Ten song project available April 30th
Country Music Hall of Fame legend Ronnie Milsap follows up his all-star Duets, featuring Kacey Musgraves, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Billy Gibbons, Luke Bryan and George Strait, with a 10-song slice of the soul country heโs inhabited for the last half century. A Better Word for Love explores the R&B-steeped sound that has long been the 6x GRAMMY award-winner and 3x Country Music Association Male Vocalist of the Year winnerโs trademark. It’ll be available on April 30th via Black River Records.
Teaming with longtime co-producer Rob Galbraith, the pair sought to celebrate the genre-blurring kind of country that led him to an unprecedented four CMA Album of the Year Awards, as well as the coveted CMA Entertainer of the Year. Drawing on some much-loved songs that hadnโt fit prior projects, the pair built an homage to the 70s/80s/90s country Milsap defined.
Mike Reid (โStranger In My House,โ โI Canโt Make You Love Meโ), Gary Nicholson (โOne More Last Chance,โ โThe Trouble With The Truthโ), Al Anderson (โAll You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down,โ โThe Cowboy In Meโ), Jim Weatherly (โMidnight Train To Georgia,โ โBest Thing To Ever Happen To Meโ), Brent Maher (โWhy Not Me,โ โLesson In Leavinโโ), Allen Shamblin (โThe House That Built Me,โ โLifeโs A Danceโ), and David Ball (โDrinkinโ Problemโ) provide the top shelf songs people have come to expect from the legendary musician.
โI have been blessed to work with some of the very best songwriters in the world,โ Milsap reflects. โOver the years, theyโve kept bringing me unbelievable songs, and in some cases, theyโve let me hang onto them because I loved them so much. When Rob and I started this project a few years ago, we decided some of those songs were so special… We wanted to build this album around them, so they wouldnโt be treasures only Joycee and I could hear.
โWe got to go back to Ronnieโs Place, the studio I built all those years ago, just dig in and cut them โ and some songs that have the same kind of heart, the soul and that joy that Iโve always loved. You know, even a sad song when you do it sad enoughโll make you feel better.โ
Along the way, Milsap received a special package from Carl Perkinsโ widow. โBig Berthaโ was the last song the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer had written. Sheโd sent it to Milsap thinking heโd do it right. Not only did the Academy of Country Music Pioneer Award winner bring his signature slow burning blues to the song, he enlisted Vince Gill for the quick-hitting, fiddle-punctuated country portion of the paean to more than a woman, but a driver.
โSinging a song about a golf club without Vince Gill just didnโt feel right,โ Milsap laughs. โAnd he was able to bring that thing he does like nobody else to Carlโs song. Somewhere I think heโs smiling.โ
Whether the undulating โWild Honey,โ the cascading tavern country โAlmost Mine,โ the soft soul โFoolโ or the vintage Milsap title track, every style of the Georgia and North Carolina Music Hall of Famerโs storied career is on display. To further honor these songs, Milsap enlisted some of Nashvilleโs finest to play with: guitarists Brent Mason, Steve Gibson, Mark Casstevens, and Chris Leuzinger, bass player Michael Rhodes, drummer Lonnie Wilson, double steel players Mike Johnson and Paul Franklin, and Milsapโs longtime musical director Jamie Brantley.
As a further homage to his longtime musical compatriots, Milsap includes โCivil War,โ recorded live at Atlantaโs Chastain Park in 1993. Capturing his longtime touring band in their prime, the Cindy Richardson/Carol Chase song weaves Southern gospel into a song of marital dissolution โ and demonstrates the vocal dynamics, keyboard stylings and drama onstage.
โMusic makes the world a better place,โ Milsap says. โLove songs may not change everything, but they sure speak to the heart, give people joy and maybe starting there in these crazy times is a good thing.โ
CD
- Big Bertha featuring Vince Gill
- Wild Honey
- A Better Word For Love
- Almost Mine
- Fool
- This Side of Heaven
- Civil War (Live)
- Fireworks
- Now
- Too Bad For My Own Good