Entertainment Weekly (p.82) - "His high, not-so-lonesome tenor doesn't grow tiresome even if you take in his trad-country, R&B/rock, pop, and bluegrass sets all in one sitting." -- Grade: A-
No Depression (p.96) - "[T]he participants play with an infectious spontaneity, especially on the rockin' stuff....Gill is the source of this energy; there's urgency in his writing, singing, and playing."
Personnel include: Vince Gill (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar); Dan Tyminski, Del McCoury, Diana Krall, Emmylou Harris, Gretchen Wilson, Guy Clark, Jenny Gill, John Anderson , LeAnn Rimes, Lee Ann Womack, Alison Krauss, Michael McDonald, Amy Grant, Patty Loveless, Phil Everly, Rebecca Lynn Howard, Rodney Crowell, Trisha Yearwood, Bekka Bramlett, Sheryl Crow, Katrina Elam, Bonnie Raitt (vocals); Tom Bukovac (electric guitar); John Hobbs (piano); Pete Wasner (Wurlitzer piano, Hammond b-3 organ); Michael Rhodes (bass instrument); Chad Cromwell (drums); The Del McCoury Band.
Not since Prince released the three-hour, three-CD set EMANCIPATION in 1996 or the Magnetic Fields took a similar number of discs for the sprawling 69 LOVE SONGS in 1999 has an artist attempted something as expansive as Vince Gill's THESE DAYS. A four-disc box set of all new material, nearly all of it Gill originals, THESE DAYS is possibly the widest-ranging country album of the modern era. The four discs are thematically and stylistically arranged. Disc one, WORKIN' ON A BIG CHILL, is a 1960s-flavored rock-and-roll album that recalls Bob Dylan's late '60s work with the Band and features Bonnie Bramlett's vocals on several songs. Disc two, THE REASON WHY, is a modern pop record in the style of Shania Twain's international releases, with several duet partners including Sheryl Crow and Leann Rimes. Disc three, SOME THINGS NEVER GET OLD, is straight honky-tonk in the Ray Price and Lefty Frizzell tradition. Finally, disc four, LITTLE BROTHER, is a strictly acoustic bluegrass and folk album that cuts Gill's writing and singing to its most elemental. Taken together, the four albums reveal Vince Gill to be one of modern country's most impressive performers.