Millard made a promise to his grandmother to record an album of hymns before she died, which he did with
Hymned No. 1, and he subsequently shared the story of how he was inspired by his grandmother's faith. Millard made the second of his two hymn albums because he realized that the church he was attending did not sing hymns and he wanted his children to have hymns as a part of their lives. Millard said his dad heavily influenced him in his musical direction with respect to the hymn albums, drawing particularly on
Willie Nelson and
Louie Prima. Millard stated that these influences would not be appropriate for MercyMe, as MercyMe is similar to
Coldplay, while these hymns are more in the vein of
Frank Sinatra. Millard said that he embarked on his solo effort in order to give expression to musical styles that would not have been compatible with MercyMe. Millard said that they sang a
Hank Williams song called "
I Saw the Light" in his church growing up. The title of
Hymned Again is a "tongue-in-cheek" reference to the first album. The first album was an effort to make songs that he did not particularly care about cooler, and the second album was created to achieve a Kansas City swing/shuffle mood in the vein of Louie Prima,
Harry Connick Jr. and
Jamie Cullum, which is what was achieved. According to Greer, this album was very reminiscent of
She by Connick, which was done five or six times according to Millard. Millard said he accomplished this by listening to a stack of albums by these musicians. Millard said the songs on the album
Hymned Again are in the tradition of the Great Revival era musically, but that this was not done on purpose. Millard said the one original song on the album, titled "Jesus Cares for Me", was written by
Thad Cockrell, a song that, according to the singer, "could’ve been written 50, 60 years ago." Millard nervously asked
Vince Gill to participate on the album. On the possibility of a future "Hymned" effort, Millard said, "Man, I hope so." Millard is featured as a vocalist on "I See Love", a 2004 single by
Third Day and
Steven Curtis Chapman. He is also featured as a
backing vocalist on
Phil Wickham's 2009 single "
Safe". == Awards ==