Vince Gill was back in force at his July 10 concert at the Bell Auditorium.
More than once the country singer mentioned that it had been almost three years since he had taken the stage in a solo show, and the Augusta concert took place in his first weekend back. His enthusiasm for that return translated into an almost three-hour concert for his faithful fans who packed the arena.
Gill brought out some of his old tunes — some really old ones that he said nobody knew because nobody bought that record and some that were hidden in other recordings. He said he’d prepared for the tour by looking through his old songs.
“I found an old song. It’s a beautiful song that was released 40 years ago,” he said in introducing “Oh, Carolina.”
He also paid tribute to one of country music’s greats – Merle Haggard — by singing “Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down.”
He said he made a promise he’d always do one of Haggard’s songs in his concert.
Gill filled the spaces between the songs with stories and laughter.
Of course, he sang a cheating song.
“You always know it’s a good country song if there’s a chance someone is going to get his ass shot off,” said Gill before singing his 1991 song “Pocket Full of Gold.”
He balanced out the cheating songs with a few love songs including one he wrote about his wife, Amy Grant, “Whenever You Come Around.”
He mentioned Grant a few times on the night and proudly told the audience she was born in Augusta. He said he liked the city because of that fact as well as its tie to golf.
“I love the game of golf,” he said. He’d hoped at one time to be a professional golfer but “I was a better singer than putter. I made the right choice.”
Sharing the stage with Gill was the couple’s daughter, Corrina Grant Gill.
After the intermission, Gill brought Wendy Moten, his longtime backup singer, to the front. She sang five songs in a mini concert.
Moten, who finished second in the most recent season of “The Voice,” said she was raised on “Hee Haw” and “Soul Train.” Among the songs she sung were “Ode To Billie Joe,” “Don’t Touch Me” by Jennie Sealy and “Driving Nails in My Coffin” by Ernest Tubb.
After Moten’s performance which garnered her a standing ovation and caused Gill to comment they’d just been to church, Gill transitioned to the next part of the concert by saying he once heard Kenny Rogers give an interview where Rogers said he wanted to write songs that were “significant.”
Gill said that during the pandemic, it gave him a lot of time to think and to write some new songs. He sang some of those. One dealt with inequality; another dealt with the death of a soldier and another focused on his life as a musician. He sang a song he wrote the day after his best friend died.
When it was time for the final goodbye, Gill did what most artists do — he left until the crowd brought him back out for an encore. But his encore set featured three songs and ended on a crowd-pleaser of “Liza Jane.”
Charmain Z. Brackett is the managing editor of The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com.
