Charlie welcomes two friends from the Grand Ole Opry, which celebrated its 100th year in 2025. Jordan Pettit, a fellow Mississippian, traces his path from Olive Branch and family trips through north Mississippi to a career that took him from Vanderbilt to record labels and eventually to the Opry. Dan Rogers shares what it meant to grow up in rural Illinois with the Opry as a Saturday-night lighthouse, guiding the imagination far beyond the fence line.

Along the way, they swap stories about Opryland, cassette-tape road trips, bluegrass competitions, and the kind of backstage camaraderie that makes the Opry feel like a small town with a global microphone. The conversation hits peak “pinch-me” with a fresh recap of Ringo Starr’s recent Opry appearance and the moment he performed the Johnny Russell-penned “Act Naturally.” From Rod Brasfield and Minnie Pearl to Charley Pride’s magnetic presence, the episode becomes a love letter to an institution that keeps evolving without losing its soul, and to Mississippi’s steady current running through it all.

Mississippi Places Mentioned: Olive Branch, Como, Grenada, Tallahatchie County, Smithville, Liberty, Sledge, Philadelphia, Oxford, Amite County.

People and Groups Mentioned:

Grand Ole Opry, Ringo Starr, The Beatles, Johnny Russell, Buck Owens, Riders in the Sky, Minnie Pearl, Rod Brasfield, Jerry Clower, Robbie Caldwell, Show Dog, Charley Pride, Dion Pride, Mike Snider, Marty Robbins, Ernest Tubb, Bill Monroe, Elvis Presley, Dolly Parton, Marty Stuart, Connie Smith, Les Leverett, Tom T. Hall, Porter Wagoner, The Louvin Brothers, The Everly Brothers, Roxanne Russell, Robert Johnson, Jimmie Rodgers, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Randy Houser, Britney Spears, HARDY, R.L. Burnside, Conway Twitty, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Sam Cooke, William Faulkner, John Grisham, Donna Tartt, Willie Morris.

What do the Bristol Sessions, a blue yodel, a preserved shotgun house in Tupelo, and a guitar once held by Jimmie Rodgers all have in common? They’re all threads in Mississippi’s country-music DNA. Host Charlie Worsham sits down with Paul Kingsbury of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum for a wide-ranging conversation that traces Mississippi’s influence from Jimmie Rodgers (and his genre-bending “blue yodels”) to Elvis Presley’s country beginnings, Tammy Wynette’s drive, Charley Pride’s legacy, and the creative liberation of the outlaw era. Along the way, they swap behind-the-scenes stories from the Hall of Fame, spotlight Marty Stuart’s astonishing collection, and explore the beautiful, complicated history of American music and Mississippi's role in that legacy.

Mississippi Places Mentioned: Grenada, Tupelo, Starkville, the Mississippi Delta, Bentonia, Amite County, Tallahatchie Bridge, Oxford (Ole Miss), North Mississippi, the Natchez Trace.

People and Groups Mentioned: Jimmie Rodgers, The Carter Family, The Tennessee Ramblers, Ralph Peer, James Burton, Keith Richards, Ernest Tubb, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Bobby Bare, Tom T. Hall, Will Campbell, Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, Connie Smith, Tammy Wynette, Patsy Cline, Billy Sherrill, Lyle Lovett, Marty Stuart, Chris Stapleton, George Jones, Earl Scruggs, Lester Flatt, Sammy Smith, Kris Kristofferson, Fred Foster, Charley Pride, Lloyd Green, Cowboy Jack Clement, Chet Atkins, Sam Phillips, Marion Keisker, Bill Monroe, Hank Snow, Red Sovine, Red Foley, Ernest Withers, Jimmy Martin, Larry Wallace, Tom Piazza, Bobbie Gentry, Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Johnny Russell, LeAnn Rimes, Faith Hill, Paul Overstreet, Craig Wiseman, Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Son House, B.B. King, Charlie Patton, Bo Diddley, Elmore James, Jimmy Reed, The Mississippi Sheiks, Mississippi John Hurt, Doc Watson, Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

In this episode of Mississippi on the Map, Charlie Worsham journeys into the heart of the Mississippi Delta for an intimate, revealing conversation at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, where he meets members of the newly revived Parchman Band, a group of incarcerated musicians whose work is quietly transforming both their own lives and the culture around them. Through stories of childhood, church, family, and first encounters with music, Houston and LJ trace their paths from the Gulf Coast and Greenville to Parchman, where a historic prison band tradition has been reborn with new purpose, new voices, and a renewed sense of mission. As the conversation unfolds, Charlie explores how songwriting, rehearsal, and live performance have become tools for growth, connection, and healing inside the Mississippi prison farm, and how the band’s music now travels to audiences across the state, carrying with it a message of dignity, hope, and the belief that the future can be shaped not by the past, but by what comes next.

Mississippi Places Mentioned: Mississippi State Penitentiary (Parchman Farm), Mississippi Delta, Greenville, Clarksdale, Delta Blues Museum, Walnut Street Blues Bar (Greenville), Ocean Springs, Oxford, Grenada, Pascagoula, Moss Point, Jackson County.

People and Groups Mentioned: The Parchman Band, Alan Lomax, Son House, Bukka White, R.L. Burnside, Elvis Presley, Bobby Rush, B.B. King, Jimbo Mathus, Morgan Freeman, Dog the Bounty Hunter, Wendell Cannon.