Maggie Valley Opry House - Maggie Valley, NC - Bluegrass and Mountain Music

The Maggie Valley Opry House opened in 1988 by Raymond and Shirley Fairchild. The Opry House features bluegrass and mountain music. It is located on Highway 19 which is called Soco Road. Their goal is to preserve the mountain culture and keep the mountain heritage alive through the music of the Appalachia.

It was placed on the "Blue Ridge Music Trail'' in 2000 by the National Endowments for the Arts and the North Carolina Arts Council, in conjunction with the Blue Ridge Parkway. When not traveling to other performances, Raymond Fairchild is the featured performer.

Fairchild has been performing as a banjoist for over fifty years. He performed at the Grand Ole Opry in 1977 and has been on many television specials for several network stations, including the Nashville Network. Fairchild is also featured in a book by John Rice Irwin, noted author and owner of the Museum of Appalachian, "A People and Their Music: The Story Behind the Story of Country Music.''

Raymond has two gold records for selling over two million copies of his banjo instrumentals. He has recorded over twenty albums and videos in his career. He has earned a place as a lifetime member of the Bluegrass Hall of Fame and has received the Bluegrass Banjo of the Year Award five times by the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America.

The Maggie Valley Opry House is a modest building that is set back from the road. The theater has a seating capacity of 300. The restaurant at the opry house caters to an upscale crowd. The opry house is open nightly from May to October. The shows begin at 8:00 PM.

Past visitors have a lot to say about the opry house in Maggie Valley. The opry house is furnished with faded posters of past triumphs. Visitors say that though the space itself is run down and the metal chairs are not overly comfortable, the performance of Raymond Fairchild does more than make up for it.

Guests enjoy the informal nature of the opry house, with everyone talking to one another before the shows start. The opry house offers homemade cakes and moonshine jelly for sale. Other guests believe that anyone with an appreciation for music will enjoy the traditional mountain music, regardless of their musical tastes.

They say that the warm and friendly atmosphere created by Raymond and Shirley Fairchild is one of the many reasons to make a trip to the opry house. The atmosphere, along with the legendary banjo picking by Fairchild, keeps visitors coming back year after year.