FAMILY AFFAIR FOR SINGING SPOUSES VINCE GILL AND AMY GRANT, SUMMER TOUR IS 'JUST A LOT OF FUN'.

Byline: FRED SHUSTER

>MUSIC WRITER

Hillbilly hero or sophisticated ambassador of heartland roots music, Vince Gill is above all a family kind of guy.

In his summer trek around the country's amphitheaters, titled Vince Gill's Friends and Family Tour, the Telecaster picker and singer is bringing along a small performing army that includes his performer wife Amy Grant, Gill's 25-year-old singing daughter Jennifer Gill, and 25 musicians.

"A lot of times you go out on the road and the only contact you have with your family is by phone or e-mail," Gill said from his family's Nashville home. "This is like a summer vacation. It's just a lot of fun to be out all together."

Opening the show, which comes to the Greek Theatre on Saturday, is the Del McCoury Band, the Grammy Award-winning bluegrass outfit. That fine choice alone suggests Gill's love of country roots and recognition of fine musicianship.

"It's a really fun, inclusive show that covers a lot of bases -- from Amy's contemporary Christian and pop, Del's traditional bluegrass and my hardcore twang country," said Gill, 50, a few days after he was named to the Country Music Hall of Fame as the third-youngest inductee after Johnny Cash and Chet Atkins.

Gill can't be pinned down to simple labels. His most recent release, "These Days," is an audacious 43-song, four-CD set that moves from jazz to rock, old-time country to old-school bluegrass with ease.

At July's Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival in Chicago, Gill did his own set, jammed with the British country picker Albert Lee for a set of fret-shredding countrypolitan music, backed up Sheryl Crow and Willie Nelson, and traded licks with Clapton.

"It's always a good time to play that festival," said Gill, whose fast, percussive style of Telecaster picking is rooted in the sound of greats Jimmy Bryant and James Burton. "I spent most of my time watching the others. Jeff Beck, Steve Winwood, Robbie Robertson, Buddy Guy -- they were all great."

By anyone's estimation, Gill is also one of the greats. He's sold more than 22 million albums, won 18 Grammy Awards and an equal, record-breaking, number of Country Music Association awards, and used his quick wit and affable demeanor to host the CMA awards telecast for 12 years straight. And there's a golf event held each year in Tennessee named after him (the private Vinny Pro-Celebrity Invitational).

"Vince isn't like anyone else in the field today," said Tonya Campos, music director at L.A.'s Go Country 105 radio station, where Gill is what's known as a core artist. "He's a fine songwriter and blazing guitar player and he has this great self-deprecating sense of humor. He's one of those guys you want to have a beer with."

Part of the appeal of the Friends and Family Tour, Campos says, is the chance to see spouses Gill and Grant sing together.

"It's a nice touch when that happens, like when Tim McGraw and Faith Hill tour together," she said. "The audience feels like they're getting a peek into the performers' lives."

Those private lives got a little messy in 2000 when Grant, considered the queen of Christian pop, and Gill were married, leaving behind first spouses and their fans' expectations. Together, the couple created a new home for their new blended family.

"When we came into this marriage, we hoped that there would be times that everybody would be together," Grant told Ladies Home Journal. "Vince had Jenny, who was 17 then, and I had three kids, Matt, Millie, and Sarah, who were then 7, 10, and 12. And we knew we wanted to have a child together. This sprawling house was what we needed. And even here, Corrina, our baby, slept in our closet for her first 18 months. When Jenny went to college and Corrina finally got a room, it was a big thing."

Born to a federal appellate court judge and a homemaker in 1957 in Norman, Okla., Gill was encouraged to pick up guitar and banjo, which led to bluegrass gigs, a spot in Rodney Crowell's Cherry Bombs group and the country-rock band Pure Prairie League. He also worked as a writer and session musician until his first solo album, "The Things That Matter," in 1984. His commercial breakthrough came in the 1990s with a string of smash hits, including "When I Call Your Name" (with Patty Loveless), "I Still Believe in You," "Don't Let Our Love Start Slippin' Away," "The Heart Won't Lie" (with Reba McEntire), "One More Last Chance" and "Tryin' to Get Over You."

In addition to some of the fanciest guitar-picking of any genre, Gill also handles bass, fiddle, mandolin and dobro.

In recent tour stops, Gill has delivered the goods, running through the hits as well as r&b- and country-inflected numbers from his recent box set. Grant, whose mainstream appeal is said to have opened the door for other Christian artists and has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide in her three-decade career, is making waves on the road with a big-band r&b treatment of "Baby Baby" and duets with Gill on the standard-like "Faint of Heart" and "House of Love." Meanwhile, Gill's daughter from a previous marriage, Jenny, is earning applause for her backup vocals (she's taken over Bekka Bramlett's spot from previous Gill tours). At the same time, Amy and Vince's 6-year-old daughter, Corrina Grant Gill, is back home.

Family affair, indeed.

"As fun as it is, we don't do this a lot," Gill said. "Amy and I both have had long careers as individuals. So, we said, 'We don't want to be Donny and Marie.' "

Fred Shuster [phone]; fred.shuster(at)dailynews.com

VINCE GILL AND AMY GRANT

>Where: Greek Theatre, 2700 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles.

>When: 7 p.m. Saturday.

>How much: $30 to $70. www.ticketmaster.com.

country couples

Duets have been a staple of country music from its earliest cowboy ballads to this week's hits -- and so have the married couples who sing them. Here are some of country music's best-known hitches.

>Vince Gill and Amy Grant: The two were already married to others when they met while performing together in 1993. They married in 2000.

>Faith Hill and Tim McGraw: Married in 1996, the country superstars often set records in joint tours.

>Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood: After failed marital duets with others, the couple tied the knot just before Christmas 2005.

>Emily Robison and Chris Robison: The Dixie Chick married her beau in 1999 and lives on a ranch in Texas with their three children.

>Clint Black and Lisa Hartman-Black: The pair said "I do" in 1991 and sang about it in the Grammy-nominated "When I Said I Do."

>Tammy Wynette and George Jones: Hitched from 1969 to 1975, the classic couple made music while married, and cut an album together 20 years after they D-I-V-O-R-C-E-D.

>Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash: The quintessential country couple, they married in 1968 (after Johnny proposed on stage), and were lifelong musical partners.

>Jessi Colter and Waylon Jennings: Married from 1969 until his death in 2002, the couple performed together often and helped out with the classic country album "Wanted! The Outlaws."

>Rosanne Cash and Rodney Crowell: Divorced in 1992, but these exes still occasionally perform together.

>Roy Rogers and Dale Evans: Married on New Year's Eve 1947, the cowboy couple collaborated until his death in 1998.

>Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman: They haven't recorded together yet, and she's not exactly country -- yet -- but the screen queen has shown her vocal chops in "Moulin Rouge."

>F.S.

CAPTION(S):

7 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- cover -- color) WITH AMY GRANT & VINCE GILL AT THE GREEK, IT'S ALL IN THE FAMILY

Getty Images; David McClister

(3 -- color) Musical artists and spouses Amy Grant and Vince Gill don't perform together often. "We don't want to be Donny and Marie," Gill says.

>ANDREW ECCLES

(4 -- color) TIM McGRAW AND FAITH HILL

(5 -- color) TRISHA YEARWOOD AND GARTH BROOKS

(6 -- color) CLINT BLACK AND LISA HARTMAN-BLACK

(7 -- color) JUNE CARTER CASH AND JOHNNY CASH

Box:

country couples (see text)