Vince Gill has released Eighteen Summers, the ninth volume in his 50 Years From Home EP series. The seven-song set establishes its theme with Gill’s line, “I’m old school country ever since I was young.” Gill produced and recorded the project at his home studio near Nashville with engineers Justin Niebank and Matt Rausch.
The cover features a small guitar Gill carried as a child; his mother has a photograph of him asleep with his arm around it at about two years old. Gill said he does not know where the instrument originally came from. “It’s a tiny little thing I used to drag around with me everywhere and bang and beat on it,” he recalled. His father played in country bands around Norman, Oklahoma, and Gill said bluegrass took hold during his teenage years before he turned toward a country career. The title track, written and performed with Cyndi Thomson, follows two parents as they watch their children leave home after 18 summers.
Elsewhere, Gill and Belle Frantz wrote “I’m All the Mississippi You’ll Ever Need” from a phrase Steve Earle once used to introduce bassist Dennis Crouch. “I’ll Haunt Your Memory” is Gill’s first song written with Carter Faith; Ashley Monroe also co-wrote it, and touring-band member John Meador sings harmony. Gill wrote “Gone Like Yesterday” alone, with Gordon Mote playing the piano solo. “Dancing In Texas,” written with Catie Offerman, is in waltz time, a meter Gill also used on “When I Call Your Name” and “Pocket Full of Gold.” “Last Night at Closing Time,” written with Brad and Brett Warren of The Warren Brothers and Preston Cooper, features pedal steel by Paul Franklin. The EP also includes “What the Cowgirls Do,” first released on Gill’s 1994 album When Love Finds You.
Across 50 Years From Home, Gill has issued a new EP each month to commemorate leaving Oklahoma to pursue music full time, drawing mainly from songs written during the past several years. In 2025, the Country Music Association presented Gill with the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award. Since his 1985 solo debut, Gill has placed more than five dozen singles on Billboard’s country charts, including seven No. 1 hits as a lead artist or collaborator. Gill’s 22 Grammy Awards are the most for any country artist.
