Ryman Hospitality Properties (RHP) and Blake Shelton celebrated the grand opening of The Doghouse at Ole Red Tishomingo, a music hall and events venue expansion to the Shelton-inspired bar and restaurant located in downtown Tishomingo, with special performances by country music mega-stars Luke Bryan on Thursday, May 23 and Shelton on Friday, May 24.
Festivities kicked off Thursday evening with Shelton welcoming Bryan to officially christen the new venue. He delivered a 90+ minute set that included a breadth of songs from his extensive catalog of hits with Bryan noting to the packed crowd, “this is the one time it is good to be in the ‘Doghouse.’ He delivered a spirited performance that included current single “Knockin’ Boots” as well as fan favorites “Country Girl (Shake It For Me),” “That’s My Kind of Night,” “Strip It Down” and many more.
Big Al Mack from Oklahoma radio station 106.1 KISS FM served as Friday’s host. Prior to Shelton’s performance Big Al invited JD Strong, Director of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, Richard Hatcher, President of the Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Foundation and Jean Kates, Treasurer Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Foundation to the stage. Shelton presented the group with a check for $144,500 benefitting the Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Foundation where he is a board member. Big Al also surprised Shelton with an additional $1,000 donation to the foundation. The funds were raised by tickets sales to Thursday and Friday’s performances and will support conservation enhancement projects in Oklahoma a cause important to Shelton and Bryan, both avid outdoorsman.
An enthusiastic Strong shared with Oklahoma’s NBC affiliate KTEN last week, “Not only is it awesome that Blake Shelton has decided to be a founding member of this foundation but to donate the proceeds from these concerts for the grand opening of the Doghouse is just icing on the cake.”
“I was born and raised in Oklahoma. I like to hunt and fish, but even if you don’t hunt or fish, the outdoors I swear… in Oklahoma…it's heaven,” shared Shelton. “And the money we raised at the Doghouse grand opening will help make sure everyone can enjoy it.”
Following Friday’s check presentation, the festivities continued with hometown hero Shelton taking the stage to perform some of his biggest hits including “Austin,” “Honey Bee” and “Boys Round Here.” Over the course of the rowdy and energetic 2+ hour set, Shelton was also joined on stage by Andrew Sevener, season 16 contestant from NBC’s “The Voice” and Team Blake member.
Grand opening celebrations for The Doghouse continue with a weekend of unforgettable entertainment.
- NBC’s "The Voice" Contestant Red Marlow– Saturday, May 25
- Local Oklahoma Favorite Jackson Tillman – Sunday, May 26 (Tickets available at the door)
The Doghouse at Ole Red Tishomingo’s weekly programming will include “Thursday Night Jams,” “Live in Concert” on Friday nights, the “Shindig,” weekly dance party on Saturday nights, and more to be announced throughout the year. The space will also be available for private events beginning in June. For venue hours, private event information, programming and upcoming special events, visit olered.com/doghouse.
About Ole Red
Ole Red is a lifestyle and entertainment brand inspired by Blake Shelton’s clever, irreverent third-chart hit, “Ol’ Red.” You can currently find Ole Red entertainment venues and products in three locations in the United States, the flagship multi-story bar, restaurant and entertainment venue in the heart of downtown Nashville’s famed Lower Broadway, the very first location in Blake’s hometown of Tishomingo, Oklahoma and a newly opened location in Gatlinburg, Tenn. The company has announced an additional location opening in Orlando, Florida in 2020. Ole Red is owned and operated by Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. as part of its Opry Entertainment division. For additional information about Ole Red, visit us online at olered.com.
About Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc.
Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. (NYSE:RHP) is a REIT for federal income tax purposes, specializing in group-oriented, destination hotel assets in urban and resort markets. The Company’s owned assets include a network of four upscale, meetings-focused resorts totaling 8,114 rooms that are managed by lodging operator Marriott International, Inc. under the Gaylord Hotels brand. The Company is a joint venture owner of the 1,501-room Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center, which is also managed by Marriott International, Inc. Other owned assets managed by Marriott International, Inc. include Gaylord Springs Golf Links, the Wildhorse Saloon, the General Jackson Showboat, The Inn at Opryland, a 303-room overflow hotel adjacent to Gaylord Opryland and AC Hotel Washington, DC at National Harbor, a 192-room hotel near Gaylord National. The Company also owns and operates media and entertainment assets, including the Grand Ole Opry (opry.com), the legendary weekly showcase of country music’s finest performers for over 90 years; the Ryman Auditorium, the storied former home of the Grand Ole Opry located in downtown Nashville; 650 AM WSM, the Opry’s radio home; and Ole Red, a country lifestyle and entertainment brand. For additional information about Ryman Hospitality Properties, visit www.rymanhp.com.
About Luke Bryan
Luke is a two-time Academy of Country Music and a two-time Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year, a five-time host of the ACM Awards, a NSAI Artist/Songwriter of the Year and was named a CMT Artist of the Year six consecutive years. Luke has more certified digital singles than any other country artist with 46 million tracks and 12 million albums with four Billion music streams. Luke has placed 22 singles at #1, 12 of which he co-wrote. Over the last few years, Luke’s headline tours have performed for 1.5 million fans or more and in 2018 he performed more stadium dates in one calendar year than ever with a career total of 34. On May 31, Luke will launch the “Sunset Repeat Tour” with special guests Cole Swindell and Jon Langston.
Luke debuted his new single “Knockin’ Boots” on the 54th Academy of Country Music Awards this spring where he was nominated as Entertainer of the Year and in the Song of the Year category for his poignant “Most People Are Good.”
In the summer of 2018, Luke opened Nashville’s only six-floor entertainment facility in the heart of Music City, LUKE’S 32 BRIDGE FOOD + DRINK. The name was inspired by Luke’s childhood home near Route 32 Bridge in Lee County, Georgia.
Visit www.LukeBryan.com or follow Luke on Twitter @LukeBryanOnline, Instagram and Facebook
About Blake Shelton
Country Music Association’s 2012 “Entertainer of the Year,” five-time Male Vocalist of the Year winner and GRAMMY nominee Blake Shelton continues to add to his superstar status. His current single “God’s Country” shot to No. 1 on the iTunes chart upon release and remained Top 3 for three weeks and counting. Already approaching 10 million streams, the “southern-rockin’ country stomper” (Rolling Stone) had its national television debut on the 54thACM Awards. Earlier this year Shelton shared music new and old across the nation on his “Friends & Heroes 2019” tour. The arena run sold out all 18 dates, returning to the Hot Tours Top 5 chart (Billboard), and was one of the only nine country tours to make Pollstar’s Top 100 Tours in Q1 list.
A member of the Grand Ole Opry, the Platinum-selling entertainer has earned a host of honors throughout his career including 20 ACM nominations and both the male and overall Video of the Year trophies at the 2018 CMT Awards. As a coach for the Emmy Award-winning television show The Voice, Shelton is a six-time champion, most recently with his contestant Chloe Kohanski. He lends his “voice” to the character Ox, the unofficial Mayor of Uglytown in the upcoming UglyDolls movie. The animated feature will be released May 3. Off stage, he has teamed up with Ryman Hospitality to open a string of Ole Red entertainment restaurant venues, a nod to his 2001 hit of the same name, in his Oklahoma hometown of Tishomingo as well as Nashville and most recently in Gatlinburg, TN.
Shelton’s most recent album Texoma Shore became his sixth record to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and marked his 11thall-genre Top 10. Texoma Shore features tracks including the GRAMMY-nominated “I Lived It” and the Gold-certified “I’ll Name The Dogs,” a romantic tune that boasts more than 143 million streams and marked his 25thNo. 1 song. In the week following album launch, Shelton became the first artist in Country Aircheck / Mediabase history to have six songs chart simultaneously. For more information and upcoming tour dates, please visit www.BlakeShelton.com and follow @BlakeShelton.
About the Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Foundation
The Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Foundation was formed in 2018 to encourage private support to the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. The Foundation is able to complete projects faster and with more efficiency and guarantee that donors are getting the most out of their contributions. The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation remains a non-appropriated, user-pay/user-benefit agency that is funded by hunting and fishing license sales, federal grants and donations. For more information about the Foundation, call (405) 522-6279.