Vince Gill has made a lot of albums over the years, but none perhaps quite as ambitious as These Days. The four-disc project, out in 2006, had a total of 43 different songs.
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"That was like a Fleetwood Mac record," Gill jokes in Circle Country, referencing the rock group's history of releasing massive projects. "It cost so much. It cost a ton of money."
Gill decided to release These Days, after realizing that his days of having hits on the charts were likely behind him.
"The radio world of country music had basically shown me the door, and weren't going to play too much of my current music anymore," Gill recounts. "I saw the writing on the wall. I got to thinking about records ... I might write 60, 70 songs to find eight or 10 that you could put on a record, maybe more. And so, you've got all these songs over the last 30 years that have found their way to the bottom of a desk drawer, and never seen again. There might have been some good songs in there. You never know."
For better or worse, the Grand Ole Opry member realized he finally had time to make the record he had always wanted to make, with the end result being These Days.
"I had plenty of time, and I had written a ton of songs," Gill explains. "I just started recording these songs."
How "These Days" Became So Massive
Gill had no idea when he went into the studio that he was going to leave with a four-disc project. But as he was recording the songs, he kept asking the studio musicians to come back again, because he was enjoying the process so much.
"After a few weeks of this, I looked up and I had recorded like 32 songs," Gill remembers. "And some pretty cool records had shown up because of it."
Instead of "punting 25," Gill decided to just keep going so he could use all of the songs.
It was his record company that had the idea to do a boxed set, combining similar sounds on one album. It also allowed Gill to tap into his bluegrass roots, a personal favorite of his.
"It was easily the most rewarding creative stretch of my life," Gill says. "Getting to go in so many different ways. I did a jazz duet with Diana Krall. I did a bluegrass duet with Del McCoury."
