Vince Gill, Time Jumpers bring swing to Stockton

Vince Gill’s job doesn’t involve solving mathematical equations, figuring out riddles or racing across a finish line.

“I think music, there’s no finish to it. There’s really not a finish line. It’s like art. You don’t ever finish it, you just abandon it. That’s all you know, is what your ears tell you. ...” Gill said. “The most important thing for music to do is move somebody.”

The Country Music Hall of Famer, 57, is returning to the Central Valley on Friday at Stockton’s Bob Hope Theatre with the celebrated 11-piece Western swing outfit the Time Jumpers.

Since he already has sold more than 26 million albums and received 20 Grammy Awards, Gill has more than enough hits to fill his rather loose and laid-back set lists. But that isn’t stopping him from making more music.

In fact, he is working on three albums: The Time Jumpers are in the midst of recording the follow-up to their Grammy-nominated self-titled 2012 studio effort, and he is again working with Ashley Monroe on her successor to 2013’s celebrated solo album “Like a Rose,” which he produced. Plus, the singer, songwriter and musician is laboring on a new solo outing of his own, the follow-up to 2011’s widely praised “Guitar Slinger.”

He also has worked with his older daughter, Jenny Gill, on her debut album, which he said is finished but has been put on hold as she is expecting his first grandchild in August.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the release of “When Love Finds You,” Gill’s seventh studio album, which sold 4 million copies and spun off five Top 5 hits, including the title cut, “What the Cowgirls Do,” “Whenever You Come Around,” “Which Bridge to Cross (Which Bridge to Burn)” and “You Better Think Twice.”

It also featured one of the most unlikely Top 15 hits and most far-reaching songs in recent country music history: the emotional Grammy-winning ballad “Go Rest High on That Mountain.”

“That’s the most-used song at funerals, probably over ‘Amazing Grace,’ which is astounding to me. It just blows my mind, but now a lot of years have gone by and that’s something that people really want when they are really hurting,” Gill said.

The singer-songwriter admits he has a personal affinity for sad songs, and he’s planning to feature some on his upcoming album. “I don’t play music for fun and frivolity. I go to music for angst and emotion and hurt. ... When it comes to music, that’s what speaks to me,” he said.

Collaboration also speaks to Gill. Even after all these years as a solo artist, he said every time he steps on stage he considers himself just the lead singer and the guitar player in the band. In June, he and his pal Alice Cooper shared the stage for a few songs at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation’s “241: Two Events for One Great Cause,” which raised $652,000 for cancer research in his home state.

A year ago, Gill and famed steel guitarist and fellow Time Jumper Paul Franklin released “Bakersfield,” a tribute album honoring the signature sound of Merle Haggard and the late Buck Owens.

“It’s always great to be reminded how great the past is and singing those songs that I’ve known my whole life,” Gill said. “I think that a lot of people will assume that that record is meant for people that feel a little bit disenfranchised from their country music these days ... and while that’s true, what it also has done is turn a lot of young people on to what this music used to be like.”

In the same vein, Gill and the Time Jumpers recorded the spry kiss-off “All That’s Left” with Miranda Lambert for her album “Platinum.”

Although he relishes the opportunity to share the kind of music he loves with fans, Gill doesn’t expect everyone to share his musical taste.

“You know, that’s the beauty of music: It just floats out in the air. It’s not a mathematical problem, it’s not a football game where there’s a score at the end of the game, you know who won, you know who lost. Man, it’s just this thing that just floats out there. And we can’t all like the same stuff. It’s just not possible.”

This story was originally published November 6, 2014 at 1:00 AM with the headline "Vince Gill, Time Jumpers bring swing to Stockton."