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The inaugural Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Music City Rodeo at Bridgestone Arena from May 29-31 showcases the national urban revival of country and Western culture.
For 90 years, mainstream country music and the PRCA have never intersected in Nashville.
That's about to change.
Veteran PRCA cowboys Tim O'Connell, a native of Cascade, Iowa, and Cole Reiner of Buffalo, Wyoming feel that for rodeo as a culture, sport and industry, Nashville represents an unprecedented opportunity east of the Mississippi River. They will perform at Music City Rodeo.
O'Connell is a three-time world champion ******** horse rider who, for nearly two decades, has also distinguished himself as one of rodeo's best cowboys able to help riders safely dismount bucking bulls or horses and escort the animals out of the arena.
"Out of the gate, from the prize money offered, to having Jelly Roll, Tim McGraw and Reba McEntire performing, Nashville's staking a claim to win Rodeo of the Year in its debut year," said O'Connell.
Reiner's a five-time qualifier for the National Finals Rodeo as a ******** horseman, consistently ranked as one of the world's top ten in his sport.
Over the past three years, Taylor Sheridan's Paramount+ series "Yellowstone," watched by around 10 million homes annually, has propelled horse-riding country superstars like Cody Johnson and Lainey Wilson to win nearly two dozen Academy of Country Music and Country Music Association Awards.
"'Yellowstone' made being a cowboy cool again, but the heritage of cowboys goes back a century before 1883," said Reiner, highlighting the era that Taylor Sheridan's programming showcases.
Competitors at or above their level are descending upon Nashville, not just for the competition. The Music City Rodeo is offering its winners a purse of over $200,000. While the Las Vegas' National Finals Rodeo offers a year-end competition purse of over $10 million, it has also existed for 65 years.
"Now that people are reminded about how exciting the cowboy way of life is, rodeo athletes are continuing to entertain people with a wild, unscripted show," O'Connell said. "Well-practiced and trained athletes are trying to control 2,000-pound live animals that have every desire to do whatever they want."
Music City Rodeo attendees can expect "three days of God, country, great rides, great runs and wrecks," he said. "When it's great, it's like watching moving, rhythmic poetry. Typically, though, it's like watching professional football with hockey fights, then a NASCAR wreck happens."
Seven events will be contested over the three days. Those include ******** riding, steer wrestling, team roping, saddle bronc riding, tie-down roping, barrel racing and bull riding.
"If you X-ray us right now, our backs, forearms, hips and necks look different than anyone else's in the world," Reiner said.
O'Connell noted that athletes gifted at multiple rodeo disciplines require talents like being college-level basketball players, football players, freestyle wrestlers and hockey players.
"Athletes who aren't just good, but electrifying and energizing-level rodeo stars have developed classic and thrilling parts of Western culture into (something like extreme) sports," he said.
"It'll be an electrifying event that makes an arena feel like a football stadium."
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville embraces Western culture with Music City Rodeo: What to know
Continue reading...
For 90 years, mainstream country music and the PRCA have never intersected in Nashville.
That's about to change.
Music City Rodeo arrives in Nashville amid western revival in country music
Veteran PRCA cowboys Tim O'Connell, a native of Cascade, Iowa, and Cole Reiner of Buffalo, Wyoming feel that for rodeo as a culture, sport and industry, Nashville represents an unprecedented opportunity east of the Mississippi River. They will perform at Music City Rodeo.
O'Connell is a three-time world champion ******** horse rider who, for nearly two decades, has also distinguished himself as one of rodeo's best cowboys able to help riders safely dismount bucking bulls or horses and escort the animals out of the arena.
"Out of the gate, from the prize money offered, to having Jelly Roll, Tim McGraw and Reba McEntire performing, Nashville's staking a claim to win Rodeo of the Year in its debut year," said O'Connell.
Reiner's a five-time qualifier for the National Finals Rodeo as a ******** horseman, consistently ranked as one of the world's top ten in his sport.
Over the past three years, Taylor Sheridan's Paramount+ series "Yellowstone," watched by around 10 million homes annually, has propelled horse-riding country superstars like Cody Johnson and Lainey Wilson to win nearly two dozen Academy of Country Music and Country Music Association Awards.
"'Yellowstone' made being a cowboy cool again, but the heritage of cowboys goes back a century before 1883," said Reiner, highlighting the era that Taylor Sheridan's programming showcases.
Competitors at or above their level are descending upon Nashville, not just for the competition. The Music City Rodeo is offering its winners a purse of over $200,000. While the Las Vegas' National Finals Rodeo offers a year-end competition purse of over $10 million, it has also existed for 65 years.
"Now that people are reminded about how exciting the cowboy way of life is, rodeo athletes are continuing to entertain people with a wild, unscripted show," O'Connell said. "Well-practiced and trained athletes are trying to control 2,000-pound live animals that have every desire to do whatever they want."
Music City Rodeo attendees can expect "three days of God, country, great rides, great runs and wrecks," he said. "When it's great, it's like watching moving, rhythmic poetry. Typically, though, it's like watching professional football with hockey fights, then a NASCAR wreck happens."
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Seven events will be contested over the three days. Those include ******** riding, steer wrestling, team roping, saddle bronc riding, tie-down roping, barrel racing and bull riding.
"If you X-ray us right now, our backs, forearms, hips and necks look different than anyone else's in the world," Reiner said.
O'Connell noted that athletes gifted at multiple rodeo disciplines require talents like being college-level basketball players, football players, freestyle wrestlers and hockey players.
You must be registered for see images attach
"Athletes who aren't just good, but electrifying and energizing-level rodeo stars have developed classic and thrilling parts of Western culture into (something like extreme) sports," he said.
"It'll be an electrifying event that makes an arena feel like a football stadium."
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville embraces Western culture with Music City Rodeo: What to know
Continue reading...
