Keith Whitley-Live from the 1988 Golden ROPE Awards-"Don't Close Your Eyes" (Part 7 of 7)

Eternal thanks to the entire Whitley family for recently unearthing this gem from their family archives. They have given me their expressed permission to post this entire concert to share with my fellow Keith Whitley fans here on YouTube.

The annual Reunion of Professional Entertainers (ROPE) is held in Nashville, Tennessee to recognize and honor classic country artists, country musicians, and country music industry executives for their lifetime achievements. Awards are given in the following categories: Entertainer of the Year, Musician of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, and the special presentation of the Mac Wiseman Nightingale Award for service and dedication to the aging and ailing members of the organization, among others. The 1988 awards show featured Keith Whitley and his band Miami as the featured entertainment for the evening. He was introduced to the stage by Grand Ole Opry presenter Keith Bilbrey. (It is interesting to note that, at the 2004 awards show, Keith's widow Lorrie Morgan was featured as the entertainment along with her then-husband Sammy Kershaw.)

This excerpt was taken from page 459 of the 2004 book "The Encyclopedia of Country Music" compiled by Paul Kingsbury, Laura Garrard, & the Country Music Foundation. The excerpt was written by Walt Trott:

"The Reunion of Professional Entertainers (ROPE) is a Nashville-based organization created to care for fellow country music entertainers in time of serious illness, death, or other unavoidable distress. Federally chartered in 1983 as a nonprofit organization, ROPE accepts for membership those who have worked in the music industry at least twenty-five years. Since its beginnings, membership has grown from an initial 70 members to 700. Gordon Terry, a founder and first president, helped initiate a trust fund and a death, health, and welfare insurance program. An early mission of ROPE was to build a retirement center for needful seniors. Five-term ROPE president Mac Wiseman has served on the CMA's steering committee to explore the possibility of making this dream a reality. During Wiseman's tenure, a Friends of ROPE program was approved to allow fans and friends of entertainers to contribute as organizational boosters. ROPE holds quarterly social gatherings, conducts benefit concert fund-raisers, sponsors annual Golden ROPE Awards, and runs an annual Fan Fair booth. Address: ROPE, 50 Music Square West, #700E, Nashville, TN 37203."

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Keith
• Whitley
• Don't
• Close
• Your
• Eyes
• ROPE
• Reunion
• of
• Professional
• Entertainers
• Nashville
• Tennessee
• country
• music
• classic
• Grand
• Ole
• Opry
• Bilbrey

[jimbobcooter23]

These videos of Keith you have posted are excellent. There is nothing quite like listening to a Keith Whitley song, can't quite explain it, but it's special. I bet he would have been such a cool person to know.

[MAMsMom97]

@jimbobcooter23 Aw, that's so nice of you to say, thank you. Glad you enjoy them! There are so many stories out there that all tell that he could take a joke just as well as he could dish them out. I love people like that.

[WarpDriveStudios]

Love the videos, but I wish you would have not place the scrolling ad on them.

[MAMsMom97]

It was done by request from Dwight Whitley. He asked me to put the banner on the videos. The other option was not putting them up at all, and I know most ppl would have appreciated seeing these anyway they could see them. But you always have a few...

[kaydee37]

What a loss to the entertainment world, and though I don't know, I would guess the world in general. What a talented human being. His pain comes through in his work, but it is so beautiful.

[slinky5217]

There are so many songs he sang well. I think that " its all coming back to me now" and "i'm gonna hurt her on the radio" could or should have been # 1's

[slinky5217]

Why did he have today? Its bullshit

[gloriabryan1]

I didn't get the chance to met him, : ( . There never has been, or never will be, a talent like Keith Whitley. I Still get tears.

[lxturley]

All of Keith's songs are amazing, they'll never be another singer like him in the country world. However there are many more of his songs that I've never had the honor of hearing that I wish someone would post if they have them. I can't seem to find "Just How Bad Do You Wanna Feel Good", "Leave Well Enough Alone", "Turn This Thing Around", "Heartbreak Highway", "Going Home", "Thats Where I Want To Take Our Love", "Backbone Job", "Tell Me Something I Don't Know", And "Buck" Can anyone post them .

[GeneWatsonSongs]

Excellent Sharon, thanks for posting this, the world has lost a fantastic artist, brilliant video