NashvilleGab - Country music news and Nashville celebrity gossip

Vince Gill officially reaches icon status!

Music Row Magazine announced that Vince Gill will be receiving BMI's Icon Award! Which, for his many fans, is no surprise as he has been an icon in their eyes for a while! The invitation-only event is slated for Tuesday, Nov. 4 at BMI’s Music Row offices in Nashville. His awards and accomplishments have helped make him a true ambassador of the genre! Congrats Vince!

Vince Gill is a new grandpa

Photo: Facebook 

Congratulations going out to Vince Gill who is a new grandpa.

Vince's daughter Jenny and her husband, drummer Josh Van Valkenburg, welcomed their first child, a son named Wyatt Gill Van Valkenburg, on Monday, People.com is reporting.

The proud first-time granddad made the announcement during a concert earlier this week. 

Congrats to @VGcom who announced from the stage he is a new Grandpa! pic.twitter.com/msYKbvHnGg

— The Time Jumpers (@TheTimeJumpers) August 5, 2014

Josh and Jenny, the only daughter of Vince and his first wife, Sweethearts of the Rodeo singer Janis Oliver, married back in 2010. The singer announced her pregnancy earlier this year in a Facebook post.  

"Josh and I are so excited to be parents!" she wrote at the time.

Vince Gill is currently on tour. Fans can find a full list of tour dates here.

Mary Sarah: Scott Borchetta hasn't called

Photo courtesy Mary Sarah

Country music mogul Scott Borchetta better get on the phone, like NOW! Newcomer Mary Sarah is going to be scooped up quickly once word gets out about her 'Bridges' album. Just how did she land duets with Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Merle Haggard, Ray Price, and Vince Gill?! She explains below (or here if that doesn't work).

Vince Gill to become a new grandpa

Photo: Facebook

A big congrats going out to Vince Gill whose daughter, singer Jenny Gill, announced on Facebook a couple of weeks back that she's pregnant. 

Thanks for all your posts!! Josh and I are so excited to be parents! I am 18 weeks along which makes me due in mid August. Will keep you posted 

According to Taste of Country, Jenny and her husband, Josh Van Valkenburg, married in 2010 but have known each other since they were kids. 

Vince Gill personally confronts Westboro Baptist picketers at his concert

As for the famous grandpa-to-be, a commentor on Jenny's Facebook post remembered back when he interviewed Vince and asked him if he was ready to be a grandparent. The singer said at the time, "If it happens, I'm all about it. I've earned it!"

Awww. Kids are great, but grandkids are even better. Grandkids are always happy to see you and you can send them home when they get grumpy and sticky. 

Jenny is the only child of Vince and his first wife, Janis Oliver. 

[Taste of Country]

Cracker Barrel releases Vince Gill and Paul Franklin's 'Bakersfield: Deluxe Edition today

Today, Cracker Barrel Old Country Store® releases Bakersfield: Deluxe Edition, an exclusive and expanded edition of the critically-acclaimed album from 20x GRAMMY Award-winning artist Vince Gill and famed steel guitarist Paul Franklin. The critically-acclaimed CD contains four additional songs (for a total of 14) and retails for $11.99 at all Cracker Barrel Old Country Store® locations and online at crackerbarrel.com. The digital version will be available beginning tomorrow, Tuesday Jan. 28, via iTunes and Amazon.com.

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Vince Gill personally confronts Westboro Baptist picketers at his concert

 

Mad respect going out to Vince Gill who yesterday at his concert in Kansas City, Missouri left the confines of the Kauffman Center to confront the ass-hats from Westboro Baptist Church who decided to picket the show due to Vince being an "adulter" in their eyes. 

From the YouTube description:

Vince Gill meets WBC in Kansas City, MO -- at his Concert on 9/8/13 at Kauffman Center -- they picketed him because he is an "adulterer." Vince clearly left his southern hospitality in the ... somewhere else! And the Westboro Baptists tell him Jesus says he is only supposed to have one wife ... And that he is married to "another Man's wife." Vince responds with Jesus' love.

Apparently the group had a problem with the fact that Vince had gotten divorced and remarried in the past. Strange that the WBC would give a crap about Vince and his marriage situation, but nothing really surprises me these with these people. 

[Source: Facebook]

Kelly Clarkson does Vince Gill proud by covering "Go Rest High On That Mountain"

 

This video of Kelly Clarkson performing Vince Gill's Go Rest High On That Mountain as a tribute to her guitar player's uncle who passed away is actually several months old, but GodTube recently posted it and now it's trending on Google. 

As it should be, this is absolutely mesmerizing. I think Kelly should seriously consider recording this song and releasing it. I'd definitely want it played at my funeral. 

Better yet, Kelly and Vince should record it and release it as a duet. Could you imagine? 

“Don’t Cross Me Wrong” single by John Oates & Vince Gill set for release July 16 (from the mailbag)

 

John Oates is taking fans on a cross-genre journey with his latest project, Good Road To Follow. The second single "Don't Cross Me Wrong," a forewarning blues-rock track written and produced with country icon Vince Gill, will be released on July 16.

"Having the chance to write, record and co-produce with Vince Gill was, without a doubt, a highlight in my musical life, adds Oates when asked about the single. "I've been a fan of Vince for years and consider him to be one of the greatest vocalists and guitarists of our time."

The song, which is the first collaboration between Oates and Gill, proved to be an effortless partnership. Written in Gill's living room, Oates notes that the idea started with a title and developed easily, "We wrote the song in literally a half an hour. In fact, it happened so quickly, I kind of looked at him and said, 'did we just finish this?'"

Hall & Oates legend enlists Taylor Swift and Vince Gill to help him out

 

John Oates of Hall & Oates fame has a new project and he's enlisted the help of two of country's biggest names to help him out. 

John recently launched Good Road to Follow, a project which will have the singer releasing a single per month for the next year. Joining him on the project will be a few famous faces including Vince Gill, Taylor Swift, Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic, and Hot Chelle Rae.  

John says about the project, "Almost every song is done with a different producer and a different co-writer, so I get to step into the worlds of other people. Some people I’ve worked with in the past, some people I’ve never met. I reached out to the songwriters, musicians and producers that I respect and asked them if they would work with me on one individual song. It was a pure collaboration from writing to recording. My idea was to share an intense creative experience and not get bogged down in a long drawn out album project.

"This project is about getting people to capture the moment, capture their attention and getting them to respond to it. I’d go to a record store and buy a 45, so it’s cool. It seems that the album, as a medium, is quickly becoming a thing of the past. Don’t get me wrong, I love listening to an album’s worth of music, but the digital world has given people the freedom to download and create their own personal playlists."

The first single is called High Maintenance and features Hot Chelle Rae. Fans can watch John talk about it here and can purchase it on iTunes. There's no word on when fans can expect to hear Taylor Swift and Vince Gill's contributions, but can follow John's YouTube channel to keep track of the new tunes. 

{via Vintage Vinyl News}

CMAs Performance Review – Part 3 (the final one I swear!)

This is part 3 of my CMAs performance review series. If you missed parts 1 and 2, you can read them here and here. Now for the final instalment.

The CMAs continued with Jason Aldean performing his hit single ‘Take A Little Ride’. His vocals were okay, much better than on his earlier performance, although actually the backing vocals were pitched wrongly I feel and actually made all the vocals sound out of tune in places even though Jason was on point. I think in this instance they may have needed Jason’s vocals to be louder in the mix, because although he was singing in tune, particularly on the chorus (which should be a peak in the song) they just didn’t stand out and sounded weak. His outfit was nice, the waistcoat-and-casual-shirt-combo suited him, giving it a rustic feel, but as for the setup, well it was an average country-rock staging and lacked imagination at times. The much-talked-about duet of Kelly Clarkson and Vince Gill was next, and as expected Kelly’s vocals were great. I don’t think she ever has a bad vocal day! I loved the dress, gothic and on trend, however I felt like the performance was pretty much a reproduction of the studio version (perhaps because it’s a new single and they want to sell records but meh). It was done pretty plainly and simply but you could argue that it was appropriate for the song’s subject matter, promoting taking a back seat and just relaxing. Vince’s guitar playing was definitely a highlight of the performance for me.

The final original performance of the night was from Kenny Chesney, with his monster hit ‘Come Over’. I have to say something about the ‘look’ Kenny goes for nowadays, and personally I think he just looks a little creepy and I feel uncomfortable looking at him or watching him, but I don’t know why that is. I don’t know if it’s just me either. But that kind of ruins perfectly good performances for me. His vocals were on par but the performance itself was pretty basic, although I’m not sure a lot could be done with the song (that’s not to say Taylor Swift couldn’t have made it into a period narrative). I noticed during the night that a couple of performances used the song’s music video for the video footage in the background, and this was one of them. UNIMAGINATIVE! And self-promoting. I know that’s what all this is about but at least try to disguise it a little.

Following this, there was the tribute to Willie Nelson. Lady Antebellum sung two songs, ‘Always On My Mind’ and ‘Crazy’. Both Hillary and Charles looked incredibly awkward, especially the latter, though it was nice to hear Hillary sing in a more country twang style. Their vocals weren’t too bad, a little case of the flat liveness but that’s to be expected. It was a fairly average performance, modernising the more traditional sounds. Next up was Blake Shelton, Keith Urban and Mickey Raphael (Willie Nelson’s harmonica player) in a trio that stayed fairly true to the Western Honky-Tonk feel of the songs. They performed ‘Whiskey River’ with a rockin’ guitar solo which brought the performance into the 21^st century, but into the final chorus keeping traditional elements. This was very refreshing for a genre so plagued by pop and commercial influences, and especially since Keith Urban was involved in this and he’s usually one of the pop-ish perpetrators. Next was Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, performing ‘Good Hearted Woman’. They seemed to stick as well as they could to the original sound and feel of the song, but incorporated their typical on-stage chemistry of standing very close and singing to each other. It was kept very simple and stripped back, which was nice in comparison to the showbiz feel of the modern industry and these awards.

After this, Willie Nelson came to the stage and joined all the previous tribute performers for a rendition of ‘On The Road Again’. I have to say he never seems to age and his talent never seems to deteriorate! His vocals were still the same quality as they ever were and his guitar solo was right on point. Despite so many performers being on stage, he commanded the stage. It was nice to see such a unified tribute to him, although I found it interesting to honor someone who was previously part of the Western outlaw movement that rejected much of Nashville’s commercial ways and sounds, instead preferring a more ‘traditional’, and ‘true country’ aesthetic. But hey, he’s a legend now and he probably appreciates the recognition.

That was the final of the performances and it was a great way to end the show, despite the fact that the three-hour televised event didn’t start all too well in my opinion! There were ups and downs throughout, although I certainly enjoyed it, it’s great that country music continues to come together to celebrate a few times a year, even if some people don’t perform too well!

So what did you think of the performances? Do you agree with my opinions? Was there anyone you think should have performed and didn’t?  Did you enjoy the show? Let us know in the comments!

Posted by Vickye (Guest Writer).
If you want to check out my own blog it's For The Country Record, and you can follow me on twitter @planmymistake. You can email me at vickye.countrymusic@gmail.com.