Ronnie Milsap
Ronnie Milsap is looking back on holidays past this year.
The Country Hall of Fame and Grand Ole Opry member recently released Christmas with Ronnie Milsap, a reissue of his his sole holiday album originally released in 1986. The long out-of-print album was reissued by Craft Recordings.
When Christmas with Ronnie Milsap was originally issued, Milsap was at the height of his fame with hits that had significant crossover success, such as “Show Her,” “Stranger in My House” and the Grammy and ACM award-winning “Lost in the Fifties Tonight (In the Still of the Night).”
The reissued Christmas with Ronnie Milsap finds the country icon’s soulful voice crooning on “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” “Silver Bells” and “O Holy Night,” plus a selection of originals.
“I loved it,” Milsap told MusicRow when asked about revisiting the 35-year-old songs. “I had a great arranger named David Clydesdale. He put it all together [back then], and was great.”
A standout track on the project is an original called “Only One Night of the Year,” which highlights Milsap’s token country and R&B sound while he sings, “Cause for only one night of the year, you can see flying reindeer / And if you believe in Christmas’ Eve, there’s no telling who will appear.”
“Mike Reid played that live for me, it wasn’t on tape. He sat at the piano and played it live,” Milsap recalled.
Milsap delivers a personal message on a spoken word track called “Christmas Thoughts,” before closing with “We’re Here to Love,” which originally appeared on his bestselling 1983 LP, Keyed Up.
While “We’re Here To Love” isn’t a Christmas song, it proves to be especially poignant in the divisive times of 2021. In the song, Milsap sings, “All the seasons that turn in between, it’s the love that you give and the hours you give / That’s the measure of the life that you lead.”
“That song is for everybody,” Milsap said. “[When we recorded that], we opened it up and had the studio full of a lot of folks that worked in the building. They all sang ‘We’re Here To Love.’ It was great.”
But overall, Milsap’s favorite on the collection is the classic “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”
“I remember I [originally] recorded that out at the Castle. Bill Schnee mixed that song, and boy he made me sound great,” he said.
Today, Milsap goes into the holidays with some sorrow, as he lost his beloved wife Joycee this year and his son Todd in 2019. “All my favorite Christmas traditions involve my wife,” Milsap said.
Christmas with Ronnie Milsap follows his 29th studio album, A Better Word for Love, which he released earlier this year. The 78-year old country icon continues to release music that touches hearts and minds with his signature country soul.
Christmas with Ronnie Milsap is available for purchase now.
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