The Grand Ole Opry – the longest running live broadcast in the world – celebrates its centenary this year and the great and the good of country music were out in force last night (March 19) for Opry 100: A Live Celebration.
It was a night of many highs, as well as a fair few tears and poignant moments. Where to start? Well, at the beginning perhaps – Reba McEntire opened the show by singing Sweet Dreams by Patsy Cline.
Then there was Ashley McBryde and rapper turned country star Post Malone, who paid tribute to Johnny Cash and his wife June Carter Cash when they performed Jackson, which won the couple a Grammy back in 1967.
Another country legend was remembered when Lainey Wilson and singer songwriter Marty Stuart paid tribute to Hank Williams.
Stuart surprised Wilson when he handed her one of Williams’ own guitars, which she played as they duetted on his 1948 hit Lonesome Highway.
Meanwhile Carrie Underwood told the audience about listening to her sister’s Randy Travis cassette as a young girl. Years later it would be Travis who inducted Underwood as a member of the Opry in 2008.
Five years later Travis suffered a stroke which has left him largely unable to sing. Underwood performed two of her favourite Travis songs as a tribute to him, ending the second, Forever And Ever Amen, by stepping off the stage to where Travis himself was seated and handing him the mic. The singer sang the last word ‘amen’ and large swathes of the audience were left dabbing their eyes.
Vince Gill – an Opry member since 1989 – invited Ricky Skaggs and a number of other musicians to accompany him on Go Rest High On That Mountain, dedicating it to his mother who would have turned 100 this year, saying simply “this is about her son”.
Eric Church provided another lump in throat moment when he reminded the audience that he had played the Las Vegas Route 91 Harvest festival in 2017, scene of one of the deadliest mass shootings in US history. He performed the song he wrote that was inspired by that event, Why Not Me.
And though she was not able to be there in person, a tribute was paid to Dolly Parton, one of country music’s greatest ambassadors. The evening ended with 50 Ole Opry members assembled on stage, including Lady A, Carrie Underwood and Reba McEntire singing I Will Always Love You, which can’t help but be poignant given that Parton has recently lost her husband of 60 years, Carl Dean.
