoon in soundcheck and rehearsal as it was the first time. I’m just grateful to be a part of it tonight and wanna give my thanks to the people that did an amazing job building this back up again. It’s extraordinary. I had a look backstage and it’s magnificient. It’s absolutely amazing what they’ve been able to do.”

Top 20 Country Countdown counts down the week’s top country videos from No. 20 to No. 1 as voted by viewers on each week on GACTV.com. A new countdown premieres every Friday at 8 p.m. ET on GAC and airs again Saturdays at 10 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. ET; Sundays at 1 p.m. ET; and Mondays at 10 a.m. ET. Viewers can vote for their favorite videos, as well as purchase Top 20 artists’ albums and ringtones at GACTV.com.

THIS WEEK’S CHART:

1. Carrie Underwood “Undo It”
2. Chuck Wicks “Hold That Thought”
3. Zac Brown Band “As She’s Walking Away”
4. Taylor Swift “Mine”
5. Miranda Lambert “Only Prettier”
6. Sugarland “Stuck Like Glue”
7. Reba McEntire “Turn On The Radio”
8. Steve Azar “Sunshine (Everyone Needs A Little)”
9. Blake Shelton “All About Tonight”
10. Toby Keith “Trailerhood”
11. Chris Young “Voices”
12. Danny Gokey “I Will Not Say Goodbye”
13. Kenny Chesney “The Boys Of Fall”
14. Trace Adkins “This Ain’t No Love Song”
15. Little Big Town “Little White Church”
16. The Band Perry “If I Die Young”
17. Billy Currington “Pretty Good At Drinkin’ Beer”
18. Katie Armiger “Leaving Home”
19. Rodney Atkins “Farmer’s Daughter”
20. Rascal Flatts “Why Wait”

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(l-r) Keith Urban, Brad Paisley & Steve Wariner jam during the Opry's return to the Grand Ole Opry House on Tuesday, September 28, 2010. © 2010 Grand Ole Opry® Hollo Photographics

When the Grand Ole Opry House re-opened Tuesday night after Nashville’s historic May flood, the evening ended on a dazzling note with five guitar wizards — Keith Urban, Brad Paisley, Steve Wariner, Marty Stuart and Ricky Skaggs — tearing it up on a six-minute version of Merle Haggard’s “Workin’ Man Blues.”

Keith and Brad went off to the races in a flurry of chicken-pickin’ notes, Steve turned in some impressive vocal scatting over his solos, Ricky punctuated his final spotlight moment with jagged staccato rhythms, and Marty best replicated the jangly sound of Merle’s late-‘60s efforts.

The restoration of the Opry House was captured in a two-hour GAC special, Country Comes Home: An Opry Live Celebration, that saw many of the Opry members reminiscing about the ways in which the floods affected them.

Keith and Brad, of course, lost huge stashes of guitars that were kept at a storage facility near the Cumberland River. Those collections have — like the Opry House — been mostly restored, so you might think the instruments they used during the guitar jam had a symbolic water connection.

“Mine doesn’t,” Keith said.

“Mine,” Brad quipped, “was bought with insurance money!”

Sure, he can laugh now, but when the floods hit, the loss of equipment was devastating. Musicians bond with their guitars, many players even name them. Seeing a fleet of them wiped out created a reaction that was very much like the end of a relationship.

“We both experienced the same thing,” Keith said. “We pretty much lost everything. And the instincts were, everyone said ‘You must be on a buying frenzy.’”

Replacing the lost models wasn’t that easy.

“It’s a little like I couldn’t start dating straight away,” Keith insisted. “It’d be a bit disrespectful to my guitars.”

Brad is over his mourning period.

“Now,” he laughed, “I’m like the loosest girl in the high school!”

“It was devastating,” he added. “This is the thing: [there’s a] silver lining. The bad thing is there were a lot of guitars lost. But there were also a lot of banjos lost! There’s always a silver lining!”

He was, of course, joking. The fact is Brad’s been able to move forward — and to laugh at a not-so-distant tragedy — in the same way the Grand Ole Opry House has been rebuilt and even modernized.

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Jason Aldean photo courtesy of Broken Bow Records.

The stage of the Grand Ole Opry House was buried under 46 inches of water when muddy waters overflowed the Cumberland River in Nashville in May during a horrendous flood.

The Opry House was immediately closed for reconstruction while the Grand Ole Opry radio show wandered from venue to venue in Music City — temporarily homeless but doggedly determined.

The Opry returns to the Opry House on Tuesday with an all-star lineup, including Trace Adkins, Brad Paisley, Martina McBride, Josh Turner and Montgomery Gentry, and you can catch the historic evening during a two-hour GAC special, Country Comes Home: An Opry Live Celebration.

The floods were cruel to some people, kind to others. Dierks Bentley had water in his basement, Kenny Chesney’s home took water into the second floor, and a bevy of artists — including Vince Gill, Toby Keith and Keith Urban — lost instruments in the water. Then there were the folks like Jason Aldean, who didn’t sustain any damage whatsoever.

“I was actually out of town when the flood hit here and had no idea what all had gone on — I was actually in Canada,” Jason says. “My house sits up on the hill, so we didn’t know what all the fuss was about.”

He might not have lost any possessions, but Jason was still more than happy to take part in the Opry House re-opening concert.

“For a country artist, that’s one of the coolest opportunities you can have is to be on that stage,” he notes. “The fact that it got hit as hard as it did, that’s unfortunate. But they worked hard to get it back up, and there’s a lot of us goin’ over there to help us relaunch it. It’s gonna be a big night. I think it’s gonna be cool for us gettin’ to see all the other acts that are gonna be on it and at the same time kind of bein’ a part of history a little bit in the reopening of it. It’s gonna be a really cool night and somethin’ that will probably be talked about for a long time, you know — ‘remember when the flood wiped out the Opry and these guys came back and helped us re-open it.’ It’s gonna be a pretty special night.”

Others scheduled to appear include Little Jimmy Dickens, the Charlie Daniels Band, Dierks, Del McCoury, Keith, Steve Wariner, Lorrie Morgan, Blake Shelton, Ricky Skaggs, Marty Stuart and Connie Smith.

Country Comes Home starts Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET on GAC. You can also watch it live online, HERE!

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Grand Ole Opry members Brad Paisley (l) and Little Jimmy Dickens (r) unveil the refurbished 6-foot circle of wood (taken from the historic Ryman Auditorium when the show moved to the Grand Ole Opry House in 1974) that was damaged in the May 2010 Nashville flood. Photo courtesy of the Grand Ole Opry.

When Nashville was flooded in May, the tragedy was best symbolized for the world by the Grand Ole Opry House. Muddy water from the Cumberland River stood nearly four feet over the Opry stage, and the manager of the Opry literally surveyed the damage by kayaking through the venue.

The Opry House reopens Tuesday, September 28 with an all-star Opry edition that airs on GAC at 9/8c as Country Comes Home: An Opry Live Celebration. The lineup features a ton of artists, including Trace Adkins, Keith Urban, Josh Turner and the two men who helped put a famous wooden circle back in the restored Opry stage: Brad Paisley and Little Jimmy Dickens.

The wood is a six-foot section of oak taken from the stage of the Ryman Auditorium, the previous home of the Opry, when the Opry House originally opened in 1974. At the Ryman, that wood supported the likes of Patsy Cline, Hank Williams and Johnny Cash. But the Opry has now been at the Opry House for 36 years — longer than any home it’s previously occupied.

The Opry House is certainly the place Brad associates with the radio show, which celebrates 85 years on WSM Radio this fall. And the reopening has a lot of sentimental meaning for him.

“I was born in the ‘70s,” Brad says, “and I don’t remember the Opry at the Ryman, other than I’ve seen it obviously when I played it when we go back there. I didn’t get to be a part of the generations that Jimmy has, so [I grew] up watchin’ Bill Anderson host the ‘Opry Backstage’ or Porter Wagoner and seein’ a guy like Jimmy Dickens bring on the show when it was on The Nashville Network back then. And it’s always been the [The Opry House].”

Brad watched the Opry on television with his grandfather, and of course, the stage was the site for numerous TV specials over the years, including the Country Music Association awards. Reba McEntire, Randy Travis, Vince Gill, Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson all had big nights on that stage, so the Opry House helped form Brad’s understanding of country.

“So much has happened in this building,” Brad says. “My moments and my milestones happened here. And so when [the Opry House] was destroyed, of all places for me, that was the most heartbreaking thing about the flood. No personal loss of property to me came anywhere near.”

Expect a lot of smiles — and maybe a few tears — when the Opry House reopens next week. Among Brad’s fellow performers that night will be Martina McBride, Dierks Bentley, the Charlie Daniels Band, Blake Shelton, Del McCoury, Lorrie Morgan, Marty Stuart, Connie Smith, Steve Wariner, Ricky Skaggs and Montgomery Gentry.

Country Comes Home: An Opry Live Celebration will debut Tuesday, September 28 on GAC at 9/8c.  Click here to watch a sneak peek »

Watch it exclusively on GAC!

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Grand Ole Opry members Brad Paisley (l) and Little Jimmy Dickens (r) unveil the refurbished 6-foot circle of wood (taken from the historic Ryman Auditorium when the show moved to the Grand Ole Opry House in 1974) that was damaged in the May 2010 Nashville flood. Photo courtesy of the Grand Ole Opry.

It’s a six-foot piece of circular wood, scuffed and nicked and grooved, but it’s a monumental symbol. Brad Paisley and Little Jimmy Dickens joined four construction workers Wednesday in installing a major piece of oak into the center of the stage at the Grand Ole Opry House.

The moment was captured by a herd of reporters and photographers as Nashville continues its recovery from a devastating flood in early May. At that time, water from the Cumberland River swamped the historic venue, piling 46 inches of liquid on top of the stage. The waters were so significant that mud was hurled onto the ceiling and Opry VP and general manager Pete Fisher literally floated a kayak through the house.

Dirt and construction dust still litter the grounds around the Opry House, but the placement of the circle back onto the stage was a hardy symbol for the restoration of the Opry and its history. The circle was cut from the floor of the Ryman Auditorium and installed at the Opry House when it opened in 1974, providing a physical link between current generations of Opry members and some of the late performers who stood behind the mic stand on that same wood — people like Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Roy Acuff and Marty Robbins. It was damaged during May’s floods, but not so much that it couldn’t be repaired. Its resilience embodies as well as ever the durability of the Opry and its legend.

“It’s one thing to play at the Grand Ole Opry, which is the birthplace of my form of music and country music in general,” Brad said. “It’s another thing to have a home for it. I don’t think any other form of music necessarily has this — this place where the past and the future sort of collide. It would be enough to stand in the presence of people like Jimmy out on this stage, but there’s something about having a physical piece of the old place, of the floor that Hank Williams stood on, of the people over the years from Loretta Lynn to Ernest Tubb to you name it who have performed on this stage. I think keeping physically and metaphysically this bond of the past is something that separates the Opry from almost all other musical institutions.”

The Opry House has been closed since the flood, though the radio show has continued to air from a variety of Nashville locations, including the Ryman Auditorium, David Lipscomb University, War Memorial Auditorium and even Two Rivers Baptist Church. When the Opry returns to the Opry House Sept. 28, GAC will capture the event live. And it’s already set to be a star-studded night with Brad and Little Jimmy, plus Trace Adkins, Diamond Rio, Jason Aldean, Josh Turner, the Charlie Daniels Band, Dierks Bentley, Blake Shelton, Mel Tillis, Montgomery Gentry and the Del McCoury Band.

In October, the Opry will celebrate its 85th birthday with a series of events, including an open house for the city of Nashville and appearances by a still-evolving cast of performers, including The Band Perry, Kevin Costner, comedian Mike Snider and the Judds.

Brad Paisley and Little Jimmy Dickens perform on the newly-refurbished circle of wood at the Grand Ole Opry on August 25, 2010. Photo courtesy of the Grand Ole Opry.

The installation of the circle brings it all a little bit closer, and the moment was an emotional one for both Brad and Little Jimmy, who made his first Opry appearance on that same piece of wood when it was in the floor at the Ryman. The two sang a highly appropriate verse and chorus of the Carter Family classic “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” to start the music in the Opry House anew.

“This place is always in my dreams,” Little Jimmy noted. “I walk the floor at home and my wife says, ‘What are you doin’?’ I said, ‘I’m waitin’ for Friday, so I can go to the Opry House.’”

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Lady Antebellum on stage at the Ryman Auditorium during the Music City Keep On Playin' benefit concert. Photo credit: Photo by Ed Rode/edrode.biz.

The stars came out in a big way, as did a number of companies and the American people when GAC presented Music City Keep On Playin’ — A Benefit For Flood Relief.

Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum and Dierks Bentley were among the artists who delivered nearly 20 songs during Sunday’s three-hour live special from Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. The event raised more than $1.7 million as of midnight CT and counting.

Music City Keep On Playin’ was the first national fundraiser organized to aid victims of a devastating flood that engulfed much of Nashville two weeks ago. In a scant 48 hours, the city took in over 13 inches of rain, more than the Middle Tennessee ground could absorb. The Cumberland River swelled over its banks, damaging some of the city’s landmarks, including the Grand Ole Opry House, LP Field, Bridgestone Arena and the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Rushing tides carried cars along dangerous streams, one portable school building was washed down the interstate, and more than 1,000 water rescues were performed. Many residents, including Opry member Jeannie Seely, lost their homes. A few lost their lives. But the city came together, with many of its citizens visiting other neighborhoods to help complete strangers sort through what was left of their belongings.

It was “so beautiful to see how the city has just rallied together,” Lady A’s Hillary Scott said from the Ryman stage. “I know we will get back to the city that we once were. I know we will.”

Brad and his wife, Kimberly Williams-Paisley — who co-hosted the special with “Desperate Housewives” actor and Nashville resident James Denton — kicked the night off with a $100,000 donation. Brad likewise chipped in a trio of songs — “Welcome To The Future,” “American Saturday Night” and a cover of Roger Miller’s “River In The Rain” — over the course of the evening, which also saw appearances by country stars Martina McBride, Kellie Pickler, Rodney Atkins and Randy Montana.

The show also folded in performances from artists that exemplified some of Music City’s stylistic range: pop singer Sheryl Crow, big-voiced gospel singer CeCe Winans, contemporary Christian artist Jaci Velasquez, Americana act Will Hoge and acoustic-blues performer Keb’ Mo’, one of Nashville’s newest residents.

Many of the songs took on new meaning during the evening. The opening line of Lady A’s “Need You Now,” with its reference to “picture-perfect memories scattered all around the floor,” easily reminded the listener of the many residents who lost all their family photos — every record of their personal history. Martina McBride’s “Anyway” — with its recognition that “one storm could come and blow it all away” — was inordinately apropos.

When they weren’t on stage, many of the stars took donations at the phone bank, where they were joined by the likes of Lorrie Morgan, Nicole Kidman, Billy Dean, Joey+Rory, Lee Roy Parnell, Dailey & Vincent, Julie Roberts, Marty Raybon, Whitney Duncan, Holly Williams, Bomshel, Katie Armiger, Nashville Mayor Karl Dean and countless others.

The Ryman proved a symbolic home for the special. When the Grand Ole Opry House took in more than four feet of water, the stage was destroyed. But one part of the venue — a circle of wood that was transported from the Ryman when the Opry House was built in the early 1970s — survived the deluge and, once dried out, will return to its spot on a refurbished Opry House stage. The circle carries a huge amount of history. On that little piece of turf, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline made historic appearances in its original Ryman location. At the Opry House, it’s provided footing for such Opry stars as Carrie Underwood, Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson.

With the Opry House under renovation, the radio show itself is rotating through other interim venues, including War Memorial Auditorium, Two Rivers Baptist Church and the Ryman.

“The Opry didn’t miss a beat,” GAC host Nan Kelley observed, “but we have so much more to go.”

Music City Keep On Playin’ — A Benefit For Flood Relief is still taking donations online at www.gactv.com/help or you can text GAC to 501501 on your mobile phone to donate $10.

If you missed the concert, look for it On Demand through your cable or satellite service through Saturday 5/22 (where available, check your  listings).

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The Grand Ole Opry House stage, photographed on May 11, 2010. 2010 Copyright Grand Ole Opry. Photo by Chris Hollo.

If you’ve been wondering how cleanup and restoration is going at the Grand Ole Opry, here’s the latest update from the Opry folks:

The Grand Ole Opry Entertainment Complex, flooded early last week in the worst Middle Tennessee floods in more than 100 years, has since been the site of an around-the clock remediation process aimed at ensuring the well-being of Opry archives and collections affected by the flooding. “The Opry is the heart of country music,” said Grand Ole Opry President Steve Buchanan, “so it is not at all surprising that since the flood, people from around the world have been interested in the safety of some of our most treasured items. Next to the safety of our staff, nothing has been more important to us in our work over the last ten days than taking care of these treasures.”

Minnie Pearl's shoes, photographed on May 12, 2010. 2010 Copyright Grand Ole Opry. Photo by Chris Hollo.

Several seminal items from the Opry’s collection were untouched by the flood, as they were moved to safety in the hours before the complex began to take on water Sun., May 2. Among those items are a copy of the Nashville Banner announcing WSM radio’s first broadcast day, the steamboat whistle Opry founder George D. Hay for years blew to signal the beginning of Opry shows, the fiddle Opry patriarch Roy Acuff played during his first Opry performance, and a pair of shoes Minnie Pearl, the Queen of Country Comedy, wore during more than 50 years of performances.

The Grand Ole Opry House’s signature element, a six-foot circle of oak wood taken from the Ryman Auditorium when the show moved to the Grand Ole Opry House in 1974, is also safe. Though it and the rest of the stage were covered by 46 inches of water, the circle appeared to be in “remarkably good condition” according to Buchanan when it was removed from the Opry House to be refurbished and returned to center stage when the facility reopens later this year.

All artifacts that were in the path of flood waters have been painstakingly removed from the complex and placed in environments conducive to their safety. “As the caretakers of these items, we understand how valuable they are to our music, our country, and our culture,” Buchanan said. “We are working with the very best professionals possible to ensure items are preserved. This will not be a short process, but rather one requiring much patience and meticulousness.”

The Chicago Conservation Center has collected numerous other artifacts from the complex to care for in Chicago before returning to Opry caretakers. The Center has cared for fine art from some of the country’s most prestigious museums, galleries, corporate and private collections and is the largest facility of its kind in the nation.

The Opry’s vast video archives have been entrusted to New Jersey company SPECSBROS., LLC. The video collection is thus in the hands of a firm that has worked to preserve hundreds of thousands of hours of video archives, including tapes that endured New Orleans, LA flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina.

Belfor (Fort Worth, TX) has been enlisted to work with the Opry’s extensive decades-rich photo archives.

Nashville-based George Gruhn and Joe Glaser will lead a team of luthiers from across the country to work to restore string instruments affected by the flood, including a number from Acuff’s personal collection.

Nearly all of the Opry’s audio archives were safe above the flood water line inside the Grand Ole Opry House, though some audio items housed in the 650 WSM offices will receive professional attention.  

In addition to countless Opry archive and collection items on complex, a number of personal items including instruments and clothing belonging to Opry members and staff were also affected by the flood. Many of those items will require restoration, while others have been cataloged and prepped for immediate return to their owners.

Amid caring for all of the items affected by the flood, the Opry staff has also worked to preserve a new artifact created by the rising waters. An Opry House stage door more than halfway submerged in water became an indelible image of last week’s flooding as a photo of it appeared online and in newspapers around the world. Earlier this week, the door was removed from the Opry House and treated such that its water mark will be preserved. “The stage door will no doubt become a historic symbol representing this extraordinary event,” Buchanan said.

Meanwhile, the Opry show, itself, hasn’t missed a beat, having played on Tues., May 4 at one of its former homes, Nashville’s War Memorial Auditorium. Following three shows at the historic Ryman Auditorium, the show will play three shows beginning tonight at Nashville’s Two Rivers Baptist Church before returning to the Ryman for another run. “As Marty Stuart said the first night we were temporarily displaced from the Opry House,” Buchanan recalled, ‘our family, our songs, and our spirit live on.’”

Among those coming soon to the Opry stage include Grammy-winners Vince Gill, Lady Antebellum, Brad Paisley, Ricky Skaggs, and Steve Wariner.  Continuous updates on venues for Opry performances until the show returns to the Opry House can be found on opry.com as well as via Opry Facebook and Twitter updates. Opry performances are held every weekend of the year and on Tuesdays through Dec. 14. The Grand Ole Opry® is presented by Humana®.

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The front of the Grand Ole Opry House is under several feet of water as a result of the flooding Cumberland River caused by storms in Nashville, TN on May 1-2, 2010.

The first national telethon and concert event to raise money to aid victims of last weekend’s flooding disaster in middle Tennessee has been announced by Great American Country Television, the Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau and Gaylord Entertainment.  Music City Keep on Playin’ – A Benefit for Flood Relief will air commercial-free on GAC, Sunday, May 16, 8– 10 p.m. Eastern. 

Brad Paisley, Lady Antebellum, Dierks Bentley, Rodney Atkins and additional artists will perform live at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium while celebrities will host and join other volunteers to man phone banks to collect call-in donations.  The special will re-air at 10 p.m., 12 a.m. and 2 a.m. and phone lines will remain open for donations.  All money raised will go to those in need in Middle Tennessee. Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee will be the organization processing and distributing donations.

“Nashville has endured historic flooding, but we are resilient, recovery efforts have already begun and I am confident we will come out of this stronger than ever,” said Nashville Mayor Karl Dean. “Music is the heart and soul of this city and as such it will play a critical role in its recovery. This collaborative effort is just one example.”

The flood damage in Nashville and 5 surrounding counties is expected to exceed $1 billion and six middle Tennessee counties have been declared Federal disaster areas.  Icons of the country music landscape in Nashville, including the Grand Ole Opry House incurred serious flood damage while many musicians, including Paisley, suffered major equipment and instrument losses.

“This is the first event to solicit funds on a national level,” said GAC President Ed Hardy.  “While it’s important that our viewers know our city has come together and survived this unfortunate event, thousands of Nashville and middle Tennessee residents are in serious need and some of this city’s most talented residents are generously stepping in to help.”  In addition to artists, many production people are donating their time and talent to the event.  High Five Entertainment will produce the telethon and concert event.

“Many of us have friends and family members who are just now beginning to get back into their homes to survey the damage and start rebuilding their lives,” said Colin Reed, chairman and CEO of Gaylord Entertainment. “At the same time, support has come pouring in from every corner of the community. And now, we are reaching out on a national level to ensure that the people of Nashville have every resource they need to restore our city.”

Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau President Butch Spyridon added, “We are proud to partner with GAC and Gaylord Entertainment to raise money for Nashville’s flood victims. This concert effort is a great example of how the partnership between Nashville’s hospitality and music industries benefits the entire city.”    

Ticket information for Music City Keep On Playin’ –  A Benefit for Flood Relief will be announced shortly.

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Keith Urban on stage at his "All For The Hall" benefit concert at the Sommet Center in Nashville, TN on October 13, 2009

After several days of devastating flooding, Nashville has begun digging out, surveying the damage caused by dirty, rising water after a catastrophic downpour.

The Grand Ole Opry House is likely closed for weeks — maybe months — with water so deep that someone paddled a canoe over the seats, Marty Stuart told the Associated Press. The Country Music Hall of Fame, which has water in its Ford Theater, lost power and is running a generator to maintain temperatures inside the building to keep its fragile artifacts from being destroyed. A facility where Keith Urban was storing his concert equipment was inaccessible, and Keith believes he lost all of his guitars and amps.

“We have to wait and see to what extent the waters came up yet, but we know it is not good.,” Keith told CNN.

It’s a big loss, but Keith and his wife, Nicole Kidman, are blessed with large bank accounts. Many Nashville residents who were already struggling with a tough economic climate, have lost homes, cars, possessions — a few lost their lives.

Keith’s personal tragedy “pales in comparison, people have lost everything,” Keith said. “We are certainly financially helping, my wife and I are.”

While news stories have focused, rightly, on the tragedy, Nashville is not a complete loss. Just blocks from the Cumberland River’s overflow, people were working out at the downtown YMCA on Tuesday. The streets of Music Row were unscathed and the interstates are open once again. The city intends to recover — as does the Opry.

Though the Opry House is drowning, perhaps destroying significant stage costumes and memorabilia, the radio show itself moved to other quarters and kept on ticking on Tuesday night. The Opry’s music beamed from the stage of War Memorial Auditorium, which was briefly the home of the Opry 70 years ago. Tuesday’s lineup included Chris Young, Marty, Jimmy C. Newman, Restless Heart, Jack Greene and Jeannie Seely, who lost her home in the flood. Performing was part of her personal recovery.

“It’s not like I can stay home and watch TV,” she told the audience. “You can laugh about it or cry, and I don’t want to cry.”

“It needed to happen,” Chris told The Tennessean of Tuesday’s Opry. “They didn’t say, ‘Oh, the Opry House is flooded, we’re not going to do it.’ We pulled together, and we’re here to do it. That means a lot — as a region, it’s what we do.”

Several sites that play a key role in the CMA Music Festival are currently under water, but they’re expected to be ready for visitors by the time the event rolls around.

“We have every intention of holding the event as planned June 10-13 in downtown Nashville,” says Steve Moore, chairman of the Country Music Association board. “We cannot think of a better way to help our local economy at this time of great need than to continue the 39-year tradition of CMA Music Festival.”

Editor’s note — story update on 5-13-10:
GAC will air a benefit concert this Sunday, May 16 called GAC’s Music City Keep On Playin’ — A Benefit For Flood Relief. Airing from Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium at 8 p.m. ET, the fundraiser features Brad Paisley, Lady Antebellum, Dierks Bentley, Rodney Atkins, Kellie Pickler, Americana artist Will Hoge, gospel singer CeCe Winans and contemporary Christian performer Jaci Velasquez.

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