How Great Thou Art

by Deborah Evans Price 

For those who love to hear Southern-flavored renditions of their favorite hymns, RCA Records and Nashville’s famed Grand Ole Opry have partnered to release How Great Thou Art: Gospel Favorites Live from the Grand Ole Opry. Featuring Carrie Underwood, Alan Jackson, Dierks Bentley, Loretta Lynn, Vince Gill, Brad Paisley and Sara Evans, among others, the project was recorded live on the stage of the Opry. The collection hits stores on February 5.

“Country music and gospel music go hand in hand and they always have,” country veteran Charlie Daniels tells GMC.

Daniels and his band recorded I’ll Fly Away with Third Day frontman Mac Powell, the only contemporary Christian artist featured on the collection. Talking backstage the night of the recording, Mac admitted he was nervous about singing with a legend like Charlie and about his first performance on the Grand Ole Opry. He needn’t have been concerned. The performance was perfection and the Opry audience enthusiastically responded to the duet.

“He’s such a nice kid from the inside out,” Daniels says of Powell. “I hope to sing with him again. We had a lot of fun together and I thoroughly enjoyed it.”

There has always been a strong connection between Country and Gospel music. Daniels says it used to be common for country artists to include Gospel songs on their albums and sing a Gospel song or two in concert. “If you went to see a country artist perform, they always did a Gospel song, and on the Grand Ole Opry, they did Gospel music. On country formatted radio years ago, they played Gospel music,” says Daniels, who was inducted into the Opry on January 19. “It’s always been a part of country music and a certain style of gospel music is country, so I don’t think there’s anything new at all about the country artists doing gospel music and doing the old songs. I just think it’s an old idea that is being revived and it’s a great idea. I hope the trend continues because I love the old songs. They are some of the best gospel songs to ever be written.”

Daniels has recorded several acclaimed gospel records. The Door, released on Sparrow Records won the Dove Award for Country Album of the Year in 1995 and in 1997 Somebody Was Prayin’ For Me from his album Steel Witness won Country Recorded Song of the Year.

In recent years, numerous artists have recorded gospel albums including Alan Jackson, Alabama, Brenda Lee, and Randy Travis. Jackson recorded Precious Memories as a gift for his mother and when head of his record company heard a copy, he asked to release the project commercially. It became the best selling Christian album of 2006, and has sold more than 1,567,000 copies thus far.

“I was surprised at how many it sold,” Jackson told GMC in a recent interview. “My wife, Denise, said if I put it out, it would sell a bunch. I thought my diehard fans might buy one, but I didn’t expect it to create that kind of demand. I’ve had a lot of people tell me how much they enjoyed that album and want me to make another one.”

Jackson says he’ll likely do another gospel album. “But I’ve got that polka album I want to do first,” he says with a laugh.

Jackson recorded Blessed Assurance live at the Opry for his contribution to How Great Thou Art. “Country has always gone hand in hand with gospel over the years from Hank Williams to Johnny Cash,” he says. “Country acts, especially those raised in the South, end up coming back to the music that reminds them of their childhood. I think there’s always been a close connection between Country and Gospel music.”

How Great Thou Art gives some of country’s top artists a chance to reconnect with their gospel roots. Lynn turns in a stirring performance of Where No One Stands Alone. Gill delivers a spine-tingling version of Give Me Jesus, a song says he loved since he first heard Fernando Ortega’s version. Adkins puts that soul-stirring bass voice to good use on Wayfaring Stranger. Ricky Skaggs & The Whites serve up a terrific rendition of Family Bible. Underwood performs a beautiful cover of the title track and Paisley delivers a stripped down, totally moving performance of The Old Rugged Cross.

Though Paisley hasn’t recorded an entire album of gospel material – yet – he always includes a Christian song on each of his country albums. In fact, When I Get Where I’m Going, which featured Dolly Parton, was a major hit at country radio. Paisley’s song – along with such hits as Carrie Underwood’s Jesus Take the Wheel and Brooks & Dunn’s Believe – have shown country radio programmers have been much more open in recent years to songs with Christian content.  

Because of the live nature of the project and the classic material, it remains to be seen whether country radio will air any of the songs on How Great Thou Art, but Adkins, Bentley, Daniels, Evans, Lynn, Ronnie Milsap, Gill and Underwood recently taped a concert at the Grand Ole Opry house slated for an upcoming television special. Proceeds from the sold-out show went to benefit the Opry Trust Fund, which assists members of the country music community in need.

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