Jan 16: Ronnie Milsap Birthday

Ronnie-Milsap-CMA-Music-Fest-2012

Music is not just my passion, it’s my companion.
~Ronnie Milsap

See With Your Heart
~Ronnie Milsap

Ronnie Milsap was one of the major figures of country music in the 1970s, developing a hybrid of country and pop that brought him a large audience.
~Sandra Brennan (allmusic.com)

Here’s a great video – Ray Charles & Ronnie Milsap – Don Gibson medley Oh Lonesome Me A Legend In My Time I Can’t Stop Loving:
(some hickups in the sound quality.. but still….)

Smokey Mountain Rain (Live in Branson):

From Wikipedia:

Birth name Ronnie Lee Milsap
Born January 16, 1943 (age 72)
Origin Robbinsville, North Carolina, USA
Genres Country music
Country pop
Countrypolitan
soul
Occupations Singer, Musician
Instruments vocals, piano, keyboards
Years active 1963–present
Labels RCA Records, Liberty Records
Associated acts Crystal Gayle
Eddie Rabbitt
Mike Reid
Kenny Rogers
Barry Manilow
Website Official site

Ronnie Lee Milsap (born January 16, 1943) is an American country music singer and pianist. He was one of country music’s most popular and influential performers of the 1970s and 1980s. He became country music’s first well-known blind singer, and one of the most successful and versatile country “crossover” singers of his time, appealing to both country and pop music music markets with successful songs that incorporated pop, R&B, and rock and roll elements. Milsap’s biggest crossover hits include “It Was Almost Like a Song,” “Smoky Mountain Rain,” “(There’s) No Gettin’ Over Me,” “I Wouldn’t Have Missed It for the World,” “Any Day Now,” and “Stranger in My House,” among others. He is credited with six Grammy Awards and 40 number one country hits, third to George Straitand Conway Twitty.

ronnie-milsap

Please Don’t Tell Me How The Story Ends:

Album of the day:

The Essential Ronnie Milsap (2006)

album-the-essential-ronnie-milsap

…..Most of this material was on 40 #1 Hits, so if you already own that, there’s not much need for this, but this has a slight edge over the previous comp because it has a greater concentration of his prime material and is very listenable; its non-chronological sequencing works for it, since it emphasizes the consistently high quality of his hits singles. So, even if there is a surplus of Milsap collections out on the market, this superb set indeed proves that there’s always room for another good one.
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine (allmusic.com)

-Egil