When Love Finds You (CD - 1994)

Personnel: Vince Gill (vocals, acoustic & electric guitar, mandolin); Randy Scruggs (acoustic guitar); Steuart Smith (guitar); John Hughey (steel guitar); Stuart Duncan (fiddle); Barry Beckett, Matt Rollings (piano); John Barlow Jarvis (piano, electric piano, Hammond B-3, keyboards, synthesizer); Steve Nathan (Hammond B-3); Pete Wasner (Wurlitzer, keyboards, synthesizer); Willie Weeks, Michael Rhodes (bass); Carlos Vega, Milton Sledge (drums); Tom Roady (percussion).

Background vocals: Billy Thomas, Jonell Mosser, Jeff White.

Recorded at Soundstage Studios, Nashville, Tennessee.

All songs written or co-written by Vince Gill.

"When Love Finds You" won the 1995 Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance. "When Love Finds You" was also nominated for Best Country Song, and WHEN LOVE FINDS YOU was nominated for Best Country Album.

"Go Rest High On That Mountain" won 1996 Grammy Awards for Best Male Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Song.

"Go Rest High On That Mountain" won the 1996 Country Music Association Award for Song Of The Year.

A country singer who melts hearts with his voice, and not with tight jeans and a big hat, is a rare commodity. Vince Gill, who possesses one of the most beautiful voices in popular music, effectively distills the varied elements of country music's roots and has become Nashville's leading man.

Gill, a bluegrass virtuoso and rock guitar master (he was asked to join Dire Straits), has created a niche for himself as the man who best gives voice to the pain of heartache and longing through his spine-tingling high notes. This Oklahoma tenor melds his harmonies with the likes of Patty Loveless and Trisha Yearwood and comes out with a single-voiced backdrop for some of country's most intense heartbreak ballads.

His athletic guitar solos on the up-beat cuts, "What The Cowgirls Do" and "South Side Of Dixie" (a Southern version of "California Girls"), are a perfect counterpoint to the soaring, soulful, ethereal ballads like "When Love Finds You." Vince and his wife, Janis (of Sweethearts Of The Rodeo), even share an autobiographical writing collaboration on "Maybe Tonight."

Gill's closing song, his original, modern spiritual, "Go Rest On The Mountain," sums it up the best, when he sings, "I wish I could see the angel's faces, when they hear your sweet voice." Sweet voice, indeed.

Personnel: Vince Gill (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mandolin, background vocals); Randy Scruggs (acoustic guitar); Billy Joe Walker, Jr., Steuart Smith, Billy Joe Walker (electric guitar); John Hughey (steel guitar); Stuart Duncan (fiddle); Michael Omartian (accordion, piano, synthesizer); John Barlow Jarvis (piano, Wurlitzer organ); John Jarvis (piano, synthesizer); Matt Rollings, Barry Beckett (piano); Steve Nathan (organ); Pete Wasner (keyboards, synthesizer); Milton Sledge, Carlos Vega (drums); Tom Roady (percussion); Dawn Sears, Jeff White, Jonell Mosser, Alison Krauss, Michael McDonald , Amy Grant, Patty Loveless, Ricky Skaggs, Trisha Yearwood, Billy Thomas (background vocals).

Recording information: SoundStage.

Photographer: Naomi Kaltman.

By 1994, Vince Gill was a bona fide country superstar. His recordings had sold into the millions and his tours were sellouts around the globe. He was ubiquitous on the radio as well. Producer Tony Brown took an even heavier hand on Gill's recordings, even though Gill's own songs dominated his records. The tightrope walk between a handsome tender country-pop balladeer and the rootsy rocking honky tonk guitar picker was beginning to fall on the side of the ballads. It was working on the charts, but some of Gill's older fans -- those familiar with his multifaceted talent -- began to grow weary of him playing it so safe. There are only three uptempo cuts on When Love Finds You: the tough rockabilly swagger that is at the heart of "South Side of Dixie," the honky tonk shuffle "What the Cowgirls Do," and the midtempo country-rocker "You Better Think Twice." The rest are ballads -- every last one of them -- but there are a few real gems, including the opener, "Whenever You Come Around," and the stunning title track. ~ Thom Jurek minimize