Dottie Rambo's new country-gospel album and single - her first recordings in 17 years - are generating some of the best reviews of her long and brilliant career.
Stand by the River was released by Spring Hill Music Group in July. The title tune, an up-tempo duet with Dolly Parton, was released as a single.
"The last recordings I did were with my husband, Buck (for the 1986 album The Legend Continues)," Mrs. Rambo said in a phone interview from her home in Nashville, Tenn.
This album proves Mrs. Rambo is not just a rock of ages but still a rock of solid singing. She puts more raw emotion and artistic interpretation into one line than most singers put into a whole song.
We Shall Behold Him, A Tribute to Dottie Rambo, will be released Sept. 9 in video, CD and cassette formats. The two-hour show, with hostess Barbara Mandrell, was filmed and recorded last summer in Nashville's Ryman Auditorium. Featured singers performing Mrs. Rambo's songs include Larry Gatlin, Ms. Parton, Vestal Goodman, Jesse Dixon, The Jordanaires, Stella Parton, Albertina Walker and The Speer Family.
Most fans of country and gospel music know Mrs. Rambo for her classic compositions (she has written more than 2,500 songs) or from the many years she sang with her family group The Rambos.
Mr. Rambo and Dottie separated in 1992 and divorced in 1994, and Mr. Rambo subsequently wed his secretary. He now is associate pastor of The River church in Nashville and has a singing ministry.
Mrs. Rambo has recorded on some 80 albums, seven of which were solo releases. Her last solo album was Making My Own Place, in 1982.
"My personal manager, Larry Ferguson, who is like a son to me, said one day, 'Mom, you've got this strong voice back now (after some illness), and you've got to do a CD,"' Mrs. Rambo said.
Compact discs were nonexistent when Mrs. Rambo did her previous recording.
Stand by the River was produced by Michael Sykes, whose production work included stints with The Oak Ridge Boys, the Gaither Vocal Band, and Jeff & Sheri Easter, of Lincolnton, Ga.
Mrs. Rambo, an inductee into the Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame and a 1968 Grammy award winner (for her solo album It's the Soul of Me), wrote all 11 songs on the River album and shared writing duties on one song, We've Weathered Storms Before with her son-in-law, Dony McGuire.
"We started recording this album in July of last year," Mrs. Rambo said. "The first song we did was Stand by the River. The last one we did was My Unchanging Friend.
"I wrote My Unchanging Friend just a few years ago. It's one of my favorites. It's the sweetest thing on the album to me. I relived a lot of my heartaches thinking that my ex would never betray me. Never do what he did. And I was thinking, 'You know, Lord, you're the only one who never changes. I've trusted you over and over again, and proven you my unchanging friend."'
NEXT WEEK: Mrs. Rambo talks about the breakup of her marriage, which also broke up one of the nation's best-known gospel groups, and also discusses her friendship with Elvis Presley.
Don Rhodes has written about country music for 32 years. He can be reached at (706) 823-3214 or at don.rhodes@morris.com.,
