Vince Gill - Okie

Vinyl LP pressing. 2019 release. With the album's title and varied themes, Gill helps Merle Haggard and other inspirations reclaim Okie, a term used in the past to disparage Oklahoma natives living on the West Coast during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression years. For Gill, a proud Oklahoman, it now applies to common folks with specific fears and triumphs that are broadly relatable to listeners well beyond the Sooner State. I thought this was going to be a songwriter record, not a concept album, Gill says. It wound up being more information than I'd envisioned. A friend sent me an email saying, 'You could have only written this record after living a 60-year-plus life.' He said, 'There's no struggle in these songs, just truth and your experience.'