LTL 7: Ronnie Milsap: The Natural

Country music is often associated with traditional values like family and loyalty, but the industry willingly eats its own. In this sense it is no different from the ephemeral cycles of artists associated with pop music. It took admiring rock fans like producer Rick Rubin and musician Jack White to reinvigorate the careers of such country icons as Johnny Cash (American Man albums series) and Loretta Lynn (2004’s Van Lear Rose album) after country radio and mainstream record labels discarded them for younger, trendier acts. 

 Since the early 1990s many of country’s most innovative artists have soldiered on through the roots/folk circuit, including Emmylou Harris, Rosanne Cash, Rodney Crowell, and Mary Chapin-Carpenter, when country music grew too claustrophobic and formulaic to contain them. k. d. lang and Lyle Lovett “crossed over” into adult contemporary pop shortly after reaching their commercial peaks in country. Even an artist as deeply rooted in country as honky-tonker Dwight Yoakam, who has remained faithful in sound and style to country with few overt attempts at pop “crossover,” remains in the commercial shadow of more malleable male country singers willing to submit to production formulas and radio demands.

 Country music has had various phases when it has overtly attempted to court the mainstream pop audience. The genre was a peculiarly regional oddity referred to as “hillbilly” music until the ‘50s when pop singers like Tony Bennett, Perry Como, and Jo Stafford began recording pop versions of hillbilly tunes and independent record labels gained a firmer footing during the emergence of rock ‘n’ roll. In the ‘60s a few country acts like Patsy Cline and Tammy Wynette had brushes with mainstream pop audiences, but it took the embrace of country by rock artists like Bob Dylan, and a deluge of country-flavored pop hits by Anne Murray, Crystal Gayle, Kenny Rogers, and Olivia Newton-John to mainstream country as a relevant genre for pop audiences.

 Ronnie Milsap (b. 1943) was among the pioneers of the country-pop fusion of the ‘70s, yet he somehow seems removed from it as well. Country-pop is usually not applied as a compliment so his success can easily make him sound compromised. From 1974-87 he had almost 40 number one radio hits, won multiple industry awards for his recordings, and scored enough hits on pop and adult contemporary formats that he was certifiable as a country and pop star. A smooth honeyed baritone voice, talent for delivering both catchy lighthearted fare and emotional ballads, versatile instrumental skills, and a clear comfort with polished production made him one of country’s most accessible artists.

Despite the seeming transparency of his “strategy” he has never sounded like a particularly compromised artist. Milsap has been immensely successful in the country idiom and sounds quite natural singing Kris Kristofferson, Jim Reeves, and slicker material like “It Was Almost Like a Song.” In a sense he has never seemed like a “pure” country artist (whatever that is) just simply a natural musical artist adaptable to different styles but fundamentally himself. Milsap is a flagrant gospel and R&B phraser, and has a knack for sneaking in interpretations of ’50 and ‘60s pop/soul songs (“Since I Don’t Have You,” “Any Day Now”) to his recordings, but these never raise many eyebrows among country listeners.

 “Purity” is a constant issue in critical assessments of country and one of the harshest criticisms launched at country crossover artists like Rogers and Newton-John is that they are guilty of downplaying some innate aspect of their musical talent by watering it down to sell more units. Underlying this presumption is the somewhat absurd notion that Rogers, or Garth Brooks, or Kenny Chesney, or any number of country “hitmakers” have suffocated the Hank Williams/George Jones within them, which seems as wishful as it is misbegotten.  Milsap is one of popular music’s genuine chameleons, someone so talented and richly musical that he rarely sounds like he is foregoing some fundamental element of himself to seem more appealing. He seems self-aware of commercial trends and has certainly figured out how to work within (and occasionally beyond) them. But he cannot be pigeonholed easily as his career is rife with surprising choices of material and in delivery style. His discography is not quite as varied as Willie Nelson or Charlie Rich but few discographies are. Besides, who among his generation of country singers could be credible in virtually any field of popular singing? He’s country but also pop, R&B, and gospel; more importantly he has crafted a unique recognizable sound as notable for its integrity as for its deft synthesis of styles.

 Milsap began his recording career as an R&B-oriented singer, recording multiple sides for Scepter Records and the Chips Records label. He even scored a 1965 pop/R&B hit with the sultry “Never Had it so Good.” The 2008 compilation Kentucky Woman surveys this material and is fairly breathtaking in its stylistic scope and Milsap’s interpretations. Even in his late teens (~19) and early 20s he sings with a command of genre, lyrical interpretation, and phrasing that he has refined with age. It was fairly common for pop singers to record a range of material in the mid-to-late ‘60s and the selections are predictably eclectic in a commercial sense, but intriguingly experimental as well. Milsap is such a skilled as interpreter of torch ballads, Motown pop, Southern soul, folk-rock, country, and MOR pop he must have confounded record executives seeking a suitable niche for him. In listening to him—as a youngster you hear traces of Ray Charles and Bobby “Blue” Bland—he sounds like he could have easily occupied the niche that singers like Rod Stewart and Joe Cocker commanded in the early-mid 70s as white “soul” singers.

 Alas, these recordings did not make him a solo recording star, but he was able to secure session work and some level of presence. In 1971 Warner Bros. released Ronnie Milsap a stunning kaleidoscope of performances unified by Milsap’s unfailing musicality. “Dedicate the Blues to Me” is a wrenching gospel-styled torch song revealing the singer at his most wistful and wounded. In listening to Milsap sing with utter bittersweetness and irony he evokes the spare, late night torchiness parallel to Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra’s more desolate moments.   He rocks and rolls in a modernized take on Chuck Berry’s “Sweet Little Rock ‘N’ Roller,” performs the best homage to Bobby “Blue” Bland (a very difficult feat many have attempted) I’ve ever heard on the torrential “Not for the Love of a Woman,” manages to make Roy Orbison’s “Crying” sound like the ageless song it is, and massages the pathos of Kris Kristofferson’s “Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends.” The gospel tinged “Sanctified” and the trenchant “Why” reiterate his feel for soul and gospel- soaked vocal performances.  No one bought the album (!), but it has thankfully been reissued by Collectables Records.

  Plain & Simple, a 1975 Pickwick Records compilation of early Milsap recordings recorded with producer Huey Meaux, is among Milsap’s most R&B oriented recordings. A soulful rawness and energy pervade the set including the rocking version of Charlie Rich’s classic “Lonely Weekends” and the fervid ache on “Wish You Were Here” and “Not for the Love of You.” Echoes of Ray Charles and Bobby “Blue” Bland are evident in this formative recording, but his voice ultimately has its own path—a mix of Southern pop and R&B with a dollop of rock ‘n’ roll energy.

 In short Milsap freshly inhabits pop music’s past (torch songs, rock ‘n’ roll, R&B, gospel) on these sets and yet speaks to a modern sensibility. With the exception of a few production details these recordings album never sound like ‘70s formula records. They should have given him infinite commercial options, but country is what stuck. Milsap’s commercial success in country indicates that his discoverer’s perception of him as a viable commercial act were wise. I am inclined to believe that like Sam Phillips’ conception of Elvis as a barrier breaker (a white boy who could sing “like a Negro”) one wonders if Jack D. Johnson, a manager who connected him to RCA, understood that Milsap’s affinity for country and lack of confinement to the genre’s conventions could make him a trailblazer. Rather than traversing the racial divide radical for Presley’s time, Milsap extended a thread in country that Charlie Rich and Willie Nelson began unspooling by embodying country as a music that transcends region and race, and demonstrating its conversancy beyond itself [...]

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In 2014 RCA, now under Sony Music, released all 21 Milsap albums including his long stint from 1973-91 and his 2005 release My Life on The RCA Albums Collection. Re-mastered and featuring comments from the artist it’s an ambitious set that depicts the birth of his sound and the stylistic breadth of Milsap’s career. Milsap quickly became one of the label’s premiere commercial acts; this usually equals compromise but he managed to balance authenticity and commercial savvy quite ably. His career is best understood in stages including boundary-breaking country, experimental country pop, the ‘80s Milsap sound, and the early ‘90s rebirth.

 His first five studio albums (Where My Heart Is, Pure Love, A Legend in My Time, Night Things, and 20-20 Vision) are exemplary. The arrangements favor country instrumentation, and he includes a range of country writers like Don Gibson, Conway Twitty, and Kristofferson, but there is no particular archetype he follows. The albums are more like modern Southern pop than formulaic country. By injecting his material with gospel and R&B inflections, rock ‘n’ roll touches, and torch song elements he leans toward country while pushing its boundaries. There are a few commercial choices like his cover of ‘70s fare like “Behind Closed Doors” (from Real Love) and the schmaltzy “I Honestly Love You” (from A Legend in My Time) but there is a satisfying overall integrity to these LPs. The first few three sets are eclectic, whereas Night has a torch theme and 20-20 has more of a rock ‘n’ roll and honky-tonk flavor. 1976’s Live is a vibrant summary of his style and persona. Though he reprises many of his hits in brisk medleys he conveys their essence thoroughly before his audience. He and his band have great chemistry which plays out on the instrumental medley “Country Cookin.’” In addition to hits there are great surprises including an epic take on “Kaw-Liga” and his cover of The Rolling Stones’s “Honky Tonk Women.”At this point in his career he’d won two Grammies, accumulated six number one country hits, and was firmly entrenched as a commercial force[…]

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In the 1980s Milsap and his reliable coalition of players, arrangers and (preferred) writers solidified the Milsap sound. His Jim Reeves tribute Out Where the Bright Lights are Glowing is a heartfelt tribute with savvy song selection, modern arrangements, and warm singing. 1981’s There’s No Gettin’ Over Me reinvigorated his “hit” streak with the smooth title track.  There’s, as well as 1982’s Inside and 1983’s Keyed Up, showcased his new blueprint of smooth crooning and thick production, accentuated by keyboard and synthesizer textures. The result was a kind of smooth Southern-tinged MOR highlighted by big crossover country hits like “Any Day Now,” “He Got You,” “Stranger in My House,” and interesting album tracks like the jazzy “It Happens Every Time (I Think of You)” and the cheeky “I’m Just a Redneck at Heart.”[…]

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As I have noted critics sometimes read Milsap as a pioneer of the country-pop sounds of the ‘70s and this is usually presented as a double-edged sword. They acknowledge that he is talented—and hint at his initial potential—but attribute his notoriety to savvy commercial instincts. However, a deeper listen to his career reveals how crossing over can work; Milsap has fused the best of multiple genres in a manner recognizable to country’s core fans but his music is genuinely engaging and of interest to country “outsiders.” He is always in the midst of an ongoing conversation with multiple traditions, rather than settling for one conversation. His 2004 pop standards album (Just for a Thrill), 2009 gospel album (Then Sings My Soul), and 2014 pop cover album (Summer Number Seventeen) only attest to the richness of musical feeling he embodies.

 Thrill is a mix of string, big band, and small group arrangements of an inspired grouping of songs. He gives polished heartfelt versions of torch ballads like “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning” and “My Funny Valentine.”  But his most memorable performances push him toward the bluer end of the spectrum including his version of Johnnie Ray’s “Cry,” the perennial torcher “Since I Fell for You” and meaty versions of the title track and Willie Dixon’s “My Babe.”

 Milsap’s gospel repertoire mixes very traditional fare (“I’ll Fly Away,” “Amazing Grace”) with a few surprises, such as a funky, gospelized “Stand by Me,” placed in beefy pop/rock arrangements. The presence of an organ and choral backing is the primary difference from his country albums, as is the stately, spacious feel of the record.  His vocal performance is poised and enthusiastic; he lends the songs refreshing personal touches such as his vocal asides on “Soon and Very Soon” and the fervent “Up to Zion.” 2011’s Country Again reiterates Milsap’s enduring gift for balancing his quirky personal taste with commercial savvy.  Notably it features ingratiating melodic material with accessible but smart lyrics, and he gives each song his vocal all singing with clarity and conviction. He covers a wide range here including the tale of the oddball character in the title track, genuine weepers like “A Better Word for Love” and Trapped in an Old Country Song,” and classic country (“Cry, Cry Darling”). It also features a few guilty pleasures like the randy “Oh Linda” and the irresistible country-flavored pop on “If You Don’t Want Me To” (recorded previously on Milsap Magic).

 Since Milsap’s commercial reign a number of male singers have inherited the “crossover” mantle in country including Garth Brooks, Tim McGraw, Toby Keith, Kenny Chesney, and others. Though the commercial lineage is discernible it remains to be seen if their artistic scope will reach the heights of Milsap’s achievements. Like Charlie Rich, the singer’s association with country is strong commercially. Yet I when I listen to Milsap’s diverse recordings I understand Milsap’s career as dwelling in a far broader context of popular music than the commercial scope of country music.  There are deeper, wiser, and more transcendent forces operating in his best music that elevates him beyond a commercial signpost to a dynamic vocal artist.

COPYRIGHT © 2015. VINCENT L. STEPHENS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.