5 things you may not know about Vince Gill

After 20 Grammy Awards and a Country Music Hall of Fame induction at the tender age of 51, Vince Gill doesn’t often blend into the woodwork these days.

But drop him into the Time Jumpers and he’s just another band mate, surrounded by decades of top-notch Nashville session players.

Flash back to 1998, when around a dozen beer-drinking buddies got together to swap songs and dig a little deeper into old-school country and western swing. As Nashville was lurching forward into twangy pop-rock and weirdness beyond (lest we forget, Garth Brooks’ metal alter-ego “In the Life of Chris Gaines” came out in 1999), they were more than happy to look backward .

They picked Monday nights, competing only with football, at the tiny Station Inn bluegrass club in Nashville. As word got out, Bonnie Raitt, Norah Jones, Reba McEntire and Robert Plant dropped by for surprise jams. Eventually, they graduated to Mondays at the larger downtown Third and Lindsley club so they could fill a few more seats.

Now, with an eponymous album in their pocket, the 11-strong band is hitting the road and breaking free from Monday nights. Before they fill the stage Saturday night at the Wells Fargo Center, here are the Top 5 things to know about Vince Gill and the Time Jumpers:

1. The band leader is fiddler Kenny Sears, who’s toured with Mel Tillis, Ray Price and Dottie West.

But he’s just one of three fiddlers in the band, rounded out by Joe Spivey, who’s played with Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson, and Larry Franklin, who’s played with Kenny Chesney and Reba McEntire.

2. When country star Miranda Lambert took a trip back to her Texas roots on her new album, she tapped the Time Jumpers for the song “All That’s Left.”

Actually, it was her husband Blake Shelton’s suggestion. Just don’t expect to hear it out on this latest Time Jumpers tour.

“We’re old. We’ve already forgotten it,” Gill told Rolling Stone. “We couldn’t play that one with a gun to our heads.”

3. Spending way too much time in the shadows as a backup singer for Gill’s band, Dawn Sears gets a chance to step up and, boy, can she sing.

About as a sad as it gets, even in country music, “So Far Apart” is her showstopper and she owns every bit of the aching spotlight.

4. Don’t forget that Gill can actually shred the guitar. Or as Kenny Sears likes to tell people, “He’s not your usual superstar who knows three chords and has a capo. He’s a guitar player.”

When Alice Cooper was recording his most recent “Welcome 2 My Nightmare” album, he turned to Gill for the solo on the song “Runaway Train.”

“Vince Gill comes over and he’s got this Telecaster and he just rips through the song,” Cooper told the Tennessean. “When I played it back for my guitar players, who are great players, they kind of just looked at me and said, ‘Who’s going to play that?’”

5. But it’s not all about Gill. On the Wells Fargo Center stage, look for guitarist “Ranger Doug” Green to get big cheers for his cowboy song “Ridin’ On the Rio” and even more yelps for his yodeling on “Yodel Blues.” Fiddler Larry Franklin likes to show he’s got pipes, too, picking up the microphone for a rousing “That’s What I Like About the South.” Dawn Sears usually gets a standing ovation for the torch song “Sweet Memories.” And, almost like an afterthought, Gill might even chime in every now and then.

Bay Area freelancer John Beck writes about entertainment for The Press Democrat. You can reach him at 280-8014 or john@beckmediaproductions.com.