Tony Cummings meets up with one of the great voices of CCM, RUSS TAFF.

"This last record too, just being able to use my band. When you're talking about a sound that's yours you can't use the big session guys and keep your own sound. That was my decision, not to use Michael Omartian. Now I love Michael, but Michael just has a trademark. Especially with the kind of rootsy music we have been doing, pulling in country and rock and a little R&B. The pay off was so much greater. Playing it saying, yeah, this is me, this is what I want to say."

But has the market pressure started on you now, you know, 'where's the three songs for radio?'etc etc.

"Oh yeah. And that's hard man. In fact we had 16 tracks and the record company said, 'we still don't have some of the stuff we need.' So I went back in and tracked three more!"

You're touring less now than in the old days. Has your home life become more important?

"I used to live on the road so much I didn't know that's where I lived. Now I get to go out and play my guitar and sing. But that is just a small part of my life. Now I go home to my wife, my home and my friends and we go to restaurants and we talk about life. Different artists that I know real well in Nashville, we'll sit down and we'll talk music. Well I never did that before. Even with my friends, I was the guru. And that's awful. You go to dinner with friends and they want to know what God's telling you, you know."