Forever Country: David Nail Covers Vince Gill’s ‘When I Call Your Name’ [Watch]
David Nail brought his emotionally raw, vocally smooth sound to Vince Gill’s slow-swinging, gospel-infused “When I Call Your Name” for the CMA Awards 50th anniversary Forever Country cover series.
He played acoustic guitar for the performance, accompanied by a pianist and percussionist with just a stripped-down jazz kit, all coming together for a sophisticated tone worthy of Gill’s legendary status.
Nail’s vocal — though notably lower than Gill’s well-known tenor voice — glides over the melody with ease, showing off his unencumbered talent from the first note.
The third single and title track from Gill’s third studio album, “When I Call Your Name” earned CMA Awards honors as Single of the Year in 1990 and Song of the Year in 1991, peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard chart. Gill wrote the song with Tim DuBois, and his original recording features Patty Loveless on background vocals.
It’s appropriate that Nail covers Gill for the series, as the two actually collaborate on Nail's new album, Fighter. The song is a sentimental ballad written by Nail called “I Won’t Let You Go.” The singer-songwriter recently released a new single from the record featuring Brothers Osborne. Though the brothers wrote “Good at Tonight," he said he wouldn’t record it unless they also sang on the tune.
“I heard the demo and I was actually kind of mad,” Nail says, explaining that when he realized they were pitching it to him to record, he was worried he’d fall in love with it and they’d later change their minds about recording it themselves.
Fortunately, they didn’t, and agreed to his stipulation.
Check out Nail's take on Gill’s classic above.
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