By 1995, the Greenes had been singing for 16 years, and had undergone a few changes over the years, with the previous year bringing another big change, as Amy Lambert came off the road to devote more time to “having kids and raising husbands” (as Brock Speer would say!). Once again, the Greenes found a wonderful gem of a singer with Cumming, Georgia native, Milena Parks, and not skipping a beat, they released “Renewed Memories” in late 1994, and then by early 1995, they were back in the studio working on their newest mainline recording titled, “Mama’s Heart”.

Once again, Roger Talley is serving as Producer, with Steve Mauldin handling string and brass arrangements. Recorded at Tim Greene’s The Loft Studio in Boone, once again, the Greenes had coordinated a distribution agreement with Riversong Records for their last recording, and with time left on their contract, the group recorded and released “Mama’s Heart” through Riversong. Featuring a classy cover shot, this would be the Greenes’ first major recording featuring Milena, and she gelled perfectly with Tim and Tony. While this newest release wasn’t one of their more popular recordings, it was a very good recording filled with some outstanding songs that seemed to go over extremely well in concert. I saw the Greenes numerous times during the life cycle of this recording, and I saw the “live” impact some of these songs made on various audiences, and it’s amazing how some songs can go over so well in a “live” environment, but not so much as a single release. Nonetheless, let’s dive in to see what “Mama’s Heart” had to offer…

The recording kicks off with the jaunty, electric guitar/harmonica driven track of the Ronny Hinson penned, “The Church is Still Alive”. Originally recorded by the Hinsons on their “One More Hallelujah” recording from 1992, featuring an excellent charismatic delivery by Tony, the Greenes do an outstanding job with their interpretation of this song, before the tempo slows down for the nice, quiet tones of, “A Servant’s Heart”, which features Milena. Written by Felicia Shiflett, the song was originally recorded by the Greenes on their 1988 album, “From Our Heart”, and Tim and Tony felt it would be a great song to bring back for Milena to record, and it fit her like a glove! In fact, it became one of her favorite songs to sing while with the Greenes, and it’s one that she still sings from time to time today.

With its piano and electric/steel guitar driven track, both Tim and Milena are featured on the testimonial Tim Greene penned tune titled, “All I Know”. One of my personal favorites from this recording, the song was a popular concert favorite for the Greenes, and it was even considered as a possible radio single. Looking back now (30 years later), I wonder how the song would have performed on the charts had it been released, in relation to the other two songs that were ultimately sent to radio?

Featuring a popping brass section, giving the song the appropriate jubilant feel, “March in Heaven’s Parade” picks the tempo back up and is an enjoyable tune written by Tim, especially for Milena to sing. This was a fun concert favorite for the Greenes, featuring multiple key changes pushing Milena (and Tim!) higher and higher, before the tempo slows back down for another Tim Greene penned tune entitled, “One Solitary Life”. Featuring Milena and Tim, the idea for this power ballad came to Tim after a family trip to New York City where they saw the Christmas Spectacular there. During the performance, the poem “One Solitary Life” was recited, and it profoundly struck Tim, and when he came home, using the poem as a reference, he penned the words to the song. The poem originated from a message that Dr. James Allan Francis (pastor of First Baptist Church of Los Angeles from 1914-1928) delivered on July 11, 1926, and it has been borrowed many times in sermons and songs. I remember seeing the Greenes at Reynolds Auditorium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina during the summer of 1995, where they recorded a live version of this song, along with “All I Know”, and they were planning to release one of the two songs to radio, based off the performance and the crowd response that night. Ultimately, “One Solitary Life” was released to radio, and though the song always went over well live, it didn’t seem to have the same response at radio, as it never broke into the Top 40. Interesting historical sidenote, the Imperials recorded another tune titled, “One Solitary Life” on their 1973 “Live” album, which included Armond Morales delivering a recitation, quoting much of the original James Allan Francis poem.

Nicely orchestrated and featuring a warm acoustic track, the tender title song, “Mama’s Heart”, which features Tim, was a song he wrote close to Mother’s Day as a tribute to his own mom. As I’ve noted elsewhere in this series, the Greenes always had the ability to render some powerfully emotive ballads that pulled on your heartstrings, and this was certainly one of them. Featuring that beautiful, classic Greenes harmony throughout the song, along with a very personal and heartfelt recitation by Tim, the song is reminiscent to other classic “mama” tributes such as “IOU to Mama” and “No Charge”.

One of my personal favorites from this recording is the medium tempo, “I’ve Never Seen a Rainbow”, which was written by Derek & Marlene Floyd and Bill Yount (Side note…I remember watching Derek Floyd singing his song, “No Ground” back in the 1980’s at PTL). Featuring Tony and Milena, and a dominant steel guitar track, Rusty Goodman originally recorded the song on his 1987 album, “To Be Honest With You”, and Tony, being a big fan of Rusty Goodman, wanted to record it. While Rusty’s is my favorite version of the song, the first version I recall ever hearing was by the Singing Americans, from their 1988 album, “Sing Out”. I have always loved this song, its melody and its lyric, and I thoroughly enjoy the Greenes version, but I always thought the abrupt ending of the song was…well…abrupt!

Next, we come to the smooth, yet breezy feel of the Trent Hemphill penned tune, “I Know Jesus”. Originally recorded by Heirloom on their 1990 recording, “Apples of Gold”, I always thought this was such a cool, easy-going tune, and Milena does a fabulous job on it, before Tony steps up to sing the country feel of “Endless Supply”. Written by Billy Fields, the song was recorded by the Spencers a year earlier, on their 1994 release, “Where are the Children”, even charting one month for the Spencers in January 1996. This song fits Tony like a glove, as he delivers a genuine performance on the song and it’s one of my all-time favorite Tony features.

Rounding out this collection of songs, we come to the upbeat, brass infused “Our Help is in the Name of the Lord”. Written by Tim and featuring Tim and Tony, this was a little different for the Greenes, but yet it became a popular concert favorite for the group, and it was a great final song for the recording. Ironically, if memory serves me right, they used this song as their opening tune in their concerts during much of 1995. It’s a great encouraging song and a perfect endcap for the recording.

“Mama’s Heart” was a very good recording overall, but I think the massive success of “Jesus’ Rocking Chair” overshadowed this recording in many ways. Though it’s a GOOD recording and it’s one that is very easy to listen to, the overall feel and sound of it didn’t quite meet the expectations I had set after “Sweet Life” and “Fields of Greene”. In my opinion, “Mama’s Heart” just didn’t have that rich, meaty feel that their last couple of recordings had, and some of the tracks weren’t as robust sounding as I had come to expect from the Greenes. While there are some outstanding songs on this recording, I wouldn’t call this one of my personal favorite releases by the Greenes, but like I said, it’s still a very good recording!

Since the Greenes first Top 20 song with “It Sure Sounds Like Angels” 10 years earlier, they had consistently maintained keeping songs in the Top 20 with just about every recording, or at the very least, charting in the Top 40, but interestingly, there were no songs from this recording that charted in the Singing News Top 40 chart. “Mama’s Heart” and “One Solitary Life” did chart for a few months in the top 80, but neither song quite broke through into the coveted top 40 chart. I do think there were some other strong possibilities for radio singles, but outside of those 2 songs mentioned above, no other songs were released from this recording. Sometimes I wonder, as great as those 2 songs were, maybe they weren’t the right songs to release to radio at the time?

As the year progressed, the Greenes began preparations to record an exciting new live album with a full orchestra in October, for an early 1996 release, so I think they probably abandoned pushing “Mama’s Heart” (not to mention their contract with Riversong likely had expired as well), setting their sights on recording and releasing the live album…which we’ll dive into in our next article!

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