The End Of The Night trip begins with “New Kind of Lonely,” which mines a soulful groove with atmospheric pedal steel from Paul Franklin and “blood harmony” backing vocals by Gill and his daughter, Jenny Gill. It’s the first time he has written with Barry Dean, who has penned hits for Little Big Town, Tim McGraw, and Tenille Townes, among others. “A lot of these songs I’m writing with people I’ve never gotten to write with before, which has created a whole new creative world for me,” Gill notes.
End Of The Night's title track, meanwhile, was co-written with Jeremy Spillman and Jordan Fletcher. "I always have an idea in my back pocket, so we don’t show up and just sit in a room and stare at each other,” Gill explains. If the song has hints of the Eagles, a band Gill has been part of since 2017, it’s no accident; it even has “intentional” references to a “sad cafe” and the Sunset Grill that the group’s Don Henley sang about on his 1985 solo hit.
“She’s an Angel” maintains the melancholy in devastating fashion (“Oh, I couldn’t wake her / Lord, why did you take her? / I never got to tell her goodbye”) within what Gill considers “a Fleetwood Mac-y sounding record” he created with contemporary hitmaker HARDY. “I love that guy,” Gill says. “I love his way with words—just really, thoughtful.”
Penned with Jason Nix and Driver Williams, “What I Love About Love” features a duet with Gill’s longtime friends, Lady A. “I remember when we first started working on it, I said, ‘This reminds me of a Lady A song,’ and they were kind enough to come in and make it pretty cool. We had a ball.”
“We are lifelong fans of Vince Gill," said Lady A’s Hillary Scott. "I’ll never forget hearing this song for the first time on Vince’s iPhone speaker backstage in Nashville last fall when he shared it with us. Being asked to be a part of this project is truly humbling and an unforgettable experience.”
Gill’s former bandmate Andrea Zonn, now with James Taylor, provides harmony vocals on “Where Will My Heart Go Now,” which he co-wrote with Liz Rose. “I’m always casting singers, like maybe a director does a movie,” explains Gill. “I think, ‘Who’s the right person for this part?’ It’s more than just getting the Rolodex out and calling a singer—it has to be the right voice with the right song.”
Gill wrote “How in the World Did I Ever Lose You” with Jack Schneider, a onetime member of his touring band who has gone on to his own recording career. Schneider returns to play acoustic guitar on the track. “We started with that first line (‘The worst night of my life has sure got me down / Your words cuttin’ like a knife, said “I’m leavin’ town”’)—it starts off sad and doesn’t disappoint,” Gill says. “I think first lines, the first couple lines of songs, are everything." Schneider is also the photographer of all the guitars featured on the 50 Years From Home series.
End Of The Night also provides a showcase for Gill’s well-established guitar acumen, a skill that ranges from supple and subtle to biting and has earned him multiple Grammy Awards for Best Country Instrumental Performance, along with numerous honors recognizing his musicianship including induction in the Musicians Hall of Fame. Appropriately, the EP’s cover features the 1967 Gibson ES-335 guitar his parents bought him as a Christmas present when he was 10 years old, which he has kept and continues to play.
Like the other 50 Years From Home EPs, End Of The Night was produced by Gill at his home studio near Nashville, with engineers Justin Niebank and Matt Rausch and a core group of musicians that includes Franklin, guitarists Jedd Hughes and Tom Bukovac, bassist Jimmie Lee Sloas, keyboardists Gordon Mote and John Jarvis, and drummer Fred Eltringham. Commemorating his departure from Oklahoma to begin his music career in earnest, he has been releasing a new EP each month, drawing from songs he has accumulated mostly over the past few years, with each collection built around a unifying theme. “I’m grouping them together and telling my story,” Gill explains. “Each one’s different, but they’re all part of what I do. It’s very rewarding.”
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