Ray Price (1926-2013) created a distinctive hard-country sound in the ’50s, combining his powerful vocals with the iconic Cherokee Cowboys, a fiddle/pedal-steel band echoing the honky-tonk and Western swing of Price’s native Texas. Cowboys alumni included some of Nashville’s greatest instrumentalists along with singer Johnny Paycheck and Country-Hall-of-Famers Willie Nelson and Roger Miller.

Vince Gill and pedal-steel master Paul Franklin know Price’s music on a molecular level. That’s why this is no greatest-hits homage; instead, they wisely select lesser-known, highly worthy masterpieces. Gill’s vocals are powerful, his guitar concise and fluid, particularly the expressive intro and break on “You Wouldn’t Know Love” and “Walkin’ Slow (and Thinking ’Bout Her).” He and Franklin stomp through “Your Old Love Letters,” one of several tunes driven by the trademark 4/4 “Texas shuffle” beat created by Price himself.

Franklin plays his way while subtly evoking Cherokee Cowboys steel luminaries Jimmy Day and Buddy Emmons on Price’s “The Same Two Lips” and Willie’s ballad, “Healing Hands of Time.” On “Danny Boy,” the controversial 1966 single that marked Price’s transition from the Cowboys sound to lush orchestral backing, Franklin enhances Gill’s searing, passionate vocal with rich chordal textures, evoking the original string arrangement.

This article originally appeared in VG’s October 2023 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.