July/August 2003
Calvin Gilmore off stage; up close and personal with the man behind The Carolina Opry. By Michael Hetzer.
It’s minutes before showtime backstage at The Carolina Opry, and Calvin Gilmore is huddled up with about a dozen of his performers. In the darkness of the stage wing, Gilmore says a prayer; then they all cry, “One, two, three. It’s SHOWTIME!”
A few feet away, the Opry’s music director, Gary Brown, smirks. “It’s something I guess they’ve been doing since the beginning.”
The beginning. When would that be? Was it opening night, 1986, before…