Ronnie Milsap's 'The Duets' slated for early next year

I was glad to finally see Milsap live at Stagecoach last spring (see review elsewhere on this blog). Can't wait to hear the album...

Two years in the works, Ronnie Milsap: The Duets (Riser House/Sony) is scheduled for Jan. 18. The collection spans mainstream country, Christian, Americana, rock & roll and roots music. To give longtime fans an idea of what the project contains, the six-time Grammy winner teamed with People and Relix to debut the first tracks, available at all digital retail outlets now.

People offered Kacey Musgraves' duet of the 1982 Grammy-winning "There's No Getting Over Me." The country legend said of their duet in People, "Singing with Kacey is so much fun. She's a pure vocalist and knows how to lean into a melody. Having her on this gave the song a whole new twist, which is what music is all about. How do you take what you know and make it even more?"

It was all recorded at Ronnie's Place, the studio the former Entertainer of the Year exactingly built at the height of his success. "A Woman's Love," Milsap's duet with Willie Nelson, premiered at Relix. Nelson ended up recording the Mike Reid-penned song on his own God's Problem Child project.

"It's a compliment to me that Willie loved the song enough to want to record it on his own," Milsap explains. "It says so much about the quality of the song, because the best songs want to be recorded over and over. Ray Charles heard 'Lets Go Get Stoned' all those years ago, and he cut it. It just shows how universal music can be, and how it brings people together."

LISTEN TO RONNIE MILSAP AND KACEY MUSGRAVES
LISTEN TO RONNIE MILSAP AND WILLIE NELSON

Co-produced with long-term collaborator Rob Galbraith, Ronnie Milsap: The Duets also includes collaborations with fellow Entertainers of the Year Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, George Strait and Dolly Parton, as well as CMA winners Little Big Town and Montgomery Gentry, on what may be Troy Gentry's final recordings. The album also features collaborations with Rock icon Billy F. Gibbons, Christian music's Steven Curtis Chapman, newcomers Lucy Angel and Jesse Key, as well as with Leon Russell for what is probably the Songwriters and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer's last recording.

With its roots in the Academy of Country Music 50th Anniversary Duets special, where Milsap sang "Stranger in My House" with Luke Bryan, Ronnie Milsap: The Duets served as a floating jam session. Merging legends, superstars, young artists and myriad generations, the project was met with enthusiastic support from the many collaborators.

Track listing:

1. Southern Boys and Detroit Wheels ft. Billy Gibbons

2. Stranger in My House ft. Luke Bryan
3. Smokey Mountain Rain ft. Dolly Parton
4. Prisoner of the Highway ft. Jason Aldean
5. A Woman's Love ft. Willie Nelson
6. Happy Happy Birthday ft. Lucy Angel
7. No Getting Over Me ft. Kacey Musgraves
8. Lost in the Fifties ft. Little Big Town
9. Houston Solution ft. George Strait
10. What a Woman Can Mean to a Man ft. Jessie Key
11. Misery Loves Company ft. Leon Russell
12. You're Nobody ft. Steven Curtis Chapman
13. Shakey Ground ft. Montgomery Gentry