Angie K remembers listening to Dolly Parton and her mother telling her about The Grand Ole Opry as a small girl in El Salvador. Her father was a farmer, and their land was near the beach. K remembers seeing fishermen go out to sea and being surrounded by wide open space.
Her parents have five daughters. When El Salvador became unstable when K was 11, the family moved to the United States. She knew about classic country music from her parents. But her fate was sealed when she heard The Chicks on the radio for the first time as they drove to see their new home in Georgia.
“I remember just looking out the window, and I just remember this thought as clearly as day: ‘Oh, I’m definitely going to do that,’” she says. “It was the first time I heard modern country music.”
On Friday night, K made her Grand Ole Opry debut. She played two songs: “Red Dirt on Mars” and “Golden.” The audience responded with two standing ovations.
“It’s so very unreal being here,” K said backstage before her performance. Clad in a black cowboy hat atop her dark brown hair, K tucked herself into a glamorous dressing room decorated with photos of female country music trailblazers. “I’m going to have to really work hard at keeping it together. I didn’t at soundcheck.”
Her parents and sisters came to watch her perform, and she estimated 60 or 70 friends who followed her country music journey from Georgia to cruise ship entertainment to Music City.
Angie K: The Way I See It, Country Music Is Not For Everyone
“The way I see it, country music is not for everyone,” she said, swiping her finger under her eye to keep her tears from ruining her makeup. “That’s not why we make it. It’s meant for people that enjoy it. If that’s not you, that’s fine. But this place … there’ll be people in the crowd that need this like they need even water. That’s how I needed it, and that’s how I still need it. And that’s why I still do it.”
While K’s Opry debut was Friday night, she’d been to the beloved country radio show before. K auditioned for a regional choir after moving to Georgia and was accepted. She was so excited about the opportunity, but her family had to scrimp and save to get her to Nashville, where the choir performed. Her mother went with her; it was the only trip she and her mom ever made alone. They toured the Grand Ole Opry while they were in town.
With a lifetime of reverence for the beloved country institution weighing on her heart, K wasn’t emotionally ready when Opry staff called her early to rehearse.
“I walked out and got into my zone of what I do as a musician,” she said. “I check my guitar, and make sure it sounds right on the monitor. And then I had this moment where I just looked up and it hit me. It just socked me in the face, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m here.’ It was a very gut-punch moment. Then, all of a sudden, the Opry band starts, and I’m like, ‘Wait, wait, wait, guys.’”
She teared up again, remembering the night the Opry’s Jenn Tressler surprised her at a Nashville show and invited her to make her debut. K’s manager, J.R. Schumann, stopped her performance mid-way through. The singer thought something was wrong with the sound, and then she spotted Tressler and gasped.
Angie K Still Trying To Catch Breath From Debut Invite
“I don’t think I’ve ever caught that breath since that moment, but I remember just kind of going to my knee and just taking a minute before she even said anything,” K said. “I knew what she was going to say.”
Before she walked on stage, K said she was looking forward to meeting the audience members. She planned to shake hands with people in the lobby during intermission.
Five years ago to the day, K opened for Melissa Etheridge at Ryman Auditorium. That night, Etheridge gave K a piece of advice she said she’ll never forget.
“She put her hands on my shoulders, and she said, ‘Never treat the people in the suits better than the people in the seats,” K quoted. “I just love that. So, as long as I can, I’m definitely going out and shaking hands.”
K emotionally swiped at several tears on stage Friday night, but her genuine show of emotion endeared her to the audience even more. Her voice rang strong and clear through the Grand Ole Opry House, compelling fans to raise their phones on the last song and fill the darkened theater with light—a moving display of acceptance and adoration for a woman who has dreamed of standing in the hallowed circle since before her feet touched North American soil.
Photo by Chris Hollo
Local News
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