Vince Gill becomes "Guitar Slinger"

Gill co-wrote the song with his wife, singer/songwriter Amy Grant, Dillon O'Brian and Will Owsley. "Since the song was recorded, my friend Will Owsley took his own life, so the song has a profound impact on me now," Gill said. "In my lifetime, Go Rest High On That Mountain has been the song that helped a lot of people through their grief. I think this one will in turn hopefully do the same thing. It's a powerful, powerful song. I feel like it's the crown jewel of the new record."

"Guitar Slinger" is the follow-up to his critically acclaimed 4-CD, 43-song box set, "These Days," which was certified platinum, won the 2006 Grammy for Best Country Album and received an overall Grammy Album of the Year nomination. "That never feels anything but great," he said of the album's overwhelming reception.

Gill didn't have any specific thoughts or themes in mind when he began writing the songs for "Guitar Slinger." "I had no expectations of what it would sound like in my home studio," he said. "I've never recorded in my house before. So I discovered an awful lot about how the rooms sound, and it's a real warm record."

"I don't know what it is, but it's so different than most studios in that there are windows all the way around the room. You look out and see trees. There's such a great spirit running around in the house and in the rooms that all the musicians have raved about the vibe. It's real low key; it's not commercial-feeling at all."

Grant was joined on the album by his wife, Amy Grant, and their daughters Jenny, Sarah and Corrina. "Corrina makes her debut at nine on this record in a very dark song," he says of Billy Paul. "It's a song about a friend of mine who took his life after he took someone else's life. It's very, very dark, but I love that in music. I was always drawn to music with those kinds of things."

"All I ever want to be is honest, truthful and authentic," he said. "The thing I've learned as a musician, record producer and part of a cast that does what it is that we do is that the most important thing is to serve the song. It's not to show off and play the most you can play or sing the most you can sing. It's all in how do you serve this song the best and what keeps the song the real focal point of what you're doing."

In recent months, Gill has jammed with Alice Cooper at a Nashville Predators game, backed Keb Mo, Crystal Bowersox and Sarah Darling on their individual Grand Ole Opry debuts and recorded with the Blind Boys of Alabama and blues guitarist and singer Joe Bonnamassa. He recently appeared on the CBS-TV tribute special Girls' Night Out: Superstar Women of Country. His duet with Carrie Underwood of How Great Thou Art has been viewed on YouTube by more than 6 million people.