Vince Gill Returns to his Bluegrass Roots

To hear Vince Gill tell it, you’d think that he can’t play bluegrass music.

Gill played in several bluegrass bands in the beginning of his career, but “because none of those bands were recording at the time, I can’t prove it.” Only an average musician at the time, Gill sang harmony and played whatever instrument was left over, including guitar, mandolin, and third fiddle. The “highlight” of his bluegrass career came when Gill was still in high school and his bluegrass band was the emergency opening act for Kiss. The bluegrass boys lasted only two songs before they were hustled offstage amidst a torrent of boos and a barrage of beer cans thrown by some 5000 face-painted hard rock fans.

However, bluegrass has always been in Vince’s blood. He moved to Nashville and began playing mainstream country “to pay for my big house” shortly after the Kiss incident, but continued to play bluegrass informally and finally got a chance to record his first bluegrass album as part of the 2006 These Days project. As if anyone needed further proof that Gill is one of the most versatile musicians in the history of country music, it was difficult to distinguish Vince from some of bluegrass’ most legendary pickers in his Thursday night bluegrass performance at the Ryman Auditorium.

Certainly, there were rough edges. Before beginning an Osborne Brothers’ classic, Vince confessed that he didn’t know how the song began or ended, and proclaimed “Almost!” when he struck a wrong note during the opening mandolin riff before musing that “one fret makes a helluva difference.”

But Vince Gill’s famous high voice sounds more at home in the bluegrass genre than in mainstream country, and while he didn’t know every word and note to some of the songs in his set list, he gave a thoroughly liberated performance. Familiar Gill songs like “High Lonesome Sound” adapted well to a straight-up bluegrass arrangement and Vince’s performance of bluegrass standards left no doubt as to his ability to sing the genre’s best music.

Songs from the Little Brother record of These Days took center stage during the set. “Cold Gray Light of Gone” is the perfect example of a Gill composition that fails as a country song but excels as a bluegrass recording. “Sweet Augusta Darling,” Gill’s tribute to wife Amy Grant, featured Grand Ole Opry announcer Eddie Stubbs on the third fiddle. “All Prayed Up” was just one the night’s many gospel-bluegrass songs.

Grand Ole Opry star and bluegrass legend Jessie McReynolds and his Virginia Boys opened the show and, with Vince’s permission, Jessie broke one of music’s greatest unwritten rules by inviting the headliner to sing with him before Vince himself took the stage. McReynolds is one of the genre’s great mandolin stylists, and he demonstrated that his fingers are nimble as ever in the two furious instrumentals that closed his set. “Remember what you just saw,” host Eddie Stubbs advised the audience as McReynolds exited the stage, “because there aren’t many artists left who have truly helped to create and mold the bluegrass genre.” Most left the Ryman on Thursday night with the impression that, if only for a slightly different career choice, those words could have been equally applied to Vince Gill.

Update: Watch Vince’s performance of “Go Rest High on that Mountain” from the Ryman show: