Some of the best country songs start by etching a sense of place — and for the title track of Vince Gill’s recent EP Brown’s Diner Bar, released last month on MCA, that place is a vaunted Nashville establishment that first opened in 1927 in a converted trolley car, and is home to Nashville’s oldest beer license. Over the years, the unassuming place has drawn a steady stream of musicians, such as songwriting legend John Prine and country singer Hal Ketchum. Gill honors both late music artists in the song, weaving in a tale he heard of Ketchum dancing with one of the bar’s longtime servers.
“It’s a true story,” Gill tells Billboard. “Momma — they call her ‘Momma,’ her name’s Daphne — has been there 35 years, maybe more. She’s been serving me cheeseburgers for 35 of the 50 years I’ve been going there. I saw that some of the folks from Edley’s [Bar-B-Que] had brought Brown’s Diner Bar and they told a story about Momma and her favorite memories. She said one night they were closing up and had music playing on the jukebox and Hal and Momma went and danced in the parking lot. I said, ‘That has to be a song.’
“I made up that it was to a John Prine song,” he continues. “John used to go there all the time and was a regular, so it made sense to connect a great, historic guy that used to go there. He’s got to be the music playing when Hal dances with Momma in the parking lot.”
Over the past five decades, Oklahoma native Gill’s distinct tenor, elegant songwriting and versatile guitar work have been highlighted on over 20 albums, which have garnered Gill more than a dozen CMA Awards (including four trophies for song of the year), 22 Grammy Awards, and induction to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame (2005) and Country Music Hall of Fame (2007). He’s as known for supporting other artists as he is for his own solo work, including joining the Eagles in 2017 following the death of Eagles guitarist Glenn Frey, making guest appearances on more than 1,000 albums for artists such as Sting and Dolly Parton, and producing for artists including Wendy Moten.
To celebrate 50 years of music, Gill has been rolling out projects as part of his year-long 50 Years From Home project, a collection of monthly EPs that feature new music, while also revisiting select hits from Gill’s catalog. Thus far, the project includes October’s I Gave You Everything I Had, November’s Secondhand Smoke and January’s Brown’s Diner Bar.
As much as Gill is singing about memories of a longtime favorite on the title track, his new EP also highlights new creative connections. He wrote the “This Lonesome Old Cowboy” with Wade Bowen, “Nobody Knows” with Waylon Payne, and “I’m Selling All My Memories” with ERNEST and Jake Worthington.
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