McCartney and his family are in Nashville for five weeks of vacation and possible recording sessions.

HIS WIFE, Linda and his three daughters — Heather, 11, Stella 4 ½, and Mary, 2 ½ — sat with him in the audience to listen to fiddling contestants and to an intermission show which featured Dolly Parton and Porter Waggoner.

Buddy Killen, executive vice president of Tree International, and Irving Waugh, president of WSM, helped Opry patrolmen cordon off the McCartney family to give them protection from the fans.

ASKED if the performers had been informed of McCartney’s presence, Waugh replied, "I doubt Grant Turner (the emcee) even knows who he is."

Waugh also told of autograph seekers in the park who had requested McCartney’s signature. "Some of them didn’t know who he was. They just knew he was a Beatle."

Mrs. McCartney, an experienced amateur photographer, left her seat several times to move closer to the stage to photograph the entertainers.

AFTER THE intermission show, the McCartney’s went backstage to meet Porter and Dolly before leaving through the service entrance.

The show had its sadder moments, as when Dolly dedicated her last song to Porter Waggoner and the Wagonmasters since, "This is the last time we’ll play together." Dolly is leaving the group to pursue a separate career.

The 20 fiddlers vying for the $1,000 first price were the real show. contestants played into a microphone attached to headphones of a panel of judges who were isolated from the performance.

Each fiddler had six minutes to perform a break-down, waltz and a number of his choice.

THE WINNER of the competition, with entries from Texas, Canada; New Mexico and other areas; was veteran Herman Johnson of Shawnee, Okla. He came in third place in last year’s contest. To win this year, he played "Sally Johnson," "Kelly Waltz," and "Oklahoma Rag."

The audience’s favorite seemed to be second place winner Terry Morris, 18, from Decatur, Ky. The winner of the $300 check after playing fiddle for only two years, Morris put some veteran fiddlers in awe.

Morris is out of school and spends all of his time playing in fiddling contests around the country. Asked if there is anything in particular he feels has helped him, he grinned and replied, "Well, I didn’t get drunk."

Taken from The Tennessean June 17, 1974 page 1. (Continued on page 4 under headline "McCartney Visit Adds To Contest")