Vince Gill [ tickets ], country music's self-proclaimed "Ambassador," has set an Oct. 17 release date for his new album, "These Days," an astonishing 4-CD set of 43 new originals.

Gill self-produced the mammoth collection, which he originally intended to be only a single album.

"I started looking at all these songs I had," Gill said in a press release, "and going, 'Shoot, I want to record that song, and I want to record that song.' I just kept checking with the other musicians to see if they were available. I had no deadlines, no rules or anything like that. So I just kept trying songs."

The singer enlisted a wide-ranging array of guest artists from both within his genre and outside of it to complete the album. "I never try to fill up my records with famous people," Gill said. "I try to fill them up with the most talented people I can find on the face of the earth."

"These Days," which ends a three-year hiatus for the artist following 2003's "The Next Big Thing," features a slew of big name guests, including Sheryl Crow, Bonnie Raitt, Diana Krall, Rodney Crowell, Emmylou Harris, John Anderson and many other standouts.

In addition to a few performing dates scattered throughout the summer, Gill has set up a tour around the scheduled release of his new album, kicking off Oct. 16 in New York. The performer's schedule also includes back-to-back casino shows in Rama, Ontario in September, as well a three-night December stand at the Las Vegas Hilton.