NASHVILLE HEMLINE

Matthew Quinlan explores Nudie Cohn's Nashville legacy

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The Grand Ole Opry is celebrating 100 years as a syndicated country & western radio show and star-maker. Nashville's Ryman Auditorium was a house of God before it was the home of the show, from 1943 to 1974, and performers - from Hank Williams to Willie Nelson, Patsy Cline to Dolly Parton - observed a dress code there in line with the building's conservative Church roots: suits for men, ankle-length skirts for women. Within those rigid constraints, one man let fly.

The scene-stealing star of the Country Music Hall Of Fame And Museum in downtown Nashville never made a record or played the Opry. But he worked with Hank Williams, Porter Wagoner, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Elton John, Emmylou Harris and Elvis Presley, among others, and a local bar still carries his name. Nudie's Honky Tonk sits on Broadway, Nashville's main drag, up from John Rich's Redneck Riviera joint and Kid Rock's Big Ass Honky Tonk Rock'N'Roll Steakhouse. This ain't a subtle town, y'all.

'Nudie' Cohn was born Nuta Kotlyarenko in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 1902. In 1947, he made a suit for country singer, Tex Williams, in exchange for a sewing machine, and every record collection on the planet would be a duller affair without the Nudie suits that were made on that venerable machine.

The gold lamé affair that Elvis wore on the sleeve of 50,000,000