If you haven’t heard already, Boothbay’s Gabe Tonon will be touring with the Joshua Hedley Band this year promoting the new album, “Neon Blue,” being released on April 22.

Tonon appears in a video of the title tune on YouTube. He’s the band’s lead guitarist, band leader and road manager. A lot of hats, but Tonon wears them all well.

“I get to hire all the guys. It’s pretty cool. I can tell which drummers, fiddle, or steel guitar players will work out best,” said Tonon in a recent phone interview.

His friend Leo Grassl, with whom Tonon said he is “telekinetically in tune,” plays steel guitar for the band.

Tonon moved down to Nashville full-time in 2017, but as he said, “retreated back to Maine” when COVID hit. He returned to the Music City last April, but not before playing a gig with the band Cattle Call and members of The Holy Mackerels at the Opera House at Boothbay Harbor, with Grassl on steel guitar.

Back in Nashville, Tonon is always busy playing at venues including Roberts Western World and Acme Feed and Seed. And gigs can come up anytime – and change at any time, too.

“Bands can be revolving doors. Say you’ve got a gig from 2-6 but a better one comes up, you don’t really have to call anybody … you just have to find someone to replace you,” Tonon said. “Nashville is so short notice. You’re just supposed to know this stuff; be able to play anything. I know the guys who can play what I play so we just call around. When I’m playing with a guy downtown and he calls a song I don’t know, I pull it up on my phone and see how it starts. He tells me what key it’s in, and I start playin’.”

Tonon said while living in Maine he pretty much had his whole summer booked by February. In Nashville, playing a 2-6 p.m. gig isn’t necessarily the only gig for the day. He could get a call for a 6-10 gig for the same day, which wouldn’t “weird him out” at all.

The man has come a long way from the eighth grade boy who was dared to be in a talent show at Boothbay Region Elementary School. Tonon’s first stage appearance as a musician in Maine was in 2007 in Noel Arrington’s annual spring Old Time Opry at the Opera House.

“It’s very odd for me to be recognized for what I do now,” said Tonon. “I’ve played with two of the best upright bass players in the world who both came up to me and said, ‘Dude, playing that old 60s and 70s country that’s how you do it – nice work.’ It’s very odd to have all of these musicians around you who are incredible, including you in there with them.”

The tour with Joshua Hedley begins in a few weeks with the first gig at SXSW (South by Southwest) Music Festival in Austin next month.

And as for the tour with Joshua Hedley, venues and dates are still being booked. According to a poster on the band’s Facebook page, one of the gigs is a music festival in the U.K. Tonon is not sure if the whole band will be going.

Tonon has toured with others over the years, including Pat Reedy & the Longtime Goners.

He feels very lucky to be able to just play the type of country music he likes for a living, and in the Nashville venues he prefers. And he doesn’t have to work a side job.

Tonon also feels very lucky to own a piece of country music history: a guitar that belonged to Leon Rhodes, who was Earnest Tubb’s lead guitarist.

“(Rhodes’) wife kinda hooked me up with the deal,” Tonon said. “She was determined to make sure that one of his guitars was still out there in the world making music instead of in a private collection. And people will come out to see that guitar. I don’t blame ’em.”

Speaking of Tubbs, Tonon attended a birthday party for Tubbs last week at Earnest Tubbs Record Shop. “He would have been 108. Somebody brought his acoustic guitar – a custom 1938 D45, the one with the word THANKS written on the back – and they asked me to play on it. It was like a full family reunion of country artifacts was happening down there!”

If you buy a copy of Hedley’s “Neon Blue,” don’t look for Tonon’s name on the CD. The guys on there are sessions players; Tonon and the band members in the video are the tour musicians.

“There weren’t any instruments plugged in when we made the video,” explained Tonon. “It’s how Nashville works. There’s a relatively small group of musicians, session players, who play on albums. Josh used all these pros at playing 90s country to go in and do it. One of them is a friend of mine. I’ve played a few sessions, but it’s a very hard world to break into.”

Don’t be thinking Tonon and the touring band are rehearsing for the tour – because they’re absolutely not. “We’re that good,” he said. “We chart ’em out and then we go play.

“A lot of people are saying (about Hedley and this CD) it’s the right place, at the right time, with the right album … this could be it … everybody loves the 90s country thing,” said Tonon, who is a traditional country musician at heart. “This could be the album. All the tunes are as good as ‘Neon Blue.’”

Tour locations are still being worked out. Stay tuned.