Modern listeners often find today’s commercial music landscape saturated with formulaic production and fleeting trends. In an era driven by algorithms and fast-paced singles, heartfelt spiritual storytelling and traditional acoustic musicianship can easily get lost. Audiences seeking genuine emotional depth, roots instrumentation, and spiritual uplift frequently struggle to find contemporary releases that honor classic American gospel traditions while maintaining top-tier production standards.
Acclaimed country and gospel artist Carl Ray bridges that gap with his moving rendition of the historic hymn "The Old Rugged Cross," featuring Grammy-winning bluegrass icon Rhonda Vincent. By uniting Ray’s rich, soulful vocals with Vincent’s soaring harmonies and world-class bluegrass pedigree, the collaboration revitalizes George Bennard’s 1912 masterpiece for contemporary listeners. In this Executive Q&A, Carl Ray discusses the inspiration behind reimagining this iconic standard, the creative synergy of partnering with Rhonda Vincent, and the enduring power of faith-driven roots music.
Q: "The Old Rugged Cross" is one of the most revered hymns in American history. What inspired you to record your own version of such an iconic piece of music?
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Carl Ray: For me, “The Old Rugged Cross” is deeply personal because it takes me all the way back to my roots.
I grew up in Texas singing in church and singing with my family. Those old hymns weren't simply songs we sang on Sunday morning—they were part of our lives. They were there in church, at home, at family gatherings, and especially during the difficult seasons.I watched my family pray their way through tough times. They didn't always have the answers, but they had faith.
When I sing “The Old Rugged Cross,” sometimes I can still see their faces in my mind—the smiles, the wrinkles that told the stories of the lives they'd lived, and that look of faith that said, somehow we're going to make it through this. I can hear the prayers. I can hear the singing. I can remember what it felt like to be that little boy in Texas surrounded by family and faith. So recording this song wasn't simply about recording one of the great hymns. It took me home. That's one reason the album being called Coming Home meant so much to me.
I've also always loved bluegrass music, particularly the acoustic instruments and those beautiful tight harmonies. There is something about voices locking together in bluegrass that reminds me of people gathering around and simply singing because they believe what they're singing.And over the years, I've come to describe the spiritual meaning of this song in a very personal way: “The Old Rugged Cross carried Amazing Grace in the person of Jesus Christ.” The cross gave us God's very best.
So when I'm singing about the old rugged cross, I'm not really singing about a piece of wood. I'm singing about the Savior who was upon it, His sacrifice, His love, His forgiveness, His redemption and the grace that came from it. What happened with our recording afterward was beyond anything I could have planned. It received awards and recognition, including honors connected with Christian Voice, and reached #1 on the Cashbox Bluegrass Gospel chart. And even today, years after we recorded it, “The Old Rugged Cross” remains the biggest streaming song of my career. That's humbling.
Some of those family members whose faces I remember aren't here anymore. But when I sing this song, in a way, I can still hear them singing with me. That's one of the greatest gifts an old song can give you. Sometimes it doesn't just remind you where you're going. Sometimes it takes you back to where you came from.
Q: You collaborated with bluegrass royalty Rhonda Vincent on this track. How did her vocal style and musical background complement your own vision for the arrangement?
Carl Ray: First of all, Rhonda Vincent truly is the Queen of Bluegrass. She's an extraordinary singer, musician and entertainer, but I'm also blessed to call Rhonda my friend. Bluegrass isn't something she has to put on when she walks onto a stage. It's part of who she is. She understands the music instinctively—how to phrase it, how to play it and, especially, how to find those harmonies. And that's important to me because I love tight bluegrass harmonies. There's a moment when two voices lock together and almost become another instrument. That's one of the things that drew me to bluegrass in the first place. I'm bringing my tenor and my influences from Gospel, country and soul. Rhonda brings that unmistakable bluegrass sound and tradition. When our voices meet, you're hearing two different musical journeys finding the same destination. I never wanted the recording to sound like one of us was simply singing background for the other. I wanted it to feel like two friends sharing their faith through one song. And recently, that story came full circle. I had the opportunity to perform “The Old Rugged Cross” live again with my friend Rhonda in Social Circle, Georgia, and it was magical. There we were, years after making the recording, standing together and singing that hymn again. And Rhonda even played one of the twin fiddles. That moment reminded me why she's called the Queen of Bluegrass. She can sing it. She can harmonize it. She can play it. And she lives the music. To perform that song together again after everything the recording has gone on to accomplish was something I'll always remember.
Q: Many modern recordings rely heavily on digital processing and synthesized instrumentation. What deliberate choices did you make in the studio to preserve the raw, acoustic warmth of traditional roots gospel?
Carl Ray: The first decision was pretty simple: Put great musicians around a great song and let them play. On Coming Home, I was blessed to work with some tremendous musicians, including Darrin Vincent, Seth Taylor, B.J. Cherryholmes, Josh Swift, Jesse Baker and Aaron McCune. Greg Cole and I wanted the project to breathe. We wanted real acoustic instruments and musicians who understood how bluegrass is supposed to move. And I wanted those tight harmonies. That's one of the beautiful things about bluegrass—you can't hide very much behind an acoustic instrument, a microphone and a voice. The musicianship has to be there. The song has to be there. And most importantly, the feeling has to be there. Sometimes technology can make everything so perfect that you accidentally remove the very thing that made it human. I love hearing the fingers on the strings, the bow touching the fiddle, somebody taking a breath before a line, one musician answering another, or two singers finding that harmony together. Sometimes those little imperfections are actually where perfection lives. We didn't want technology to manufacture the emotion. We wanted the musicians to create it.
Q: Reinterpreting a century-old classic carries high creative expectations. How did you balance staying true to George Bennard's original 1912 composition while introducing fresh, personal artistic elements?
Carl Ray: I approached it with tremendous respect. My philosophy was: Don't change what made generations of people love the song in the first place. “The Old Rugged Cross” doesn't need me to make it important. The melody, the words and the message had already survived generations before I ever stepped up to a microphone. So I wasn't interested in reinventing the song simply so we could say we'd done something different. The freshness needed to come from our interpretation—the acoustic arrangement, the musicianship, those tight bluegrass harmonies, Rhonda's voice and my voice.mBut there's something else that happens with a song like this. Life changes the way you sing it. When you're a little boy in Texas singing “The Old Rugged Cross” in church, you understand it one way. Then you grow older. You experience joy. You experience disappointment. You lose people you love. You see prayers answered, and you experience times when the answer isn't what you wanted. You watch people you love hold onto their faith when life gets difficult. Then one day you sing the same words again: “I will cling to the old rugged cross…” And suddenly those words carry a different weight.That's where my personal interpretation comes from. You don't have to manufacture that emotion. You just have to tell the truth when you sing it.
Q: Audiences today navigate significant social and cultural division. What message of hope and unity do you hope listeners take away from this performance?
Carl Ray: For me, everything comes back to what that cross represents. I say it this way: “The Old Rugged Cross carried Amazing Grace in the person of Jesus Christ.” God gave us His very best—Jesus Christ. The cross represents love, sacrifice, forgiveness, redemption, grace and hope. And those are things our world desperately needs. Music has also taught me something beautiful about unity. Rhonda and I don't have identical voices. We didn't grow up exactly the same way. We have our own musical influences, backgrounds and life experiences. But when those different voices find the right notes, something beautiful happens. They create harmony. And maybe there's a lesson in there for all of us: We don't all have to sound alike to harmonize. If somebody listens to our recording and for those few minutes puts down whatever divides them and thinks about faith, forgiveness, love and how we treat one another, then we've accomplished something much greater than making a record. If the song causes somebody to forgive someone, show a little more grace, renew their faith or simply remember what Christ did for us, then the song has done its job. I've learned that music can't solve every problem. But sometimes a song can open a heart where an argument never could. “The Old Rugged Cross” may be the title of the song, but ultimately, the message is about the One who gave His life on it.
Q: Looking ahead at your musical journey, how do you see the intersection of country, bluegrass, and traditional gospel shaping your upcoming projects?
Carl Ray: I don't really see country, bluegrass and Gospel as separate worlds. To me, they're branches growing from the same tree. They're storytelling music. They talk about faith, family, hardship, love, loss, home, redemption, mistakes, second chances and somehow getting through another day. Bluegrass especially captured me because of the musicianship and those tight harmonies. There's an honesty about this music. You can't hide very much behind an acoustic instrument and a microphone. At this stage of my musical journey, I'm also thinking a lot about legacy. Not simply my own legacy, but the people who came before me and the opportunities we're creating for those who will come after us. That's part of what led me to create Carl Ray's Black Country Music Radio Playlist, celebrating the contributions of Black artists to country and roots music while also creating another place for today's artists to be discovered. It's also part of the thinking behind Black Buckle Records, where we're bringing together human creativity and emerging technology. I'm fascinated by what new technology can allow independent creators to accomplish, but my philosophy is still very traditional: The song has to matter. The story has to matter. The emotion has to be real. I was blessed early in my career to learn from Johnny Nash, and through the years I've had opportunities to work with extraordinary musicians, singers and songwriters—including my friend Rhonda Vincent, the Queen of Bluegrass. Technology will change. The way we record music will change. The way we distribute music will change. The way audiences discover artists will change. But “The Old Rugged Cross” reminds me of something that I believe will never change: A great song can outlive the technology that recorded it. More than a century after it was written, people are still singing this song. Our version received awards and chart recognition, reached #1 on the Cashbox Bluegrass Gospel chart, and even today remains the biggest streaming song of my career. And recently, I found myself standing beside Rhonda in Social Circle, Georgia, singing it again while she played one of those twin fiddles.
In moments like that, everything seems connected—the little boy singing in church in Texas, my family praying through hard times, the faces and smiles I can still see in my mind, my journey through country and bluegrass music, recording Coming Home, and now standing onstage singing that same old hymn with a dear friend. That's what I want the next chapter of my music to be about. Remembering where I came from, being grateful for where God has brought me, and creating music with enough faith, truth and heart to still matter long after I'm gone.
Reimagining timeless gospel standards requires both technical artistry and deep emotional conviction. As highlighted by Carl Ray, lasting musical resonance comes from honoring classic roots while delivering an authentic vocal performance that speaks directly to the human spirit. Collaborating with an industry giant like Rhonda Vincent underscores the vital connection between bluegrass virtuosity, gospel history, and country storytelling.
Looking to the future, roots music that embraces genuine faith, exceptional acoustic instrumentation, and heartfelt collaboration will remain an enduring force across generations. Releases like "The Old Rugged Cross" prove that profound spiritual classics continue to offer comfort, connection, and inspiration in an ever-changing world. Through dynamic performances and deep dedication to his craft, Carl Ray continues to enrich the landscape of modern American roots and gospel music.
To learn more visit https://www.carlray.com/
