After more than a half-year hiatus because of the ongoing pandemic, the Time Jumpers will resume their Monday-night residency at Nashville club 3rd and Lindsley on October 5th. But the Western swing band will do so without Vince Gill. A member of the group since 2010, the multi-Grammy winner and current member of the Eagles, has left the band. A spokesperson for the Time Jumpers confirmed Gill’s departure to Rolling Stone.
“The Time Jumpers will miss having Vince Gill as a part of the band. We’ve really enjoyed his tenure with us and his musicianship has added a lot to our sound,” the group said in a joint statement. “However, this is a particularly unique band. We’ve been around for over 20 years and in that time, members have come and gone. Four have passed away — the one-of-a-kind Dawn Sears, John Hughey, Hoot Hester and Rick Vanaugh. Other illustrious musicians and singers who have shared the stage with all of us, have left to try something new, or spend more time on the road. But the band lives on because it is larger than any one of us. Our aim has always been about making music that is meaningful — every Monday night — a space for musicians to be creative and let their hair down musically. That is what is at the heart of The Time Jumpers and that will not change.”
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Gill acknowledged the shadow he cast in the band to Rolling Stone in 2014, but stressed that it was a collective of musicians, not his project. “I work really hard at helping people to grasp I’m just one of the guitar players in this band,” he said. “It’s not ‘Vince Gill and the Time Jumpers.’ I bring a lot of attention to the band because I’m in it, and I can’t help that. But everybody in that band knows my heart and everybody is completely fine with it.”
Formed in 1998, the Time Jumpers became a hot ticket every Monday night in Nashville, first playing standing-room-only shows at bluegrass outpost the Station Inn before moving to the larger 3rd and Lindsley. Led by fiddle-player and singer Kenny Sears (one of three fiddle players in the band), the Time Jumpers feature a rotating cast of musicians and surprise guests. It isn’t out of the norm to see Reba McEntire, Bonnie Raitt, Joe Walsh, or Robert Plant sit in with the band.
Along with Sears, the current lineup includes Brad Albin, “Ranger Doug” Green, Larry Franklin, Paul Franklin, Wendy Moten, Andy Reiss, Joe Spivey, Jeff Taylor, and Billy Thomas. The Grammy-winning Time Jumpers have been nominated for six Grammys throughout their career. In 2016, they released the album Kid Sister in remembrance of vocalist Dawn Sears, who died in 2014.
Tickets for the Time Jumpers’ return to 3rd and Lindsley are on-sale now via the venue’s website. Social distancing, reduced capacity, and mask mandates will be in effect.