One of the great pedal steel guitarists in country music history, Paul Franklin didn't have a major-label release to his name until he teamed up with Vince Gill on Bakersfield, a 2013 tribute to Merle Haggard and Buck Owens. Bakersfield arrived over 40 years after Franklin's first appearance on a hit record. When he was a teenager, he played steel guitar on "It's So Nice to Be with You," a 1972 Top Ten soft rock hit from Gallery. Franklin broke into country music as he joined Barbara Mandrell's touring band, the first in a long string of high-profile gigs that also featured Jerry Reed and Mel Tillis. Franklin remained an in-demand session player into the 2020s, a period where he remained close with Vince Gill: the pair released Sweet Memories: The Music of Ray Price & the Cherokee Cowboys in 2023, a decade after Bakersfield.