vince gill go rest high on that mountain 1st story

And along the way he's turned a lot of other people's records into hits.' It's because he loves throwing that vocal wrinkle in there. 'It's certainly not because he needs the money. 'That's why Vince still sings on everybody's records,' says MCA Nashville President Tony Brown, who got to know Gill when they were both members of Rodney Crowell's fabled Cherry Bombs band in the mid-'80s. I heard her singing harmony on a Linda Ronstadt record and I said, Wow, who's that voice?' I thought it was Dolly Parton using a fake name because she was so famous!' 'I used to buy record after record after record just because of who played on it, or who sang on it. 'There's nothing like it,' says Gill, who had done hundreds of recording sessions and calls it pleasure rather than work. 'Neat' may be the quintessential Vince Gill word. Grandma and Grandpa are going to check out the livestock, the kids are gonna eat cinnamon rolls and corn dogs and they all wind up at the show together that night. 'They're fun - a different crowd than you get in any other venue. If you got too big for your britches, it was time to get your butt kicked a little bit.' Tenor of His Timeīefore show time at the West Virginia State Fair, Gill surveys the audience.

'And though I didn't grow up on a farm - my dad was a lawyer, so I grew up in the city all normal and middle-class - there was not a lot of arrogance in our family, not a lot of flaunting any achievement or any of that stuff. 'My family came from hard-working farm people,' Gill says. Perpetually affable, easily approachable, he seems miraculously ego-deficient, as if there were no way he ever could get above his raising. The only thing more impressive than Gill's curriculum vitae is his reputation as the Nicest Guy in Nashville. If it were a state fair, the judges would probably retire Gill, particularly since he won male vocalist of the year five straight times and entertainer of the year twice. This year will mark the seventh straight year Gill has hosted the prestigious awards show. It's evident in the egalitarianism of his stage show, as well as in the wry asides and gentle barbs that have made the tall, soft-spoken Gill the perfect host for the annual Country Music Awards. It's evident in his expressive tenor vocals inspired by the high lonesome sound of bluegrass Gill is considered the best harmony singer in country. That's evident in Gill's dexterous guitar playing - Mark Knopfler once tried to draft him into Dire Straits. I got to see that in my youth and it's never gone away - it still feels like the same thing.' No one was trying to be better than another player, nobody was trying to work their way up the totem pole. 'All the guys had regular day jobs but they loved to get together and pick bluegrass. 'Some of the bands I was in in high school were that way, too,' he adds. They just loved music so much that they played it all the time. Nobody ever figured on making a living doing it, nobody wanted to have hit records. 'And the beauty of my upbringing, and my father's playing, was that I got to see firsthand how much fun music could be when it was just for the music. 'His passing reminded me of all the things that I loved and missed about the country music I grew up with,' Gill explains. Stan Gill played banjo and guitar in a part-time country band in Norman, Okla., which is where Vince's first musical experiences - and crucial aesthetic lessons - came from. The title comes from the album closer, 'The Key to Life,' Gill's tribute to his father, a retired federal appellate court judge who died last year.

'The Key' celebrates several classic periods in country music: the cosmopolitan Nashville Sound and its twangy Bakersfield counterpart from the '60s, hard-core honky-tonk from the '50s, Western swing from the '40s, as far back as Appalachian mountain music from the '30s. Gill, 41, who performs at Wolf Trap tonight and tomorrow, has spent the summer on the county fair circuit because it is a lucrative one, and because he's promoting a new album.

In fact, he probably needs a small barn to house all the trophies he's accumulated in the past eight years, including 11 Grammys and 17 Country Music Awards - more of the latter than any artist in history.

Among the competitive corn, tomatoes, cows and quilts that are on display here at the West Virginia State Fair, Vince Gill is a proven winner.

Vince gill go rest high on that mountain 1st story