For an example, look no farther than the EP opener and title track, a gentle and sentimental country ode co-written with Jordan Fletcher and Maggie Rose, who also sings backing vocals. “It hearkens back to me leaving home, 51 years ago now.”
I packed my bags and left my mother
standing there with a broken heart.
“Maggie and Jordan liked the idea, and away we went writing.” Rose adds, “I wrote ‘A Mother’s Prayer’ with Vince and Jordan as an ode to our moms who have always supported us and let us chase our dreams, and this was a few months before I found out I would become a mother myself. The gratitude I feel towards my mother has only amplified and getting the chance to pay tribute to her with an artist as legendary as Vince makes me want to say ‘Hey, Mom! I have a song with Vince Gill!’”
“A Mother’s Prayer” is one of two tracks on the album on which Gill’s buddy Charlie Worsham plays banjo.
Gill wrote “Don’t Keep Me Waiting” with Nathan Chapman—best known for co-producing Taylor Swift’s first five albums—building it out from a “hooky little lick” at the beginning of the song.
“This Heart Of Mine,” co-written with Breland, is a soulful, doo-wop tune—with Wendy Moten guesting on backing vocals and Charlie Judge providing strings—that’s unlike anything Gill has included yet on the 50 Years From Home series, or even throughout his entire career. “I stumbled into that kind of feel and thought it would be suitable for this song. The idea comes from an old Otis Redding song called ‘These Arms of Mine’ that was such a classic record that Otis made, so I went somewhat in that direction with it.”
The lullaby-like "My Daughter," penned with Joy Williams (The Civil Wars), will make you reach for the Kleenex box with a heartstring-tugging remembrance from when Gill and wife Amy Grant began dating during the late 90s. "This came straight from her mother's mouth," Gill recalls. "When Amy and I got together, she took my face in her hands and said, 'I need to say thank you for giving me my daughter back.' It was interesting because she knew her kid better than anybody and knew what she'd been through, and with all the naysayers and negative comments that were being said about me, about us, those were pretty powerful words to hear. It was an interesting perspective to write a song from."
“My Daughter” dovetails into the next track, "Forever In My Mind," a warmly sentimental, piano-led ode— albeit with a characteristically memorable guitar solo—that Gill wrote with good pal Brent Loper. "This one really feels like it's the story of me and Amy," says Gill. It also features the couple's daughter Corrina singing harmony. "It made sense our child should be singing harmony on a song that was inspired by Amy," Gill notes.
The melodic, full-bodied "Roses And Diamonds," meanwhile, has a long history with Gill and co-writer John Jarvis, who also co-wrote Gill's first No. 1 Country single, "I Still Believe In You," in 1992. Although Gill and Jarvis started writing “Roses And Diamonds” 33 years ago, "We couldn't figure out how to unlock the idea and make it make sense," he explains. Flash forward to this year and a sleepless night, "and all of a sudden I figured it out," Gill says. "We were cutting tracks the next day, and I said, 'Hey, John, I've got a surprise for you. Remember 'Roses And Diamonds?' 'Yeah, we could never figure it out.' `Well, I think I figured it out.' I played it for him and he goes, 'Man, that's great. How'd you do that?' 'I dunno. I was just lying in bed and that showed up.' So that's really dear, something that came from such a long, long time ago and found its way to the forefront again."
Appropriately, then, "I Still Believe In You" takes the closing spot on A Mother's Prayer as the previous hit single Gill chose to include on this EP.
Like the other 50 Years From Home EPs, A Mother's Prayer 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 John Jarvis and Gordon Mote on piano, guitarists Jedd Hughes and Tom Bukovac, steel guitarist Paul Franklin, Jim "Moose" Brown on organ, bassist Jimmie Lee Sloas and drummer Fred Eltringham. Longtime friend Andrea Zonn, now part of James Taylor's band, provided backing vocals on "Roses And Diamonds." Commemorating his departure from Oklahoma to begin his music career in earnest, Gill has been releasing a new EP each month, drawing from songs he's written primarily over the past few years.
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