Vince Gill has always been an artist who loved playing live so much, he would probably play all night if he was allowed to.
“It’s so much fun,” Gill said of live performing. “I’ve had so many years of playing gigs where you only could play a certain length of time. I was an opening act for a long time. … I’ve always played long shows when I’ve had the opportunity to get to play. I was one that never believed leaving them wanting more was that great of an idea.”
Gill performs Thursday at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle.
These days, Gill isn’t leaving fans with much reason to want more, either on stage, or for that matter, with his latest recordings.
His new release, “These Days,” includes four CDs of new material, with each disc falling into a different style – rocking country, traditional country, grooving pop-flavored material and bluegrass-oriented songs.
Gill’s live shows supporting “These Days” are just as generous. He’s playing for about three hours and bringing a 17-member band to cover the considerable stylistic and instrumental territory that is represented on the four CDs. And if anything, Gill said, these concerts are tighter musically than his typical shows.
Clearly, releasing a four-CD set of new material all at once is an unconventional move. In fact, it’s pretty much unprecedented.
And it wasn’t at all the plan. Gill said he originally planned to release the usual single CD of new material. But Gill realized he always tended to write many more songs for a CD than he needed, and the leftover songs would remain unfinished or unrecorded and never get revisited.
“You get tired of having songs go by the wayside that could turn into great records,” Gill said.
With no strict deadline looming to deliver a record, Gill kept working on his newest songs. He eventually had three CDs of material, which gave him an idea for how to release the music.
“My original concept was to finish these three records and maybe release them all separately, every few months, something like that,” Gill said.
Instead, Luke Lewis, head of Gill’s record company, UMG Nashville, proposed doing one better – adding a fourth disc – and releasing all four in a box set.
After making a name for himself as a member of Pure Prairie League (he sang the hit “Let Me Love You Tonight”), Gill moved on to a solo career that took off in 1989 when he signed to MCA Records and released the CD “When I Call Your Name.”
That album started an uninterrupted run of six studio CDs that each sold more than one million copies and together spawned more than 20 top-10 country hits.
But in the late 1990s, Gill’s winning streak dried up. Radio turned away from his music, and his previous CD, “Next Big Thing” – which Gill said he considers his best album – stalled out at 300,000 copies sold.
He hasn’t given up on radio play, but believes that programmers don’t consider his music a good fit for their playlists.
But Gill said he’s also learned to trust his own instincts in making music and not let sales totals dictate his feelings about his work.
“I think I’ve learned to let go of the results,” he said. “And there’s a difference between letting go and not caring. But if I realize they’re out of my hands, I can’t let the results dictate to me whether something was good or not.”
Los Angeles Times photo
Vince Gill performs Thursday in Seattle.
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