Vince Gill and Paul Franklin Open up About Recording “Danny Boy”: “There’s an Element of Risk”

Vince Gill and Paul Franklin admit they were apprehensive at first about covering “Danny Boy,” but used another song as their north star during the recording process. “Danny Boy” is one of the songs featured on Gill and revered steel guitar player Franklin’s upcoming Ray Price tribute album, Sweet Memories: The Music of Ray Price & The Cherokee Cowboys. 

In 1967, Price offered his own rendition of Irish folk song that dates back to 1913. Price’s rendition featuring soaring violins and a twinkling piano alongside his distinguished voice was a Top 10 hit on the country charts. Gill and Franklin admit that when they were considering the track list for Sweet Memories, they were unsure if they should do “Danny Boy,” as it’s been covered so many times before. 

“I was apprehensive about doing ‘Danny Boy,’” Gill shares with American Songwriter. “There’s an element of risk when you’re doing something somebody else has done. You run the risk of them using that comparison of the original.” Intentional about putting their own spin on the standard, they accomplished this goal with the presence of Franklin, a master steel guitar player who’s played on hundreds of albums and has been named Steel Guitar Player of the Year at the ACM Awards multiple times. Franklin makes the instrument sing just as beautifully as Gill’s soulful voice. 

Gill also reveals that they used another song off the album, “Night Life,” as a guiding force for “Danny Boy.” Originally written and recorded by Willie Nelson in 1960, “Night Life” was a hit for Price, who sent it to the Top 30 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. It serves as the title track of Price’s breakthrough 1963 album. Dolly Parton and Aretha Franklin are among the vast-ranging other artists who’ve covered it over the decades.

“I thought, ‘If we could do ‘Danny Boy’ in that spirit’ and make it fall in line with something like that,” Gill explains of the connection between “Night Life and “Danny Boy,” the former of which he calls a “showpiece for steel players.” “It turned out beautifully. I sang a few notes on there that it was really fun for me. It’s some of my favorite notes I’ve ever sung, just hitting a certain note and the way it did.” 

The duo hopes that fans of the vintage country sound will feel a connection to their rendition of “Danny Boy,” in addition to opening up the minds of younger listeners who may not have heard the folk tune. “There are a lot of people that may not have heard ‘Danny Boy,’ and they hear [Gill’s] phrasing on ‘Danny Boy’ – if that draws somebody in [to say], ‘I’m gonna take a closer look and go back a decade earlier than what they thought was cool’…If this helps somebody to look a little farther back, then I think that’d be a wonderful gift,” Franklin says. 

Sweet Memories will be released on August 4. 

Photo Credit: John Shearer/Courtesy of MCA Nashville