With the April 10th release of her much anticipated new album, Gospel Duets With Treasured Friends, the remarkable Brenda Lee will cross yet another milestone in a legendary career filled with five decades of industry “firsts”.

The release of her first major gospel music project takes Brenda’s iconic history of international awards and multiple-genre record sales topping the 100 million mark worldwide, back to the very roots of her childhood and to the gospel musical format that started it all.

Joining her on the musical celebration are just a few of Brenda’s many faithful “friends”, all of whom happen to be some of the most recognized names in the music industry, and most of whom will readily admit to counting Brenda Lee among their major career influences. Artists on the project include Vince Gill, Huey Lewis, Dolly Parton, Kix Brooks, Ronnie Dunn, Martina McBride, George Jones, Alison Krauss, Pam Tillis, Emmylou Harris, and Charlie Daniels.

The atmosphere created on the album is a vocal ‘family reunion’; warm and welcoming with many familiar faces and voices gathered to celebrate a common love of the songs that have made the sound of gospel music beloved to generations of listeners.

It’s an album Brenda has long looked forward to doing. Noted the singer known to legions of fans as “Miss Dynamite”, “Few people realize I actually started the very earliest days of my musical career as a child back in Georgia singing locally on weekends with the Masterworkers Quartet from Atlanta.” “I have wanted throughout my recording career to do a gospel album, but the timing somehow never seemed totally right until now. This project far exceeded my dreams, not only in the wonderful artistic friends that joined me on the music, but in finding a home for this project with a label family of the caliber of Provident. I am a personal fan of every voice heard on this record so it was a tremendous thrill every time I heard the word ‘yes’ in response to the invitation to come sing with me,” added Brenda.

With the release of the new album also comes the return on record of the warm and familiarly distinctive vocal signature and energy that signifies “Brenda” to generations of music fans and fellow “boomers” who grew-up on Brenda Lee music. Hers is a voice that propelled the diminutive 4’9” source of all that vocal power into enshrinements in both the Country Music Hall of Fame (1997) and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (2002), the first such accomplishment in music industry history for any female artist.

On the journey, Brenda Lee has charted in more genres, including Pop, Rock, R&B, Adult Contemporary, and Country, than any other woman in recording history. From her debut platform as a million selling teenage rock & roll icon of the early ‘60s, her multi-gold and platinum awards have been built by memorable hits songs such as I’m Sorry (selling more than 8 million units), Sweet Nothin’s, I Want To Be Wanted, Break It To Me Gently, and the perennial favourite, Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree to mention only a few of her score of signature classics.

At a remarkably energetic 62, Brenda Lee today annually performs an ambitious concert schedule throughout the nation. Away from the spotlight, she and her childhood sweetheart, Ronnie Shacklett, continue to celebrate their 1963 marriage, their two grown daughters, Julie and Jolie and the addition of three beautiful grandchildren. Brenda is a tireless worker for her favorite charities and has been seated on the boards of numerous national organizations, including her current work with the Nashville-based chapter of Habitat For Humanity, and the Board of Governors of the National Academy of Recording Arts And Sciences, and recent past service on the boards of both the Country Music Association and the Country Music Hall of Fame.

To find out more about Gospel Duets With Treasured Friends and to hear some audio clips, visit Lee’s YMZ artist page.

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