Then Sings My Soul

Performer: Ronnie Milsap
Engineer: Mark Capps; Mark Lambert
Producer: Rob Galbraith; Ronnie Milsap
Distributor: EMI Christian Music Group

Notes: Personnel: Ronnie Milsap (Fender Rhodes piano); Jamie Brantley (acoustic guitar, electric guitar); Mark Casstevens, Kerry Marx (acoustic guitar); Steve Gibson (electric guitar); Catherine Marx (piano, Fender Rhodes piano); Shane Keister (Fender Rhodes piano, organ, synthesizer); Lonnie Wilson (drums); Kevin Durham, Jon Mark Ivey, Noreen Crayton, Louis Nunely, Lisa Silver, Bergen White, Russell Terrell, Bruce Dees, Kira Small (background vocals). Audio Mixer: Mark Lambert. Recording information: SoundShop Recording Studios. Photographers: Scott Greenwalt; Allyson Reeves. Arranger: Carol Tornquist. Ronnie Milsap, a legend of the 1970s and '80s Nashville Sound, returns with this simple, heartfelt two-disc set of country gospel classics. As a singer and pianist, Milsap has always been of the Charlie Rich school, inflecting his country tunes with some soul and blues feelings, and this set is no exception. Standards of the civil rights era like "I'll Fly Away" and Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions' "People Get Ready" fit perfectly next to the likes of "Amazing Grace." Ronnie Milsap waited almost 40 years to deliver a gospel album, so given that long wait makes Then Sings My Soul no small affair. A double-disc set spanning 24 tracks, Then Sings My Soul is weighty in its size but not in its sound. Milsap sings these gospel standards -- and apart from a version of Ben E King's "Stand by Me" directed to Jesus, and arguably Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready," this is all standards -- with his trademark light touch, always sounding friendly and welcoming. Although the production could stand to be as warm as Milsap's voice -- although it's not digitally chilly, it's too pristine -- the focus is always on his singing, so this doesn't wind up feeling quite as clean as the immaculate recording. If anything, the biggest flaw on Then Sings My Soul is that there are no great highs or lows, it's all tasteful and reserved so it blends together over the course of a lengthy double-disc album. That means that the best way to appreciate Then Sings My Soul is in small doses or, better still, as Sunday morning background music which may have been the intention in the first place. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Born blind, pianist Ronnie Milsap played a soulful, bluesy brand of country music that made him a superstar by the end of the '70s. Milsap was a former sessionman for Elvis Presley, Dionne Warwick and Petula Clark (among others). Milsap's passionate ballads, live shows and reworkings of pop and R&B standards brought him a record number of awards (including six Grammys) and multiplatinum sales. He continued to record and perform into the 2000s.

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