FAMILY SELLS COUNTRY-SINGING MOM’S GUITAR TO VINCE GILL
By MATTHEW WHEATON

GALESBURG — .Musician Vince Gill owns a 68-year-old guitar that was once owned by a Galesburg resident.

Erlyne “Tootie” Hagerty, who died Feb. 4, 1989 at age 67, after a 12-year battle with cancer, previously owned the Martin D-28 guitar.

In the late 1930s and early ’40s, Hagerty was the leader of a band called Tootie the Ranch Girl and Her Center Prairie Ramblers.

“She played by ear — the guitar, bass fiddle, accordion and piano — but the guitar was her love,” said Hagerty’s oldest daughter, 63-year-old Judy Bramlett.

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by Pat Gallagher

They're music royalty in Nashville and seem to be the picture of marital bliss. Vince Gill and Amy Grant, longtime friends before they married in March 2000, certainly know the secret to a happy marriage and managing a blended family. (Theirs includes Vince's daughter Jenny with first wife Janis Gill, Amy's three children with first husband Gary Chapman: Matthew, Gloria and Sarah, and Vince and Amy's 8-year-old daughter Corinna.) When The Boot ran into Vince, sitting on a folding chair inside Studio A at the Grand Ole Opry, we asked him to share his insights on marriage and family.

If you could offer advice to a newlywed couple, what would it be?

I'd rather be forgiven than to be right. It's not that big a deal to be right. It took me a while to figure it out. Respect will go further than anything you can ever do.

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by Ashley Iasimone

With the release next month of his band's new album, 'Leave This Town,' 'American Idol' alum Chris Daughtry reveals that the new project has a "bit of country flavor," with guest vocals by a country icon.

"Last time we had Slash on the record, and for this one we had Vince Gill, who I think is one of the greatest country vocalists out there," Daughtry told PopEater in an exclusive interview. "He did some great harmonies and vocal bits for the song."

Daughtry explains that he is working with a mixture of country, rock and even dance beats on 'Leave This Town.'

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By: Alison Bonaguro

Before I got this gig writing about country music, I spent about 12 years writing about Gerber Baby Food. I wrote TV commercials and print ads, and I thought all about babies, full time. And we used a lot of fathers in those ads because nothing is cuter than a dad with a baby. So now when I think about Father’s Day, I still picture dads with babies, even though I know those babies grow up and hopefully have a lifetime of memories with their fathers. That’s why I wish I could be in Nashville on Monday night (June 22) for this Father’s Day show at the Listening Room.

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THESE DAYS - 25 Country Albums You Need to Hear (Even If You Hate Country Music)

Who says Nashville is perennially behind the curve? With this 2006 release, Gill became the first major-label artist from any genre, of any consequence, to release a four-CD set of all-new material. The conceit was that each of the four discs was in a slightly different country subgenre — one geared toward bluesy rock, another toward bluegrass, one leaning toward gospel, and one just in-the-pocket honky-tonk fare — resulting in a set that truly had something for everybody except possibly hard-core rap buffs. With great quantity comes the potential for great suckage, of course, but all four albums, or sub-albums, are superior fare.

By J. Freedom du Lac

Can't they just give Vince Gill his Kennedy Center Honors medal already?

If there's any justice in the arts world, then at some point, the Kennedy Center's Board of Trustees should receive a short list with Gill's name on it. And the trustees should be compelled to decide that yes, of course Gill should be honored for his contributions to American culture, for he is one of contemporary music's most prodigious talents -- a quadruple-threat singer, songwriter, guitar-slinger and storyteller whose mastery of his craft is astonishing.

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A first-ever Guitars of the Stars Benefit Auction sponsored by Humana to benefit the Opry Trust Fund Friday, June 12, 2 p.m. at the Ryman Auditorium will give fans in town for CMA Music Fest the unique opportunity to bid on Epiphone acoustic guitars decorated by country stars. Vince Gill has contributed a guitar, as have Carrie Underwood, Kellie Pickler, Charlie Daniels, Miranda Lambert, Jamey Johnson, Pam Tillis, Dolly Parton, Craig Morgan, Dierks Bentley, and more! CMA and Grammy award-winning singer and songwriter Steve Wariner will also perform a number from his upcoming project STEVE WARINER, C.G.P., MY TRIBUTE TO CHET ATKINS followed by auction fun. For more information and to check out all the Opry action going on during CMA Music Fest week, visit www.opry.com/cmafest .

Atlantic City Central

I had a chance to talk with country great Vince Gill, for a story in the next issue of AC Weekly. He was just as nice on the phone (with that adorable giggle of his) as you would expect. While you will have to wait to read the entire interview online next Thursday, June 11, I’ve given you a sneak preview here. Tickets are still available for his show at Caesars on June 13. more!

Vince Gill was having a leisurely day at home about a year ago when the phone rang. He answered and heard, "Hello Vince, this is Steve Martin."

Vince's immediate response: "Yeah, and I'm the Pope! Who is this?"

"I thought someone was just yanking my chain," Vince tells The Boot. "I didn't think it was real at first."

Vince soon discovered that it was indeed the famed comedian on the other end of the phone line. "After he convinced me, he told me he was making a banjo record and wanted me to sing on it," he recalls.

"I was kinda disappointed when Vince showed up to record, because when I called him he told me he was the Pope," Steve jokes with The Boot. "I thought that would have been pretty exciting. But it turned out okay anyway."

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by Pat Gallagher

Susan Boyle, who became the breakout media darling of this season's 'Britain's Got Talent,' may have placed second in the competition, but she captured the hearts of millions of viewers all over the world. Country icon Vince Gill is one fan who thinks Susan is a breath of fresh air in the world of reality competition shows where it's not always the most talented who flourish.

"You could take 'American Idol' (for example) and say there's just as many people that would tune in to see somebody be awful and laugh at them," Vince pondered backstage at the Grand Ole Opry Saturday night, where he performed with banjo aficionado Steve Martin.

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