Vince Gill live in Escondido, CA
(photos by Jarrod Vrazel : ACountry.com)
Vince Gill showcased 3 1/2 hours of fan favorites and new music at the California Center For The Arts in Escondido, CA on November 11, 2006. Backed by a 17-piece band, Gill’s musicianship lit up the stage, taking fans on a musical journey featuring selections from his new 4-cd album These Days, including duets with his wife, Amy Grant.
Vince kicked off the show with three fan favorites, including a dazzlying guitar solo on Oklahoma Borderline, then launched into selections from These Days, including great stories about the individual songs and how the project developed. 
In an era of record industry consolidation and the blurring of genres, Gill’s musicianship speaks for itself. Packaging a nice variety of styles with an interesting array of themes, the crowd was tapping their toes to groovy tunes one minute and kicking back to bluegrass the next.
Leading up to “I Can’t Let Go,” Vince explained that he tries to include at least one waltz on an album because its the only dance he knows. He told the story of his mother teaching him to dance the waltz as a young boy. After performing the song, he said the woman who sang the waltz his mother taught him to dance to was in the audience. He then invited Patti Page onstage. The audience gave Patti a standing ovation as she took the stage and sang her #1 hit from 1950, Tennesse Waltz. During the instrumental portion of the song, she danced the waltz with Vince. Vince choked back tears and said he would cherish this evening for the rest of his life.
Patti Page and Vince Gill
Tennessee Waltz was Patti Page’s biggest hit and was Number One for 13 weeks in 1950. She also scored twenty-eight Top Ten hits, including #1’s All My Love/(Bolero) (1950), I Went To Your Wedding (1952), and (How Much Is That) Doggie In The Window (1953).
Patti Page sings “Tennessee Waltz” for Vince Gill
The show also featured aspects of each of the four components of These Days: Workin’ On a Big Chill (The Rockin’ Record, The Reason Why (The Groovy Record), Some Things Never Get Old (The Country & Western Record), and Little Brother (The Acoustic Record). Additional highlights included “The Key To Life” and the set closing epic, “What You Give Away.”
These Days is the perfect stocking stuffer for all the music lovers on your list. Buy These Days now and discover The Reason Why Vince Gill is the must-have artist of the year.
“These Days” is a signal achievement for Mr. Gill, a musical ecumenist who brooks few distinctions between art and entertainment. The four CD‚Äôs not only testify to his depth and range as a musician, but do so, as Mr. Gill has often done, through collaborations that smack more of mutual inspiration than of back-scratching or expediency.”
— New York Times
“The musicianship is peerless, the vocals pure as mountain air and the production flawless.”
— Dallas Morning News
“Gill’s a breath-taking guitar player…the 4 cd set pays tribute to all these aspects of Gill’s musical personality — the country rocker, the bluegrass picker, the slick sentimentalist and the traditional country boy. The musicianship on this is virtuosic, never a stray note or breath.”
— NPR’s Day To Day
“What it all adds up to is that this is Gill’s masterwork. It’s an exhaustive, profound, fun and fulfilling set that not only gives fans something to delight in‚ĶIt is one of the major recordings not only of 2006, but of the decade so far — in any genre. This is the treatment a seasoned artist like Gill deserves, and along with the benefit and support of being able to indulge in such a project, it lives up to the responsibility of delivering the goods in abundance.”
— All Access Music
photos by Jarrod Vrazel : ACountry.com
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