Vince Gill, Amy Grant celebrate 100th Ryman Christmas performance with Nate Bargatze, more

For the 100th time in 30 years, on Friday night, Vince Gill and Amy Grant graced the Ryman Auditorium stage to sing holiday classics and seasonal-related songs from their voluminous catalogs.

As a tandem, the couple has been married for 23 years. They have four times as much combined musical experience between them.

When presenting them a framed Hatch Show print to celebrate the occasion -- as a surprise initiated by Chrissy Hall, the Director of Concerts for Ryman Auditorium -- Nate Bargatze, a Nashville area-born comic who, after 20 years, had a fascinating perspective.

Bargatze is experiencing the joy of selling out arenas and venues, hoping to reach a residency status similar to Gill and Grant eventually. As he cited their impressive longevity as what he admired most about the couple, it had a more profound, earnest and inspirational resonance.

Here are four other takeaways from a night -- like many in Gill and Grant's storied careers -- in front of a warmly engaged capacity crowd at country music's Mother Church.

Amy Grant's recovering and "feeling fine"

Notably, in July 2022, while on a bike ride near Harpeth Hills Golf Course, Grant struck a pothole, fell off her bike and was knocked unconscious for 10 minutes.

In a March 2023 sit-down interview with NBC's "Today," she cited that the work of doctors at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and wearing a bicycle helmet saved her life. However, the injuries from the incident caused memory loss.

The singer also had heart surgery in 2020 and a cyst removed from her throat in January 2023.

A performance format that, albeit nearly three hours in length (two 70-minute sets separated by an intermission), features Grant often partnering with her husband while also backed by a 12-piece group of four guitars, a drummer, keyboard player, pianist, and a stellar set of background vocalists, including her step-daughter Jennifer.

"There's a secret sauce onstage that's helping with the heavy lifting tonight," joked Grant.

Grant's empathy shines

Grant, 63, has achieved Dove and Grammy-award-winning success in the pop and Christian lanes nearly 30 times in her five-decade-long career.

However, as a performer of Christmas music, that genre's roots in the American songbook allow Grant's skills as a genre-free performer and stylist to shine.

Twenty-five percent of her studio album collection are Christmas songs; she's sold over 30 million albums in her career.

Grant performed ten solo cuts during the evening. 2016's "Tennessee Christmas" and 1992's "Breath of Heaven" were among them. 2008's "I Need A Silent Night" was preceded by a monologue in which Grant -- herself a musician, wife, and mother of five for the past quarter century -- stated, "My favorite thing about seeing every woman in the audience is that they're doing nothing."

Grant's performances highlighted a still-stunning empathy in her craft.

When she walked onstage to begin the evening, Grant air-embraced the entire crowd. While addressing The Ryman, she noted that she and her husband's residences "[brought back] the best of [their] Christmas memories after 30 years."

Continuing to speak to the event's value, she offered that songs meet us at every moment in our lives, even the difficult ones -- and provide a healing spirit fostered by community:

"It's worth it to be together, even when it's hard."

To wit, she sang a bittersweet new anthem, 2023's "Planting Trees We'll Never See."

"Statues fall and glory fades / But a 100-year-old oak tree still gives shade," Grant sings, adding that for memories to be fondly recalled -- just like a tree to grow sturdy -- requires "love and faith and grace, a little time."

Vince Gill, master showman

From enjoying Krispy Kreme doughnuts to performing 280 holiday songs for roughly 24 hours over ten days at the Ryman Auditorium, Country Music Hall of Famer and Grand Ole Opry member Vince Gill does nothing in brevity.

Yes, brevity is the soul of wit. However, the soul of talent comes from genuine, honest artists who tend to make music whose excellence-redefining qualities are undisputed.

Gill's done just that a multitude of times in his career. The reason? His abilities as a cool, confident vocalist and virtuoso guitarist are peerless among even a pinnacle of peers.

But, as he proved onstage at The Ryman, he's also a central Oklahoman able to recall the passion that drives his talent arrived as his gruff, chain-smoking and banjo-picking father showed him G, C and D chords on a guitar as a child.

Gill's a master arranger, too, who, as a hip rockabilly partier at heart, always knows the most effortless manner to slip into the funkiest groove.

Thus, in his hands, "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" becomes a Texas cowboy waltz, while mid-70s era Stevie Wonder-style reggae grooves blend into Little Richard-inspired boogie-woogie rockabilly gospel for "Do You See What I See?" For Donny Hathaway's "This Christmas," he's as true to the original's hearty, classic soul as possible.

Much like his wife, amid a set of music that almost showcases him as too cool for any moment, Gill dropped the fourth wall on two new tunes, "Sometimes" and "The Whole World," making calls inspired by conversations with Mavis Staples and Grammy-nominated folk singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier to reinvigorate social unity.

The family that sings together...

At present, Vince Gill is nominated for a 2023 Grammy award alongside Paul Franklin for an album honoring Ray Price's legacy. Amy Grant was also just seen standing alongside Trisha Yearwood on the Country Music Association's ABC-broadcasted "Country Christmas" special.

Thus, it seems necessary, but improbable, to discuss two performers with nearly a century of experience being legacy artists.

However, 22-year-old Corinna Grant Gill was onstage four times. Her cover of Michael W. Smith's "All Is Well" -- even in the same set where her parents' take on "Emmanuel" was accompanied by a drop of red, white and green balloons and "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" was accompanied by cotton "snowballs" being thrown around the crowd -- was a showstopper.

As well, as a tandem, Gill and Grant's timing onstage feels like what watching Antonio Carlos Jobim and Frank Sinatra perform standards was like. The show-opener, "Most Wonderful Time Of The Year," featured the duo's vocals and a jazzy guitar solo from Gill. The show closed with a cover of Kenny Rogers' "Til the Season Comes Around Again," which had every bit of the sheen of the country's 80s pop era blended with the accumulated skills of Gill and Grant's stylings.

The past five decades of music have unfurled a tie thicker than the Gordian knot between pop's varied meanderings. As handled by maestros of the craft of beloved, popular music, Christmas -- as noted by Grant, a season for community and togetherness -- is when these notions are showcased best.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Vince Gill, Amy Grant pair for 100th Ryman Christmas performance