Disney World's Country Bear Jamboree Just Reopened With A New Nod To Nashville

Country can mean a lot of things, from a holler in the Smokies to the Mississippi seashore, but Walt Disney World’s "Country Bears" have never had a clear sense of home. They do now, and it's distinctly Nashville.

One of the last attractions that Walt Disney had a hand in before his death and one of the few remaining shows from the park’s opening in 1971, the animatronic Country Bear Jamboree was always a vague western interpretation of country. Set in Magic Kingdom’s Frontierland, it riffed more on the music of the wild, wild west and a home on the range rather than Appalachia, the Swamplands or anything Southern.

But, now, Grizzly Hall is giving major The Grand Ole Opry vibes with the new, reimagined Country Bear Musical Jamboree. Opening July 17, it’s a fun celebration of country music and its rich diversity, from rockabilly to folk to country pop.

The bears did their homework, and Disney outsourced talent to country legends and Nashville’s hottest stars. It’s a slice of Music City in Central Florida, and it’s an absolute must-do. Here’s a first look at the new show plus the country stars who bring these instrumental bears to life.

Nashville Style

The new jamboree features familiar characters from the previous show, and there are still puns and comedy galore. But there’s an intentional Nashville aesthetic everywhere you look, from rhinestones to pompadours to Nudie suits. Even the microphone for the opening number, a new original song performed by animatronic The Five Bear Rugs, features a Grizzly Hall microphone in the style of The Grand Ole Opry’s radio call letters.

Disney Imagineers spent time in Nashville researching and visited several historic spots, such as the Country Music Hall of Fame, Ryman Auditorium and The Grand Ole Opry.

“When we went to the Opry, we did the backstage tour,” said Joe Vitale, principal production designer with Walt Disney Imagineering. "And seeing the green room and the dressing rooms and sort of the story going on back there inspired us a lot for the queue."

The lobby features four memorabilia cases highlighting the bears’ music careers with tons of country references, from pink rhinestone sunglasses a la Dolly Parton to albums that pay homage to certain Music Row labels. And the framed world tour vest for Big Al features patches that, from far away, look like he’s been all around the world, but upon close inspection reveal that they’re actually spots in the states: Paris, Texas. Athens, Georgia. Rome, Tennessee.

"We took inspiration from the tailors like Nudie Cohn and Manuel Cuevas," said Vitale. "We took a shot while we were heading to Nashville and got in contact with Manuel. And they said, ‘Come on over.’ And we sat with them while he told us amazing stories for about three hours."

Nashville fashion is everywhere in the attraction and Disney Live Entertainment costumer Sara Landesberg, along with her costuming team, worked on making the bears’ outfits come to life in a way that was “really vibrant."

"You might notice our band The Five Bear Rugs,” Landesberg said. “They have beautiful embroidery on them. My costuming team did that embroidery. We have beautiful embroidery details referencing those Nudie suits and that old kind of country Nashville vibe."

But her favorite piece is the first jacket you see in the show, a pearl jacket with luminous silver embroidery. “I’m most proud of Henry,” she said. “He’s the emcee of the show. And we worked really hard on that jacket. We went through a few variations and I think the way it is today was exactly what it was supposed to be and it’s beautiful."

Nashville Sound

Grizzly Hall can look country, but to get the music right, Disney asked country legend Mac McAnally to produce the songs for the new Country Bear Musical Jamboree.

"The very same vocal quality that probably ran me out of the pop music world made me kind of uniquely qualified to be bear-ish,” said McAnally.

The baritone has worked with everyone and every genre of country, from Dolly Parton to George Strait to Amy Grant to Jimmy Buffet. He’s written hits for Alabama, Kenny Chesney, Shenandoah, and more, as well as his own albums that pull from his many, many musical influences: Gospel. Bluegrass. Americana. Southern Rock. Rockabilly. Nashville Sound and more.

The 10-time CMA Musician of the Year even lends his own voice to the bear Shaker in a cover of "The Bare Necessities" from The Jungle Book and "Fixer-Upper" from Frozen—because in this new show the music is all Disney–but country-fied.

"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” from Mary Poppins gets the Charlie Daniels treatment. “Kiss the Girl” from The Little Mermaid has a rockabilly shuffle. “A Whole New World” from Aladdin, sung by bears Teddi Barra (singer-songwriter Allison Russel) and Wendell (Chris Thile of Nickel Creek, Punch Brothers), becomes a lovely folk ballad with beautiful mandolin.

And “Try Everything” from Zootopia, made popular by Shakira, is an all-out hoedown. The Voice finalist and “Can’t Hide Country” singer Emily Ann Roberts reimagined the song as the iconic bear Trixie and gives the track a new twang.

"I tried to lean into my Appalachian roots and influences and add those little trills and runs that just add that Southern charm,” said Roberts. “I just put my heart in it."

The Knoxville singer said she was inspired by the country flair applied to each Disney classic and how impactful it is to hear these country versions. “When I left East Tennessee, I never realized that I had an accent until I started touring all over the country,” she said. “And, as soon as I started to open up my mouth, people would say ‘Where you from?’ And I realized very soon that I can’t hide my country.

She continues, "It just is who I am. It’s really, really cool to be able to share my upbringing and my roots with folks through the Country Bear Musical Jamboree. And even if it is just the way I talk, it helps show them a little peek of East Tennessee. It means a lot. Country music and the genre and what it stands for means so much to me. And I’m proud and honored to be a part of it. And so it’s really cool to get to share that with all the folks who will experience the Country Bear Musical Jamboree."

Harmonicas. Jaw Harp. Tub base. There’s a menagerie of country instruments heard in the show. It was important to McAnally to use “the real stuff all the way through."

"My family grew up listening to acoustic music,” he said. “People brought instruments to my house three nights a week. We were one of the late homes in my hometown in Mississippi to get a television so everybody brought mandolins and dulcimers and a fiddle—stuff that didn’t necessarily go together—and there might be a saxophone, too. But they brought instruments to my house. My mom was a really fine gospel piano player. So, these instruments were in my house all the time.”

His career has been a confluence of country styles. And McAnally said the attraction is a confluence of traditions, too.

“It was on me to honor the tradition of the bears but figure out a way that the song applies within the framework,” he said. “If I’d had to do everything as a straight bluegrass band, then a couple of the songs might’ve ended up seeming hokey in a way that they’re not.”

"I didn’t want the music playing to be comic,” he added. “I wanted the comics to be comedy. But I wanted the music to be virtuoso players and I wanted the songs to be to the quality that these Disney songs are."

A Little Piece of Nashville in Central Florida

For McAnally, the best players come from Nashville.

“I’ve worked in studios in Nashville since the late 70s,” he said. “It’s such a wonderful pool of musicians that’s only grown since then. As the other music centers sort of became a little bit more automated, a lot of the best players from Los Angeles and the best players from New York have gravitated toward Nashville. And we’ve always had the best fiddle players and mandolin players as evidenced by what’s going on on some of these tracks.”

“We had Chris Thile playing mandolin for us and he’s probably the best in the world,” he added. “You can’t get more authentic than that. And you also can’t get any more of a Disney fanatic than Chris. He’s just over the moon to get to be part of this. He was literally like running in place the whole time he was singing this.”

McAnally had a blast working on this project. As a Disney World guest, he saw the original show and he’s taken his kids to see Country Bear Jamboree, too.

“You know the show’s been there so long, there’s no way that I can please everyone that’s ever seen it,” he said. “But I’ve considered everyone that's ever seen it in trying to bring it forward to the next generation. And try to keep some of the classic comic aspect of it and the wonderful history and tradition of Appalachian instruments.”

McAnally did a little bit of work on the show down at his studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. But when it came time to conceive, record and mix, the team went to Music Row.

“We used SonyTree and we used Sound Stage,” said McAnally. “And we used Ronnie’s Place, which is Ronnie Millsaps’ old studio. And a little bit of Sound Emporium. Those are just regular haunts of mine. I’ve been coming there and making records and I tend to favor places in the same way that a fisherman goes to where he caught the big one a long time ago. I’ve been involved in a few big ones at those studios, and I wanted some of that musical hug to wrap its arms around the Country Bears music as well.”

A bear hug if you will.