John Prine was a master of the American song. With a conversational delivery, a folky wit, deep empathy for the human condition, and a constant twinkle in his eye, he created subtle masterpieces that charmed listeners and slipped in life truths with devastating lines such as, “Silence is golden until it screams in your bones.” He died of complications from COVID in 2020. In October 2022, on Prine’s birthday, a concert was held at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium to celebrate his life: “You Got Gold: A Celebration of John Prine.”

If you come to this hoping for an overview of Prine’s life and extensive vintage footage, you will be left wanting. There are some old concert clips and a smattering of home movies, but that’s all. If you come for contemporary artists and Prine’s fellow travelers putting on a show, then you’re in the right place. Twenty or so artists perform a song each. Not all are played straight through—some are interrupted by talking-head commentary—but there is still plenty of good music.

The most interesting moments are not necessarily the interviews, though there are many highlights, from the likes of Lyle Lovett, Jason Isbell, Kacey Musgraves, and, of course, Bonnie Raitt, who remembers “tearing across the country” with Prine when they toured together in their early twenties. Tyler Childers delivers the quote of the film: “John Prine was cool as I hoped he’d be and cooler.”

Many of the performances run through the songs without necessarily putting a personal stamp on them, which is fine when you have the likes of Steve Earle and Bob Weir performing said songs. The concert really comes to life when the performers’ idiosyncrasies inhabit Prine’s material—he was idiosyncratic himself—such as when the War and Treaty duo turn “Knockin’ on Your Screen Door” into a soul-drenched barnburner or when Dwight Yoakam adds some western-swing bite to “Spanish Pipedream.” And, of course, Raitt owns “Angel from Montgomery.” Her flag is firmly planted in it, and though this must be her 50,000th time singing it (with an assist from Brandi Carlile), it’s as fresh as if she were performing it for the first time.

If you’re a fan of John Prine or of roots music and Americana, You Got Gold: A Celebration of John Prine is a feast. Hopefully, anyone else who sees it will gain an appreciation for a songwriter whom Bob Dylan considers one of his favorites, once describing Prine’s lyrics as “Midwestern mind trips to the nth degree.”