Ronnie Milsap: Live at the Waco Hippodrome

Ronnie Milsap is a musician who built a Hall of Fame-caliber career and became one of the most influential voices in country music’s storied history. Over his historic and successful career, he has received 6 Grammy Awards, 8 CMA Awards, and was inducted to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2014.

Milsap had been living music almost from the start. Born in Robbinsville, North Carolina, at the edge of the Smoky Mountains, he was enveloped in his early years by country – the region was crucial to such history-makers as Jimmie Rodgers, Chet Atkins and Dolly Parton. Milsap subsequently received classical training at the Governor Morehead School for the Blind in Raleigh, though he notoriously frustrated his teachers by banging out Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard rock & roll on the keyboard when he was supposed to be practicing Mozart and Beethoven.

Milsap nabbed at least one Top 10 single annually for 20 straight years. Those songs connected him to some of the most significant writers of his generation – Kris Kristofferson (“Please Don’t Tell Me How The Story Ends”), Burt Bacharach (“Any Day Now”), Eddie Rabbitt (“Pure Love”), Don Gibson (“I’d Be A Legend In My Time”), Mike Reid (“Inside,” “Stranger In This House”), Archie Jordan (“It Was Almost Like A Song”) and Hank Cochran (“Don’t You Ever Get Tired Of Hurting Me”), to name just a handful.

What the kids are doing today in redefining country is nothing new. They’re simply carrying on a master plan Milsap laid down years ago.

Opening Act: Amber Digby

When Amber Digby sings, people listen.  “Amber is a great traditional singer,” says Vince Gill, who knows whereof he speaks, and like his following observation—“which is so hard to find these days”—it’s just the simple truth.

Yet it also doesn’t do his subject real justice, because Amber Digby’s singing touches the heart, not just of anyone who appreciatse a traditional country song, but of anyone who’s ever known heartbreak, happiness, regret, loneliness—or just the compelling desire to get out on the dance floor for a night of fun.  And the fact is, with each passing month and year, as she enjoys growing airplay and tours farther and farther from her home in Texas, Amber Digby and her music are reaching out to more and more and more of those hearts.