About The Song
Harold Reid wrote “There’s a Man in Here” for the Statler Brothers’ 1975 album Holy Bible: New Testament, released on Mercury Records and produced by Jerry Kennedy at Mercury’s custom studio in Nashville.
The album arrived in 1975 as the companion piece to Holy Bible: Old Testament, both of which later received RIAA gold certification for 500,000 copies sold. New Testament reached No. 22 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart. The group had begun in the late 1950s as a gospel quartet in Staunton, Virginia, before moving into country. In 1975 they returned to that material with a pair of full albums built around Bible stories, arranged with strings and horns by Cam Mullins and recorded with Nashville session players including Pete Drake on steel and Hargus “Pig” Robbins on piano.
“There’s a Man in Here” sits seventh on the eleven-track set. It was never issued as a single. The single pulled from the album was the traditional “How Great Thou Art,” which peaked at No. 39 on the Hot Country Songs chart. The Reid song remained an album cut that the group later performed on their television show.
The lyric opens with a short spoken definition: a miracle is an extraordinary event showing evidence of a supernatural work of God. It then lists actions attributed to Jesus—turning water to wine, walking on water, giving sight to the blind, restoring life to the dead, feeding thousands with a few loaves. The chorus shifts the same language inward: the same man lives in the singer’s heart, drives out fear, and leaves the singer a better man. Two short narrative sections follow. One retells the account of the paralyzed man lowered through a roof on a stretcher; Jesus tells him his sins are forgiven and to take up his bed and walk. The other describes the storm on the sea, the disciples waking Jesus, the command “Peace, be still,” and the calm that follows. The final line returns to the personal claim.
Don Reid later noted in the group’s book of song stories that Harold had written the piece. Harold, the bass singer, also wrote or co-wrote other tracks on the two Bible albums. The pair of records sold steadily enough to reach gold status years after release, and a combined double-LP package of both Testaments appeared in 1978. The song continued to turn up on gospel compilations and live recordings into the 2000s, including material from the group’s final concerts before their 2002 retirement.
No detailed account of the writing session has appeared in interviews or liner notes. The track sits inside the larger 1975 project that let the quartet place their original gospel material alongside standards they had sung since their church days. The recording itself runs just over three minutes, with the group’s four-part harmony carrying the repeated refrain against a light country-gospel arrangement.
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Lyric
There’s a man in here who turns water to wine
And He walks on the water and gives sight to the blind
And He gives back life to the ones that’s dead
And He fed four thousand with seven loaves of bread
There’s a man in here who makes demons flee
Who makes cripples walk and has chosen even me
For He lives in my heart and I have no fear
I’m a better man ’cause there’s a man in here
“There’s a man in here that I’m looking for”
Cried the man who could find no room at the door
So they lowered him down on a stretcher bed
And Jesus looked at him and said
“All your sins are all now gone this day
Take up your bed and go your way”
And as He walked through the crowd they heard Him declare
“I can tell you all there’s a man in there”
There’s a man in here
The disciples cried when the ship was tossed from side to side
So they woke Him up as the waves blew high
And said, “Don’t You care that we’re about to die?”
And He said, “Peace be still” and when the wind had laid
He said, “Where’s your faith? Why were you so afraid?”
When they saw that the sea was smooth and clear
They said, “Thank You, God, that the man’s in here”
There’s a man in here who turns water to wine
And He walks on the water and gives sight to the blind
And He gives back life to the ones that’s dead
And He fed four thousand with seven loaves of bread
There’s a man in here who makes demons flee
Who makes cripples walk and has chosen even me
For He lives in my heart and I have no fear
I’m a better man ’cause there’s a man in here
I’m a better man ’cause there’s a man in here