Vince Gill’s volume in the ultra-stripped down 20th Century Masters series (you have to go to a website to get credits and liner notes) places 11 of his best cuts on a single super-budget disc. While it’s a reissue of the same disc released in 2003, it hardly matters. The irritating packaging is designed to be thrown away, but the music certainly isn’t. Gill’s longevity at the forefront of country music is remarkable. His love and respect for the tradition, his ability to write hit after hit, his virtuosity as a guitarist, and his all around nice guy appeal; but these qualities don’t really count for the range of his abilities as delivered here. Form the opening “I Still Believe In You” through his duets with Alison Krauss (“High Lonesome Sound”) and Patty Loveless (“My Kind of Woman/My Kind of Man”), and on to “Feels Like Love,” and “Next Big Thing,” there isn’t a dud in the bunch. Certainly longtime fans might have had alternates they’d like to see, but as an introduction to the man — many just got interested with his masterpiece four-disc box These Days in 2006 — this is nearly indispensable, particularly for the price. – Thom Jurek
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