Vince Gill to host special combining Grand Ole Opry, Carnegie Hall

Monday, February 20th 2006, 4:37 pm

By: News On 6

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Country singer Vince Gill will host a television special next month with an unlikely combination of subject and venue: "The Grand Ole Opry at Carnegie Hall."

The two-hour show March 12 on the Great American Country cable network will feature performances by Gill, a native Oklahoman, Brad Paisley, Alison Krauss, Trisha Yearwood, Alan Jackson, Martina McBride, Trace Adkins and others.

It captures a Grand Ole Opry show presented at New York's Carnegie Hall in November -- the first time the radio program had visited the hall in 44 years. It was part of the Opry's 80th anniversary celebration last year.

The first broadcast of the Grand Ole Opry, then called the WSM Barn Dance, was Nov. 28, 1925. It is the longest continuously running radio show in the country.