Gospel music is certainly closer to Charlie Rich's natural milieu than anything he's done since he and Billy Sherrill hit on the "Behind Closed Doors" formula. Rich was raised in Colt, Arkansas, in a family that belonged to the small sect of Missionary Baptists; his parents had a gospel quartet and Charlie once wanted to be a preacher himself. After his recent marital problems and his conduct at the CMA awards banquet, when he appeared to be quite loaded (though he claimed it was due to medication taken for a spider bite), he seemed to be once again giving serious consideration to religion.

Further, his best music has always been close to gospel—black gospel more than white—in feeling and often in form. It's in those dark, rolling chords he plays on piano, and it's in the sheer intensity of his voice; even his most mindlessly cloying material has been distinguished by his ability to sing it like a true believer. Silver Linings, a collection of mostly traditional spirituals, is his most cohesive and accomplished album since he became a superstar.

Rich swings this material so effortlessly that you're not likely to notice when "Old Time Religion" segues into a verse from "Oh Happy Day" and then back to the original song. He also takes liberties with the gospel form and makes them work for him: "The Milky White Way" comes off a straight blues, sparked by his trancelike piano and a voice that chills the spine as it moves up to a shrieking falsetto. His piano sets a shuffling groove on "Amazing Grace" that the Nashville session band sustains nicely. His vocal inflections and phrasing even pump meaning into Kris Kristofferson's "Why Me," a song I thought I never wanted to hear again by anybody.

The arrangements are spare, especially by Billy Sherrill's standards. That's what makes this such a successful album; it's the first time in years he's been able to display the breadth and depth of his talents.

As such, Silver Linings provides welcome relief from the stifling string of love songs Rich has been saddled with all this time. Gospel music may not be for everybody, and this album may be just a side trip for Rich, but it was well worth taking. (RS 212)

JOHN MORTHLAND