Five decades into a career most artists can only dream of, Vince Gill is still finding new ways to surprise us — and on his latest EP, “Nobody Held Her Like Me,” out today, he leans all the way into the soul music that has been quietly shaping him since he first heard Howlin’ Wolf records spinning in his big brother’s room. This is volume seven of his ambitious “50 Years From Home” series, the monthly EP run commemorating Gill’s 1975 departure from Oklahoma to chase a life in music. Seven EPs in, the project keeps unearthing fresh corners of his songwriting, and this round might be the warmest yet.

Stream “Nobody Held Her Like Me” here: https://VinceGill.lnk.to/NHHLMPR

The title track sets the tone — a slow-burning, melodic love letter that nods toward the Eagles’ “I Can’t Tell You Why,” except this one isn’t aimed at a person. It’s aimed at a guitar. Co-written with Nashville’s go-to guitar tech Joe Glaser and the late Sea Level guitarist Jimmy Nalls, who was battling Parkinson’s at the time, the song grew out of an afternoon conversation about what Nalls missed most about playing. Gill turned a single inspired lick into a tribute that doubles as a thank-you note to two friends.

From there, “Nobody Held Her Like Me” wanders through every shade of heartache and honky-tonk Gill does best. “Back When My World Was Blue,” written with Ernest and Chandler Walters, is the kind of laid-back, whiskey-tinged ballad Gill has been quietly perfecting for years. “Goin’ To Tampa” — a phrase he says he’s been carrying around in his back pocket for “40 or 45 years” — finally gets its day, with NRBQ’s “Big Al” Anderson on acoustic and John Jarvis ripping a piano ride that practically demands a two-step.

The guest spots are stellar. Maggie Rose lends backing vocals to “I Cried All the Way to Memphis,” a first-time co-write with Patrick Droney that became an instant favorite of Amy Grant’s. “Being asked to sing on Vince Gill’s record is the honor of a lifetime,” Rose said of the session. Meanwhile, AGT finalist and blue-eyed soul singer Lamont Landers — currently working with Dave Cobb — shows up on the gorgeously mellow “I’m On To You,” a co-write with Harper O’Neill that Gill describes as Bonnie Raitt-adjacent in all the right ways.

Then there’s “Mama’s Gone To Heaven,” a hand-clapping, gospel-tinged barnburner inspired by a real conversation Gill had with a man named John Parks at his local golf course clubhouse. Gordon Mote pounds the piano, Gill burns through a stinging solo, and the whole thing feels like Sunday morning crashing into Saturday night. As is tradition with the series, Gill closes things out by revisiting one of his classics — this time the 1994 No. 2 country smash “Whenever You Come Around” from “When Love Finds You.”

Produced by Gill at his home studio outside Nashville, the EP again features the all-star core band that has anchored the entire “50 Years From Home” project: guitarists Tom Bukovac and Jedd Hughes, bassist Jimmie Lee Sloas, pedal steel legend Paul Franklin, drummer Fred Eltringham, and the aforementioned Jarvis and Mote on keys. Engineers Justin Niebank and Matt Rausch keep everything sounding like a room you’d actually want to sit in.

While he’s quietly turning out a new EP every month, Gill is also still pulling double duty with the Eagles — including freshly announced Sphere dates on September 18, 19, November 13, 14, 27, and 28 — plus solo shows running June through August and the annual Christmas at the Ryman residency with Amy Grant in December. For a guy commemorating 50 years on the road, he sure isn’t acting like he’s slowing down.

Hit play, pour something brown, and let “Nobody Held Her Like Me” do its thing. Track six is the one — but you didn’t hear it from us.

TRACK LISTING:
1. “Nobody Held Her Like Me” (Vince Gill, Joe Glaser, Jimmy Nalls)
2. “Back When My World Was Blue” (Vince Gill, Ernest Smith, Chandler Walters)
3. “Goin’ To Tampa” (Vince Gill, Al Anderson, McKinley James)
4. “I Cried All The Way To Memphis” (Vince Gill, Patrick Droney)
5. “Mama’s Gone To Heaven” (Vince Gill, John Parks)
6. “I’m On To You” (Vince Gill, Harper O’Neill)
7. “Whenever You Come Around” (Vince Gill, Pete Wasner)