The common path in recent years seemingly is for country artists to go pop, diluting the traditional country sound. But now could a reverse migration be going on with other genres going country?

After all, Bon Jovi topped the country song charts a few months ago with the pop-sounding "Who Says You Can't Go Home?"

And now one of the greatest soul singers ever, Solomon Burke, just released "Nashville," (Shout! Factory) an album comprised of country songs by some of the edgier country/roots artists with help from folks with a ton of street cred like Buddy Miller, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, Patty Loveless and Patty Griffin.

So after a career filled with rhythm and blues and membership in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, why did Burke want to record an album in Nashville called "Nash-ville?

"Because it's where my heart has been for years," says a very friendly Burke from his home in the Los Angeles area.

"I'm very serious about this," says Burke, who intends to tour behind the disc. "It's not a fluke. It's a serious country record. It's 45 years of making in my heart."

Burke was born March 21, 1940 in Philadelphia. By the age of seven, Burke sermonized not only to those attending his family's church, but also to those who tuned in to regular broadcasts on WDAS.

His grandmother, Eleanor Moore, who raised him, was a big influence. "My grandmother was a great seer, a great spiritualist. She'd sit us down on Saturday. 'You've done your chores. You've done everything you're supposed to do. You got to sit down and listen to music, and listen to it, and enjoy it.'"

"My grandmother was into classical music and into gospel," he says. "Her roots was gospel. We had a very famous cousin who was a great singer and actor... Paul Robeson."

"My grandmother was a stickler about diction and pronunciation. She said, 'listen to how Gene Autry pronounces the words.'"

Burke goes on to clearly state the words "I'm back in the saddle again where a friend is a friend" from Autry's most famous song as proof. "You're getting the picture in your mind from saying each word, each syllable."

"We loved music. Church was based on the sound of the trombone, bass, drums, electric guitars, pianos and organs. This is something we breathed in the soul of heart and mind. That was the rhythm of our life."

"I lost my grandmother when I was 14 years old. That was just devastating to me...Seventy-two hours after her passing, my life was beginning. Everything she predicted to me is happening as we speak."

"She predicted everything (that) would happen in my life - my family, I'd travel the world, I'd sing songs that no one expected me to sing. The whole history of my life is in this great prophesy. She was a great woman of God. She was a seer, a believer."

Burke first recorded for Apollo Records in 1954, doing gospel and R&B while also going to school for mortuary science. (Some family members still are in the business). In 1954, he scored a million seller with 1954's "Christmas Presents from Heaven."

A few singles on the Singular label landed Burke a deal with Atlantic Records.

He ended up recording "Just Out of Reach (Of My Two Open Arms")," which had been cut by several country acts including Faron Young and Patsy Cline, but never made much of a dent.

That was until Burke got his voice on it. The song became a big hit in 1961 on the R&B charts and making the top 40 of the pop charts.

"By the grace of God, it took a year. There was no format for a black artist in America doing country music - no station that had a program listening for it. And Gene Autry who owned Four Star Music (publishers) gave us a call and said 'Don't worry about it. We're going to get this record on...We're going to do something with this record.' A couple of friends called (Atlantic Records Producer Jerry Wexler and said 'hold onto this record. Don't give up on it.' Next thing we know, we had four or five big stations playing it. It was a big foot in the door for me. It was a pioneering experience that was just overjoying."

In a way, Burke opened the door, albeit slimly, for other minority artists. "What a beautiful thing after that for have Ray Charles to come along a year later and do one of the greatest albums in the history of American country music ("Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music") and then Charley Pride and all the great black artists do country music." (Today, the best known is probably Cowboy Troy, and he doesn't exactly have a lot in common with Pride or Burke)

He did not stop delving into country with the one song because he recorded about five more.

But while Burke enjoyed doing country, label honchos seemed to think the artist had gone astray. "At that time, Jerry Wexler, said, 'Stop. That's it. No more. We're not a country label man. Say hello to (R&B singer) Don Covay. Let's do some R&B man."

"That was the end of country for awhile," says Burke.

So with the country phase of his career seemingly over, Burke spent his time on his trademark R&B/soul material becoming of music's greats.

"I realized that...they gave me the country songs because they felt I was little rebellious by not wanting to be classified as a rhythm and blues artist because of my religious beliefs," says Burke, who grew up being known as the Wonderboy Preacher.

Burke's signature song, "Got to Get You Off of My Mind," was considered one of the key soul hits of the Sixties. Burke was considered a real showman and the "King of Rock 'n' Soul" onstage where he wore a velvet robe.

He eventually left Atlantic for Bell and later MGM.

"We went on to LA and MGM," Burke says. "I thought it'd be a great opportunity to do country because they had Hank Williams (Jr.). I wound up becoming a VP over there of music and marketing for them...I wound up doing movies and television, which was a great experience for me...I kind of lost track of me going country there, but always in my heart wanted to do that, but then I had to build a catalogue and went over there to make music to make love by, soundtracks."

"Later on, we did something with Chess, but once again these were labels that wanted to hear Solomon Burke sing soul, gospel and R&B. No one wanted to hear country. It's a hard sell. It's a big sell."

Still, the fire burned within him to do a country album.

"Believe me I've tried," says Burke. "I've sung some Hank Williams on my albums. Van Morrison's written me some of the greatest country songs in the world, although no one believes they're country except me."

On Burke's previous album, "Make Do With What You've Got," he sang Hank Williams' "Wealth Won't Save Your Soul." Burke referred to it as "one of Hank's great gospel songs, which people weren't familiar with."

"I got to do the real deal. I can't fake this thing. I got to (go to) Nashville and find somebody and do this right," Burke says he recalled thinking.

He had listened to country music thanks to his daughter, 1 of his 21 children (they are between 28 and 50 years old. He also has 84 grandchildren and 17 great grandchildren), Candy, who works with him. "When I travel on the road, my daughter, Candy, is a country music fan...I'm listening to country as I travel along the country...That's what we listen to all the time."

Burke's specific plans for recording "Nashville" stemmed from an appearance a year ago at the Americana Music Association conference in Nashville. He played on a Thursday night with his huge band, preceding Buddy Miller, who Burke had never of before. The very lage Burke performed mainly sitting down on a throne-type chair attended to by his son.

The evening actually did not sit well with Miller.

"I was, in fact, really upset backstage," says Miller in a phone interview from his Nashville home. "I tried to get out of the gig. We'd been rehearsing 12 hours that day at the Ryman for the next night's awards show. It was a lot of pressure and a lot of work. But Solomon Burke is up there with a 16-piece band with tuxedo. It seems like church is over. What's the point of going on after this?"

"Everybody's supposed to play 40 minutes," he says, recalling Burke played about an hour. "I had to get home and go to sleep."

"I just went in his dressing room and basically met him. You know, I'm a huge fan. That was before the set. They sounded so great. How can (you) be upset?"

Miller recalls his gig that night as being "actually pretty good because I was pretty mad."

The next night, Burke made it to the Ryman, the Mother Church of Country Music playing at the Americana awards show.

"I got the opportunity to be a guest to stand on the Ryman and stand on the spot of the Grand Ole Opry," says Burke.

But while he had his band with him the night before, that was out of the question at the Ryman. "The choice is you can do it with our band, or you don't do it at all," Burke says he was told. "I told my band 'you guys have a nice day. I'm going down there to sing me a little country...What an honor and thrill it was. I kept thinking of all the songs I can sing. They walked in my dressing room and said, 'this is our band leader for the awards. His name is Buddy Miller.'"

Burke says he thought about singing "Don't Give Up On Me." "They listened to it," says Burke. "He said, 'We got it. We can do that'. The guy walked out. I said 'Oh God, pray with me Jesus."

Burke apparently was concerned the live performance may not go so well.

"I went up there, and they played 'Don't Give Up' like it was incredible. They gave us a nice round of applause."

He followed with "Will the Circle Be Unbroken." "They had to pull me off of that. I didn't want to leave that spot, that country spot, because I thought I may never get a chance to do this again."

Burke's daughter was with him, and he told her about Miller, "We got to get this guy to do an album. Don't let him get away from this place before we get his number...The rest is part of a beautiful dream."

Miller says he enjoyed his time with Burke in Nashville. "As he talked, I found out about his deep love and respect for country music. He said he always wanted to make a country record and folks from his label were there. They started asking me would I be interested in possibly working together because we got along. We hit it off a little bit."

"I loved his voice, and I love what he does," says Miller. "I loved his respect for music."

"I knew his early Atlantic stuff and loved it back then," says Miller.

Miller later visited Burke in California. "This is just a once in a lifetime opportunity," says Miller of producing Burke. "A few months later, I was out in Los Angeles doing a gig with Emmylou (Harris). I went to his home and we talked about music some. He said as I was leaving, 'let's do it.' That was December. We weren't going to get working until April."

Burke says he remembers visiting with Miller over two days. "We listened to 100 songs. Buddy said, 'I'm going to try to get singers, some surprise guests to sing with you. I'm not going to tell you who it is because I don't know if I can get them...If we can get them, we can get them. If we can't, it won't be no problem because we still have the songs."

Recording took about 10 days at Miller's home studio. Miller says, "90 percent of what's there was recorded live with the vocal. It's the way they used to make records. Pretty much what went down was what was there."

Every song had a country or roots base, but a listener would not label the songs straight ahead country. Some maintain a soulful, R&B vibe. Others are more country.

How to decide which way to go? "I think basically it's the feel," says Burke. "You have a Buddy Miller there who knows what he's doing."

"It was a great challenge and a great experience."

Miller says Burke wanted some duets on the disc. "He's a big fan of Dolly Parton songwriting."

Burke recorded Parton's "Tomorrow is Forever" with Parton showing up on vocals. "She wants you to put you in it and not her influence," Burke says Miller told him, adding, "I tried my best to get my phrasing right."

"I had no idea...how she was going to wrap around the words, would she pleased with it," says Burke of Parton, "You're not singing with a country artist. You're singing with a superstar."

Parton called Burke, who hadn't heard the recording. "She played the track for me, and I literally cried," says Burke, adding, "You listen to it, and we're together."

The leadoff song of "That's How I Got to Memphis," written by Tom T. Hall, is only Burke with Miller on guitar and Byron House on upright bass. "This is one mike sitting in the hallway," says Burke.

Miller apparently used a lot of his house to record the album.

"Buddy knows where to move each song. We started on the front porch recording. To the living room. From the living room to the dining room. From the dining room to the kitchen. We ended up on the back porch, and the album was over. There was no more to do."

Harris, who Burke knew, came in to lend her gorgeous vocals on the George Jones-Earl Montgomery song, "We're Gonna Hold On." Burke recalls Harris asking, "Can I sing this one with you?' I can sing the newspaper with you. That's how we wound up doing 'Hold On.'"

Other songs include Gillian Welch's "Valley of Tears" with Welch and her partner David Rawlings on the recording.

And he also did "Does My Ring Burn Your Finger" by Julie and Buddy Miller. "I could hear his voice taking that song somewhere else which he certainly did," says Buddy Miller.

"I feel in my heart I've had the experience of going to Country Music University in Nashville and learning the reality and truth of how it's done," says Burke of the recording sessions. "It's a lot of hard work, but you got to love what you're doing...These musicians are dedicated. They're not just for hire. They live it. They eat it. They breathe it."

Burke comes off as being genuinely honored and inspired at having been given the chance to sing and deliver.

"There are so many great country songs and so many great writers out there. I'm holding in my heart right now eight songs for a future album depending on how well this goes and whether I'm accepted by the country market and whether people will buy my records."

"It's a great chance. It's an opportunity for me. It's part of a dream. No matter what. I feel I've received a miracle in my life of this dream. I think I've reached the point where I'm leaning on God, on Him, letting the people make the decision. I'm going to keep on until I got it right."

"'Til I Get It Right" happens to be the last of the 14 songs.

"This has got to be the last song on the album because this is how I feel, and this is what I believe. As long as God gives me breath, I'm going to try to touch on every phase of this music business that I can. It's so important to try to not conquer it, but to be part of the message."

As for his expectations of the CD's reception, "I have no idea, and I'm leaving it into the hands of God and the public. I'll continue to keep on keeping on until we get it right. My faith is stronger than ever."

"You (have got) to keep a goal. You have to keep positive. If you're not positive, you're a failure, and I've learned the hard way."

Burke readily acknowledges his career has had its ups and downs. "It's not something that you keep (having) hit records every day. That doesn't happen. Today's world is the younger person, the younger artist. They're the ones who get the deals."

"For a record company to sign someone 66 years old, they've got to really like them. They could be here today, gone tomorrow. Life is a gift from God on a second basis, not a daily basis, and so here we are. We're taking those steps, and I continue to keep stepping by the grace of God one way or the other."

Miller would not be surprised by the comments. "He's quite charming isn't he? He is really that genuinely that way."