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AMERICAN country star Vince Gill is special guest on the Pio McCann Show on Highland Radio this Saturday morning.
Dubbed the 'un-official ambassador of country music,' Gill has straddled the top rung of his profession for three decades, selling in excess of 22 million records and lifting 18 Grammy awards and the same number of CMAs in the process.
The interview is just the latest in a long line of exclusives that Pio has managed to snap up in recent times. Other stars to share the studio microphone with him have included the likes of Dolly Parton, Garth Brooks, Johnny Cash, Keith Urban, Trisha Yearwood, Kris Kristofferson, Reba McEntire and Dwight Yoakam.
Vince Gill outlines to Pio how he got initially interested in country music right through getting his first break to his collaborations with some of the greatest stars around.
"I was just a kid and boy it seems like I could just about walk and I was tryin' to drag a guitar around and play it," he told Pio. "My dad played and his mother played the piano and my mom played the harmonica. My big brother played a little bit, so there was always somebody punking around on an instrument."
By the time he was in high school, Vince Gill had become proficient on the banjo and guitar and joined his first bluegrass band. In 1983 he signed to RCA Records and scored his first solo country hits, among them Oklahoma Borderline and Cinderella. Nashville provided a musical backdrop to his career.
"I have always been pretty mesmerised by this town and the music of this town. It has always been a big songwriters' town. You just feel the sense of community and it's still a place today where people can still just gather round and play music together."
Gill also speaks of his long association with Mark Knopfler and his regret at not being able to take up an offer to join Dire Straits.
"In the late 80s or early 90s Mark came to see me. He asked if I would join Dire Straits and go on a world tour for a year and a half. I just said, man if you'd asked me a year ago, I'd have been there in a heartbeat but I'd just signed a new record deal and I didn't want to give that up. Later on, I got to work on all Mark's records anyway - but I got to save on all that travel."
Gill's current project is a four-CD set of 43 new and original songs that MCA Records released under the title These Days. The collection is an artistic tour de force that displays Gill's mastery of lyrics and musical styles, ranging from traditional country and bluegrass to jazz and rock.
These Days features such musical guests as Sheryl Crow, Diana Krall, Bonnie Raitt, Gretchen Wilson, Del McCoury, Amy Grant, Phil Every, Lee Ann Womack, Trisha Yearwood, Emmylou Harris and John Anderson, among others.
"The only reason to do it was because of the diversity," Gill says, referring to the project. "I wouldn't want to have listened to me sing 43 country songs you know I'd have shot myself. But the fact that there's so much diversity, so many great collaborations on this record and it's not just about me - it's old friends, new friends, it was really an honour to put all this together."
Summing up, he reflects on his performances in Ireland down through the years and spoke highly of the reception he continually enjoyed from local fans.
"I've played music in front of people for over 30 years and this is not just blowing smoke but the couple of times that I've been lucky enough to come to Ireland, I've never felt from a crowd what I felt there about music.
"I think that our culture in the US and our country we like music, but it's not like such a part of our soul and our hearts and I must say that it was the most spiritual experience I've ever had playing music.
"The way the people of Ireland responded was the way you wish every night you step on a stage could make you feel."
* The Vince Gill interview will be broadcast on the
Pio McCann Show on Highland Radio this Saturday, March 31 from 12-2pm.
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