ince Gill’s new album is called Down to My Last Bad Habit. Longtime fans are sur-
A note on the table that told me goodbye,
Said you’d grown weary of living a lie,
Oh, your love has ended but mine still remains,
And nobody answers when I call your name.
Gill, an everyman with talent oozing from
his pores, is no quirky iconoclast like Merle
Haggard. No haunted loner like Johnny
Cash. No volatile power drinker like George
Jones. No unrepentant outlaw like Willie Nelson
or Waylon Jennings.
pioneers. Indeed, he was so overcome with
emotion that he was barely able to complete
a rendition of “Go Rest High on that
-
ing up.
Generally regarded as one of the saddest
country songs ever written, “Go Rest
High on that Mountain” was begun in 1989,
after the untimely death from alcohol
-
star Keith Whitley.
The song was completed in 1994, after
-
tack. It has subsequently dethroned “Amazing
Grace” as the most-performed song at
funerals:
Go rest high on that mountain,
Son, your work on earth is done,
Go to heaven a shoutin,’
Love for the Father and the Son.
a tribute song to Haggard called “A World
Without Merle Haggard.” The eulogic ballad,
performed at the Grand Ole Opry in
2016, praises the aptly named Poet of the
Common Man as “my greatest inspiration;
the reason I sing the blues.”
-
ent freedom from crippling angst. Nor is he
blaming some of the current occupants of
36 artsLife | FALL 2018
Hillbilly Heaven — many of whom were his
personal and musical heroes — who found
personal contentment to be so elusive.
-
tured souls. Although he can write a tearjerking
remembrance when a hard-living
legend passes, Gill may be more aptly de-
The mercurial Jones, contemplating the
-
ers, Gill — although you might have to settle
battered cowboy boots.
Sometimes referred to as “The Mayor of
Music City,” Gill is a universally respected
-
grass on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry as
he is subbing for the late Glenn Frey on an
Eagles reunion tour.
That tour, which began last year, is continuing
through 2018. With the Eagles, Gill — along
Eyes,” “Tequilla Sunrise” and “Heartache Tonight.”
-
win the approval of dubious fans by cover-
Only a performer with relatively little ego
— or, perhaps, with the largest ego imaginable
— would attempt to pull off such a
feat. But it appears to be working.
-
the remaining Eagles thought enough of his
musicianship to entrust him with these timeless
classics.
Even die-hard Eagles fans, some of whom
called for the group to be disbanded af-
“warm, airy voice wrapped itself beautifully
around the lyrics,” wrote the Charlotte
Observer
which Gill appeared.
V