Ray Charles

Dayna Wills · Post by **Dayna Wills** » 23 Jun 2004 8:48 pm

I watched a bio of Brother Ray and the record co. thought he was nuts to do a "Country" album. It sold like hotcakes. I think one of the best arrangements among those two albums he did was "Makes No Difference Now". What did you like?

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Alvin Blaine · Post by **Alvin Blaine** » 24 Jun 2004 3:16 am

Can you just imagine one of today's R&B type artist doing a modern country album?
I don't think P Diddy or Snoop Dog could pull off an album of George Strait, Garth Brooks and Allan Jackson songs.

Janice Brooks · Post by **Janice Brooks** » 24 Jun 2004 4:04 am

Dayna it's interesting that Ray was not big on Bob Will's material.

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Janice "Busgal" Brooks
ICQ 44729047

Glenn Suchan · Post by **Glenn Suchan** » 24 Jun 2004 10:36 am

Janice,

I think the reason Ray Charles did country music but not western swing was the music itself. Bob Wills' Western swing is more akin to the big band era music. The country music that Ray selected had more in common with the gospel influenced R&B music he forged (later to be known as "soul" music). Western swing is more technically driven. Country is more emotionally driven. That is not to say Ray was not capable of technical aspects of music. In fact, his nickname, "The Genius" implied his technical prowess as well as soulful grasp of music. Ray's early experimentation into the technical side of music was his piano trio work which was heavily based on Nat King Cole. I have a (pre Atlantic) LP that bears this out.

Simply put, I believe Ray was driven by the soulful beauty of music rather than the technical beauty.

Keep on pickin'!
Glenn

Janice Brooks · Post by **Janice Brooks** » 24 Jun 2004 12:18 pm

Glenn I think you nailed it.

Janice Brooks · Post by **Janice Brooks** » 4 Jul 2004 5:22 am

I had a run to Sam's club and Target yesterday and ended up with
20 hits of Hank Williams Sr. (I wore out the cassettes of his box set)
Gretchen Wilson Here For the Party
Joe Nichols Revelation
Ray Charles Anthology

Anyhow I was thinking of Ray's country connections again and I can come up with at least 11 members of the Country music hall of fame whose songs Ray has recorded or whom he has recorded with. The other note along these lines is that the list does not include Bob Wills.
Food for thought.

Janice Brooks · Post by **Janice Brooks** » 4 Jul 2004 6:18 am

Someone remembered a version from Ray of Hang Your Head in Shame

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Janice "Busgal" Brooks
ICQ 44729047

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 4 Jul 2004 7:00 am

Glenn, very astute observations.

Jay Fagerlie · Post by **Jay Fagerlie** » 4 Jul 2004 7:02 am

CMT showed a program named "Crossroads" with Sir Ray and Travis Tritt. Mighty fine performances by both. Ray was doing some great blues licks on his keyboard using the pitch bend wheel. He even backed up Travis while Travis sang Georgia.
If you have a chance to see it, don't miss it. The majority of the stuff they did was the country stuff Ray recorded.
Jay
BTW- Here's my favorite pic of Ray:

Dayna Wills · Post by **Dayna Wills** » 4 Jul 2004 11:37 pm

I was watching a marathon of the Flip Wilson show and Ray sang a duet of I can't Stop Loving You with "Geraldine". Ya know, Flip wasn't a bad singer. He did a medley of western songs, Jingle, Jangle, Jingle, Tumblin' Tumbleweeds, Don't Fence Me In, etc, with Bing Crosby and sang harmony too. He also did a duet and sang harmony with Roy Clark on Walkin' the Floor Over You. And besides that, Flip was FUNNY!