‘Opry 100: A Live Celebration’: The Country Music Special’s Best Moments

variety.com:

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic It’s probably safe to say that “Opry 100: A Live Celebration” is the first three-hour special in the history of country music television to feature nothing but first-rate performances over the course of an entire prime-time block.

But then, producers for the show did have a built-in programming advantage in celebrating the 100th anniversary of Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry, with theoretically a century of picks to draw upon and not just a year’s worth of recent radio fodder.

That allowed for a whole evening of classic country, classily interpreted, without any freshman artists running laps around the stage in cutoffs dodging fireworks.

Even on a no-skips night, certain segments stood out. Here are 10 highlights from Wednesday night’s NBC/Peacock special: A Vince Gill-led In Memoriam performance of “Go Rest High on That Mountain.” Gill’s mournful 1995 hit, recorded after the death of his older brother, is the funeral song for much of America — or the one that they’re singing in the car on the way to the funeral, even if the church didn’t put it on the program.