{"id":1304282,"date":"2019-02-25T10:36:11","date_gmt":"2019-02-25T17:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/?p=1803350"},"modified":"2019-02-25T10:36:11","modified_gmt":"2019-02-25T17:36:11","slug":"ray-charles-country-impact-spotlighted-by-modern-sounds-reissue-panel-discussion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/music-news\/ray-charles-country-impact-spotlighted-by-modern-sounds-reissue-panel-discussion\/","title":{"rendered":"Ray Charles\u2019 Country Impact Spotlighted by Modern Sounds Reissue, Panel Discussion"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Edward Morris<\/a><\/span> 25m ago<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest mistake in country music was not marketing it to black people,\u201d Shannon Sanders asserted during a panel discussion on Ray Charles<\/a> held Saturday (Feb. 23) at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville.<\/p>\n

A Grammy-winning producer of albums by India Arie and Jonny Lang, Sanders was part of a panel that included recording artist Travis Tritt<\/a>, who co-headlined with Charles on a CMT Crossroads<\/a><\/em> special in 2002, and John Burk, president of Concord Records and producer of Charles\u2019 2004 Grammy-winning album, Genius Loves Company<\/em>. The Hall of Fame\u2019s Michael Gray moderated.<\/p>\n

The panel was a tie-in to Concord\u2019s re-issuance last week of Charles\u2019 ground-breaking Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, Volumes 1 & 2<\/em> as well as an implicit salute to Black History Month. Concord has made the Modern Sounds<\/em> albums available via CD, vinyl and digital.<\/p>\n

Charley Pride\u2019s breaching of country music\u2019s unacknowledged color barrier was still four years away when Charles released his soulful cover versions of country standards in 1962, just as the Civil Rights movement was burgeoning.<\/p>\n

Oddly enough, although many of these covers became pop hits, none crossed back over to country radio and, thus, into the country charts. It was only in the 1980s, after Charles signed to Columbia Records\u2019 Nashville division, that he charted as a country artist. His biggest and only No. 1 song was \u201cSeven Spanish Angels,\u201d a duet with Willie Nelson.<\/p>\n

Modern Sounds, Volume 1<\/em> topped Billboard<\/em>\u2019s pop albums charts for 14 weeks and yielded the No. 1 pop single, \u201cI Can\u2019t Stop Loving You,\u201d which stayed at the peak for five consecutive weeks. It achieved similar eminence on the R&B and adult contemporary charts. The song had originally been a Top 10 country hit in 1958 for its composer, Don Gibson.<\/p>\n

The success of \u201cI Can\u2019t Stop Loving You\u201d was hardly a fluke for Charles or for country music. His recordings of \u201cYou Don\u2019t Know Me,\u201d \u201cYou Are My Sunshine\u201d and \u201cTake These Chains From My Heart\u201d went No. 2, No. 7 and No. 8 respectively as pop singles.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe brought so much soul and such a different character to those songs [that he] made them his own,\u201d said Tritt. Sanders noted that the elements that made Charles\u2019 renditions so distinctive were \u201cthe nuances, the subtle things, the way he ends a phrase. \u2026 He wasn\u2019t really over the top.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n