Vince Gill

Nashville, Tenn., — Country Music Hall of Famer Vince Gill will bring his guitars, his songs, his voice and, most likely, many of his favorite collaborators when he takes the Ford Theater stage as the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum’s 2009 Artist-in-Residence. The Tuesday evening performances are slated for February 3, 17 and 24, 2009.

Established in 2003, the Museum’s residency program annually honors a musical master who can be credited with contributing a large and significant body of work to the canon of American popular music. Honorees are offered the Museum’s acoustic gem, the 213-seat Ford Theater, for the creation of up-close-and-personal musical experiences unique to the occasion and to Music City. Previous honorees include Cowboy Jack Clement, Earl Scruggs, Tom T. Hall, Guy Clark, Kris Kristofferson and Jerry Douglas.

The 2009 Artist-in-Residence programs are made possible in part by RJ Young.

Inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2007, Gill has been making music professionally for more than 30 years. Though he continues to strive for excellence with the same fervor he did as a boy, and as evidenced by 19 Grammy Awards in a variety of categories, he has long been acclaimed for his four-pack skill set — singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer. Almost half his Grammy awards were for musical collaborations with other artists.

Comparing him to his forebears in the Country Music Hall of Fame, Museum Director Kyle Young said that Gill’s “familiarity with a wide variety of vintage and current popular music informs his playing, his writing and his direction, a direction that borrows from memories of the past and results in music that is new.”

As a youngster in Norman, Oklahoma, Gill learned to play an assortment of stringed instruments and proved himself a precocious bluegrass student. Leaving home for Kentucky at age 18, his early professional life included work with Bluegrass Alliance and a brief stint with Ricky Skaggs in Boone Creek. He spent the late ’70s in Los Angeles where he worked in the groups Sundance and Pure Prairie League. Vince Gill was the lead singer on “Let Me Love You Tonight,” Pure Prairie League’s 1979 pop hit.

In the early ’80s, Gill joined the Cherry Bombs, the backing band for singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell, where he honed his instrumental chops and began to refine his songwriting skills. He also met his future album producers, Tony Brown and Emory Gordy, Jr.

In 1983, eight years after leaving Oklahoma, Vince Gill signed a solo recording contract with RCA Records and migrated to Nashville. “Victim of Life’s Circumstances,” his first single, charted in 1984. In 1987, he registered his first Top Five hit, “Cinderella.” Other notable 1980s-era hits included “If It Weren’t for Him” with Rosanne Cash and “Oklahoma Borderline,” co-written with Crowell and Guy Clark. As a studio musician and songwriter, he also contributed to albums by Rosanne Cash, Dire Straits, Emmylou Harris, Patty Loveless, Reba McEntire and Bonnie Raitt, and he toured with Harris.

Bonded by musical ecumenism, Gill and many of his egalitarian new colleagues blended Appalachian strings and traditional country themes with folk, rock and honky-tonk sensibilities to forge a movement that revitalized country music and continues to expand its audience.

By 1990, Vince Gill had moved to MCA Records and released his breakthrough album, When I Call Your Name, a collection of ballads and up-tempo songs showcasing his trueborn tenor and his extraordinary talent on guitar. The title song, with harmonies by Patty Loveless, earned Gill the CMA’s Single and Song of the Year Awards and a Grammy for Best Country Vocal Performance, Male. These were the first of what would become record-breaking strings of music industry accolades.

In the 1990s, Gill became one of country music’s dominant artists. He joined the cast of the Grand Ole Opry, where he remains a regular performer today. His #l hits in the decade include “I Still Believe in You,” “Don’t Let Our Love Start Slippin’ Away,” “The Heart Won’t Lie” with Reba McEntire, “One More Last Chance” and “Tryin’ to Get Over You.”

He was the CMA’s Entertainer of the Year in 1993 and 1994 and Male Vocalist of the Year from 1991 to 1995. His wins for CMA Song of the Year include “When I Call Your Name,” the title song from his MCA debut recording; “Look at Us” from Pocket Full of Gold; the 1992″I Still Believe in You,” his first #l hit; and “Go Rest High on That Mountain,” one of country music’s most profound spirituals.

As host of the CMA Awards from 1992 to 2003, Vince Gill’s wit and spontaneous humor endeared him to television audiences worldwide. He is the only person to host a televised awards show for that many consecutive years.

In 2000, Vince Gill married Amy Grant. The two often tour together and collaborate in the studio. Grant’s Rock of Ages, Hymns and Faith collection, co-produced by Gill, won a 2005 Grammy for Best Southern, Country, or Bluegrass Gospel Album.

At Eric Clapton’s invitation, Vince Gill has twice appeared at Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival alongside such other guitar gurus as B. B. King, Jeff Beck and Carlos Santana. He credits these props from Clapton as the inspiration for his most recent sonic Eden, These Days, a four-CD set of 43 original songs documenting his mastery of style and substance in country, bluegrass, jazz and rock. The album showcases Gill’s love for playing, singing, writing and producing with others, which he has said is his way of trying to make each work the best it can be.

“The Reason Why,” a collaboration with Alison Krauss from the romantic second chapter of These Days, won the 2006 Grammy for Best Male Country Performance. The album received a final nomination for the 2007 Grammy all-genre Best Album, and Gill took the 2007 Grammy for Best Country Album.

This past summer and fall, Gill followed his 2006 and 2007 mega-band tour de force with a stripped-down and critically acclaimed acoustic tour. In early December, he and Grant launched a 15-date Christmas tour with Gill’s daughter, Jenny, who is singing harmony in their 12-piece band.

Vince Gill residency event tickets ($40.00) will be on sale exclusively to Museum members December 15-16 by calling (615) 416-2001. (A one-year Museum membership is $25 for adults, $10 for youth.) Tickets will go on sale to the public at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday, December 17, and should be purchased online at www.countrymusichalloffame.com. For more information, call (615) 416-2001.

Museum doors open at 6:00 p.m. for the 7:00 p.m. shows.

These programs are made possible, in part, by grants from the Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission and by an agreement between the Tennessee Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Accredited by the American Association of Museums, the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum is operated by the Country Music Foundation, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) educational organization chartered by the state of Tennessee in 1964. The Museum’s mission is the preservation of the history of country and related vernacular music rooted in southern culture. With the same educational mission, the Foundation also operates CMF Records, the Museum’s Frist Library and Archive, CMF Press, Historic RCA Studio B and Hatch Show Print.

More information about the Country Music Hall of Fame^® and Museum is available at www.countrymusichalloffame.com