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Gill was inducted into the hall in 2007–roughly 17 years, after he became a significant country artist.

Just in the way of comparison, with some of the other “fast” inductees: Johnny Cash had been a major figure for 24 years when he was inducted in 1980. Eddy Arnold had been a star for twenty years when he was inducted. Loretta Lynn, at least 22 years. George Strait, 24 years. Heck, even Garth had been a star for some 22 years when he received his much-publicized “early induction” this year.

And forget about the hall-of-famers who were not “fast-tracked”: Hank Snow–30 years a star; George Jones–at least 33 years; Haggard–28 years.

Oh yeah: The three artists who by my calculation made it into the hall faster than Gill: Hank Williams (14 years), Jim Reeves (14 years) and Patsy Cline (12 years)–all of whom are country legends and all of whom happened to be, um…dead.

Now, I could say that Vince Gill only had about two H-o-F level recordings:”When I Call Your Name” and “I Still Believe In You.” Or I could name a bunch of artists who I think rank ahead of Gill and who have not been voted into he hall: Bobby Bare, Kenny Rogers, Milsap, the Oaks, Ricky Skaggs–but for some reason, I’m getting the impression that that might upset some people.

So I’ll stick with “puzzling.”

Since nominations occur in the actual world, there are indeed, fairly obviously, some acts who get into the Hall earlier than other acts because they’re much liked in the industry, including among the Hall voters, and others who have a hard time (as say, Webb Pierce did) because they spent a career making as many enemies as friends. That’s life.

I’d rather see that than what the Baseball Hall people have to go through tis year figuring out what “scientific” records maybe shouldn’t count because they’ve got steroid era nominees.