Vince Gill has always been an artist who loves playing live so much, he would probably go all night if he was allowed to.

"It's so much fun," Gill said of performing, which he will do in two shows over the next few days at North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly and Lowell Memorial Auditorium. "I've had so many years of playing gigs where you only could play a certain length of time. I was an opening act for a long time. (As the headliner), I've always played long shows when I've had the opportunity to get to play. I was one that never believed leaving them wanting more was that great of an idea."

These days, Gill isn't leaving fans with much reason to want more, either onstage, or for that matter, with his latest recordings.

His new release, "These Days," includes four - count them - CDs of new material, with each disc falling into a different style - rocking country, traditional country, grooving pop-flavored material and bluegrass-oriented songs.

Gill's live shows supporting "These Days" have been just as generous. He's playing for about three hours and bringing a 17-member band to cover the considerable stylistic and instrumental territory represented on the four new CDs. And if anything, Gill said, these concerts are tighter musically than his typical shows.

"I think the record made it easy to do this," Gill said. "Because of the diversity of these records ... there are times when all 17 of us play and times when four or five of us play and everything in between. So it's a lot of fun to bear down and work a little harder, do some work and rehearsing and stuff, which we don't usually do. My shows are usually pretty loose and kind of jam-oriented and that kind of thing. So this was fun for everybody to kind of tighten their belts a little bit on what they play."

Clearly, releasing a four-CD set of new material all at once is an unconventional move. In fact, it's pretty much unprecedented.

And it wasn't at all the plan. Gill said he originally planned to release the usual single CD of new material.

But Gill realized he always tended to write many more songs for a CD than he needed, and the leftover songs would remain unfinished or unrecorded and never get revisited.

"You get tired of having songs go by the wayside that could turn into great records," Gill said.

With no strict deadline looming to deliver a record, Gill kept working on his newest songs. He eventually had three CDs of material, which gave him an idea for how to release the music.

"My original concept was to finish these three records and maybe release them all separately, every few months, something like that," Gill said.

Instead, Luke Lewis head of Gill's record company, UMG Nashville, proposed doing one better - adding a fourth disc of bluegrass - and releasing all four discs in one boxed set.

What's ironic, Gill said, is by turning "These Days" into a four-CD set, he's convinced it's made a bigger impact than he could have made with the typical single CD studio album. ("These Days" debuted at No. 17 on Billboard magazine's album chart, and one of the set's songs, "The Reason Why," won a Grammy for Best Country Male Vocal Performance.)

"Had I just gone through and picked 10 or 12 things that I liked, I'd have put a new record out, and I think it would have probably gone largely unnoticed," Gill said. "Really, I'm serious. This, as it's turned out, it's been a statement that has brought a lot of attention."

Gill's logic makes sense in light of the arc of his career.

After making a name for himself as a member of Pure Prairie League (he sang lead on the hit "Let Me Love You Tonight"), Gill moved on to a solo career that took off in 1989 when he signed to MCA Records and released the CD "When I Call Your Name."

That album started an uninterrupted run of six studio CDs that each sold more than one million copies and together spawned more than 20 top 10 country hits.

But in the late 1990s, Gill's winning streak dried up. Radio turned away from his music, and his previous CD, "Next Big Thing" - which Gill said he considers his best album - stalled out at 300,000 copies sold.

He hasn't given up on radio play but does believe that programmers don't consider his music a good fit for their playlists.

"The last 10 years of my career, they have told me less and less they're interested in playing my records," Gill said. "This isn't me with sour grapes - I still release records trying to have hit records and always will."

But Gill also said he's also learned to trust his own instincts in making music and not let sales totals dictate his feelings about his work.

"I think I've learned to let go of the results," he said. "And there's a difference between letting go and not caring. But if I realize they're out of my hands, I can't let the results dictate to me whether something was good or not."

If you go

* Who: Vince Gill

* Where: North Shore Music Theatre (62 Dunham Road, Beverly) and Lowell Memorial Auditorium (50 E. Merrimack St., Lowell)

* When: Tomorrow night (Lowell) and Tuesday, March 20 (Beverly)

* How: Tickets for the Beverly show are $80 and $95 and available at the theater or at www.nsmt.org and 978-232-7000. Tickets for the Lowell show are $46.50 and $56.50 and available at 978-454-2299 or www.lowellauditorium.com.