Country Mike Blog

Traditional Tuesdays: Ronnie Milsap

Mike Sudhalter  |  August 30, 2011

Ronnie Milsap, one of country's biggest legends, is back with a new album, "Country Again"

[http://www.ronniemilsap.com Ronnie Milsap is one of country music's best artists. He's a legend, but he doesn't get the attention of Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash.

A great deal of his music could be described as country-politan, which may explain why he's not perceived to be on the same level of legend as the aforementioned artists.

Country-politan, at least in 2011, isn't accepted by the vast majority of radio listeners, and Top 40/pop radio isn't playing the music of crooners these days.

But Milsap had quite a few country hits, before he ever become a pop music success.

Much of this album is closer to Milsap's earlier sound, hence the name of the album.

Give Milsap an 'A' for creativity, especially for the title track, in which he walks us through a time machine journey. In the future, people are listening to real "Country Again."

"Cry Cry Darling" and "Even Fools Get Lucky" sound like the type of ballad that George Jones or Merle Haggard would have sang in the 1960's.

And kudos to Milsap for his twin fiddle intro on "For A Minute There."

I didn't know Milsap did any uptempo songs, but "Oh Linda" sounds a whole lot like Sammy Kershaw. And that's a good thing, because it showcase Milsap's versatility.

"Fireworks" is a song that sounds much different than everything else on the album. It has a bluesy kind of feel, and it's pretty entertaining.

And who wouldn't want to be "Trapped In An Old Country Song"? It's traditional and unique, and tells us everything good we already know about what country music was, sometimes still is and always should be.