Forever Country Cover Series: David Nail Covers Vince Gill’s ‘When I Call Your Name’
"I wanted to do a Vince Gill song. Pretty positive I wanted to do a Vince Gill song…it was just a matter of finding the right one," explained Nail to SLN.
As a fan of the master singer-songwriter Vince Gill, country star David Nail honored his early 90s hit, “When I Call Your Name,” while covering it for the Forever Country celebration recently.
Taking what he knew and loved about country music in that decade, Nail added the bluesy tone to his traditional choice of single for the cover and gave it the raw emotion the lyrics call for through his steady vibrato throughout his vocals. Keeping with the realness that Gill exudes throughout every song in his catalogue, Nail knew he had to take on one of the icons of the genre to honor the special anniversary of the awards.
“When I realized it was the 50th anniversary of the CMAs and they asked us to do a song, I wanted to do something old but I didn’t necessarily want to do something that I didn’t specifically remember,” Nail exclusively explained to Sounds Like Nashville. “I immediately went back and looked over the years and kinda went back to when I started listening to country music, which was in the early 90s/late 80s and I wanted to do a Vince Gill song. Pretty positive I wanted to do a Vince Gill song…it was just a matter of finding the right one. So we picked ‘When I Call Your Name,’ which is one of the very first country songs that I ever heard. So we picked that song. Vince is a huge influence on me and has been a big hero of mine, so it was only fitting that we tried to do that song justice, which is pretty impossible. But we tried our best.”
Gill’s hit, “When I Call Your Name,” won two CMA Awards with Single of the Year in 1990 and Song of the Year in 1991. Its dominance over the country music world added perfectly to Gill’s powerful collection of penned tracks that fans still adore today.
For more Forever Country celebration coverage, fans can head over to the website to check out exclusive features and exciting moments from previous shows.
The 50th Annual CMA Awards will air live from the Bridgestone Arena in downtown Nashville on Wednesday, November 2, at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
