Dispelling the Ray Charles “Only One Country Album” Myth
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However you feel about the supposed “country” songs of Beyoncé, her entrance into the country music space could be an opportunity to highlight the Black legacy in country music, and some have used the moment for that very thing to a positive degree. But many others have done the very opposite.
As we have seen in an increasing frequency over the last few years, in the effort to portray country music as being even more exclusionary to Black performers than it ever was, the accomplishments of country’s few but critically-important Black contributors have been systematically diminished, overlooked, and sometimes outright erased in service of this cause.
Another culprit for downplaying or outright erasing Black contributions in country music is to portray today’s Black artists as being more groundbreaking and unprecedented than they actually are, often to launch viral social media posts or articles. This has been especially prevalent around the Beyoncé story.
These trends often result in Black erasure, or the erasing of country music’s Black legacy. And though white supremacy is often cited for removing the Black legacy from country music, it is ironically the journalists, academics, and activists purporting to champion the Black cause in country music that are more commonly the ones perpetrating this erasure in the modern era.
One of the most common misunderstandings when it comes to Black performers in country music is the legacy of Ray Charles. Inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2022, his legacy is regularly diminished to being just about “one album.” When Ray’s Hall of Fame status is cited by country fans as a counterargument to country music excluding Black performers, activists often clap back that Ray was an R&B singer who only released one country album, so he doesn’t really count when it comes to country music’s Black legacy. But this couldn’t be further from the truth.
First, it’s not fair to gloss over just what a feat it is that Ray Charles made it into the Country Music Hall of Fame in the first place. The Country Music Hall of Fame is not like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, or other Halls of Fame that open their doors wide to most anyone who has achieved in a given field.
Whether it’s sports, entertainment, or any other discipline, the Country Music Hall of Fame is the most austere institution at letting new inductees in. The Country Music Hall of Fame only allows three individuals in each year, which has created a massive backlog of inductees that Ray was able to bust through to earn the achievement.
But even in the many articles praising Ray Charles for his Hall of Fame induction in 2022, the common refrain read along the lines of, “He only released one country album. But that country album was so important and influential, it makes Ray Charles deserving of a Hall of Fame distinction all on its own.”
There is even a quote from Ray’s close friend Willie Nelson that on the surface affirms this “only one Ray Charles country record” theory. The Willie Nelson quote reads, “I think Ray Charles did as much as anybody when he did his country music album. Ray Charles broke down borders and showed the similarities between country music and R&B.”
The album that everyone seems to be referring to is Ray’s landmark 1962 release, Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. The album went #1 in country, and is given credit for dramatically broadening the appeal for country to new audiences. It did this by offering renditions of country music classics such as “You Win Again” and “Hey, Good Lookin'” by Hank Williams, “You Don’t Know Me” by Eddy Arnold and Cindy Walker, and other standard country songs.
Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music went on to populate scores of “Greatest Albums of All Time” lists by Time Magazine, Rolling Stone, VH1, CMT, Saving Country Music, and many other outlets, and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.
But Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music wasn’t the only country music album Ray Charles released. In fact, Ray Charles released seven country albums in three separate decades, and participated in other country songs and collaborations throughout his career.
Even just counting 1962’s Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music as the “one” country album from Ray Charles is grossly misleading. Charles released the original Modern Sounds in Country Music album in April of 1962. But after its overwhelming success, he went back into the studio in 1962, and in October released Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music Volume Two. This included twelve more tracks and was also an overwhelming success, hitting #2 on the Billboard Country Albums chart.
Both Modern Sounds in Country Music albums also resulted in hit singles, with “I Can’t Stop Loving You” going to #1, “You Don’t Know Me” hitting #2, and Ray’s version of “You Are My Sunshine” going to #7 on the Billboard Hot 100.
But it’s not just Modern Sounds Volume 2 that is regularly overlooked in these discussions. In 1970, Ray Charles returned to his country influences with the album Love Country Style. It included a cover of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire,” two songs written by country music’s Mickey Newbury, and the song “You’ve Still Got a Place in My Heart” by country artist Leon Payne.
But perhaps most importantly, in 1980, Ray Charles left his deal with Atlantic Records as his his career was faltering. Where he found support was signing with Columbia Records as a country artist in 1983. Over the next three years, he would release four dedicated country music albums as a country artist:
Wish You Were Here Tonight – 1983
Do I Ever Cross Your Mind – 1984
Friendship – 1984
From The Pages of My Mind – 1986
These weren’t just side projects. Radio singles were released from each album, and through this period, Ray Charles was considered a bonafide country artist, appeared on country bills, and playing his country songs during public appearances and concerts. The album Friendship became a #1, giving Charles his second #1 and third Top 5 album in country. He also scored a #1 song in country with “Seven Spanish Angels” featuring Willie Nelson. In total, Charles had six Top 20 singles in country through the era, and eight Top 40 singles.
“Born To Love Me” – #20
“We Didn’t See a Thing” – #6
“Rock and Roll Shoes” – #14
“Seven Spanish Angels” – #1
“It Ain’t Gonna Worry My Mind” – #12
“Two Old Cats Like Us” – #14
“The Pages of My Mind” – #34
In fact, that Willie Nelson quote of, “I think Ray Charles did as much as anybody when he did his country music album,” there’s a chance Willie wasn’t referring to Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music from 1962. He could be referring to 1984’s Friendship, where Ray paired with country greats of the time duet style. After all, Willie had a #1 song with Ray from the record.
Friendship was produced by well-known country producer Billy Sherrill. Also during this period, Ray Charles performed on The Tonight Show (February 2nd, 1984) to sing the songs “Friendship” and “We Didn’t See a Thing” with George Jones. Ray Charles and George Jones also performed on the 1984 ACM Awards together.
Along with the country artists who embraced Ray Charles through his 1984 album Friendship, Johnny Cash was a regular supporter of Ray throughout his career. Johnny Cash had Ray Charles on his landmark The Johnny Cash Show around the time Ray released the 1970 country album Love Country Style, and the two collaborated on numerous songs over the years.
The 1980s country era of Ray Charles was the last successful era of Ray’s career. It resulted in his final #1 song and album, and his final Top 40 albums and songs overall. Where the R&B and pop formats had abandoned Ray, country music was there to embrace him in the twilight of his commercial career.
There is another reason the ’80s era of the Ray Charles legacy is important to not overlook. Along with the misnomer that Ray Charles only released one country album, a similar misnomer has been forwarded about how the country industry only allowed “one Black country artist” at a time. Over the last few years, this talking point has been parroted regularly, putting the legacy of any Black country artist not named Charley Pride on perilous footing. The popular career of Pride and his thirty #1 singles overlapped with the Ray Charles resurgence in country music during the early 1980s.
Nonetheless, journalist Elamin Abdelmahmoud has pushed this false narrative on numerous occasions, asserting in a 2021 Buzzfeed article, “In the era of Charley Pride, country music’s biggest Black superstar, there was a pervading ethos that country music only has room for one Black star.”
The 2022 Amazon film For Love & Country also pushes this claim. In fact, the film doesn’t even mention Ray Charles at any point at all. His legacy goes entirely undocumented in a film that purports to document the Black legacy in country music.
Stoney Edwards is another example of how this “only one Black country artist” claim is false. Stoney released six country albums for Capitol Records starting in 1971. He was signed to the label by well-known producer Ken Nelson. When Charley Pride won country music’s biggest trophy in 1971—the CMA’s Entertainer of the Year award—Nelson felt the label needed to find a Black country singer of their own.
After Saving Country Music marked the 25th Anniversary of the passing of Stoney Edwards in 2022 and complained that his albums weren’t available digitally, Universal heard the criticism and reissued their six Stoney Edwards albums.
It always deserves to be underscored in these discussions that Black performers have clearly received less opportunities in country music historically, resulting in the few Black country performers who’ve found popularity over the years. But there are other factors to this as well, including how there have just been less Black performers attempting to pursue country music as a career over the years. But similar to Charley Pride, Ray Charles insists he did not receive any criticism by turning his sights on country music.
Ray Charles told NPR in 1998, “I had nobody to give me any static about what I did. I had more static when I started sounding like my true self, as opposed to trying to imitate Nat King Cole … But when I went into the country field, you know, nobody said anything. And I guess they really didn’t say too much because the thing was so big. I mean, it’s pretty hard to argue with something when it’s that big a hit.”
As Billboard recently said in one of the few stories that has sounded the alarm about the Black erasure at the heart of many of the articles on Beyoncé’s foray into country, “…while many Black female artists have struggled to thrive in country as they may have deserved, they’ve still been present and impactful, and the word ‘reclamation’ erases the strides they made before the launch of Act II. As a billionaire, Beyoncé is effectively an institution, so she can’t really ‘reclaim’ anything.”
Black women have also been subject to this erasure on numerous occasions, including in 2020 when Mickey Guyton was given credit for being the first Black woman to perform on the ACM Awards when Rihanna, Valerie June, and even Mickey Guyton herself had performed on the awards previously. These kinds of proclamations result in viral social media threads, and the wholesale erasure of the accomplishments that came before in the public mindset.
The country music legacy of Ray Charles is a great illustration of how the contributions and impact of Black performers in country music is commonly diminished and overlooked. Ray Charles didn’t make it into the Country Music Hall of Fame by happenstance or as a token. He earned it by showing his love and appreciation to country music throughout his successful R&B career, and spreading the love and appreciation for country music beyond the genre’s previously-defined borders.
Ray Charles was one of country music’s greatest ambassadors as an R&B singer. But the Albany, Georgia native was also one of country music’s great native performers.
February 28, 2024 @ 9:05 am
From the pages of my mind was my introduction to Ray Charles. I was very young so only knew hit the road jack and assumed that was all he did.
February 28, 2024 @ 9:20 am
Country music does not, and to my knowledge, has not, wholesale rejected any performer on any grounds other than their authenticity
Let me preface, caveat, and clarify that statement by stating that I do not believe country music as an institution has existed in the post 2000s era in an authentic, person-to-person way. It has become an institution of media, rather than an institution of culture.
But the people who liked country music all the way from 1900 to 2000, and yes, I realize that that starting date predates both the Bristol sessions, the formation of the Opry, and the codification of a definable ‘country sound’ But let’s not pretend that the music the country singers of the 50s and 60s grew up, listening to, was not the same kind of music that the people in the 30s grew up listening to, Which was the sort of folk songs that everybody in the year 1900 outside of a major city center would have known
However, many performers have been rejected over the years on imagined or genuine in authenticity concerns. Even Conway struggled to find acceptance
This is something that anyone from outside the country, music institution, cannot understand, because in the music, world outside of country, and Bluegrass, music, and jazz, everything is image. Everything is fake. Bands have stage get ups and imagery, their members have stage names,
Flea, buckethead, axl, slash, Izzy.
It’s all image.
Lady Gaga? What does that even mean?
Throughout the history of country music, country music’s biggest superstars are almost invariably average Joes
Is there anybody who seems more normal and pedestrian than Alan Jackson?
Or maybe a better way to illustrate that point is if you invited buckethead to your barbecue, and Alan Jackson to your barbecue, what do you think would happen?
People who, like country music are most receptive of country stars who seem like their friends and neighbors
I’ve use this analogy, 100 times, but it bears repeating. One of the reasons, Charlie???, pride and Mel Tillis are two of my favorite country singers is because they both seem so sincere and genuine average people. If I was walking down the road and it started raining and I saw those two sitting on a porch not only could I walk up and introduce myself and wait out the storm, theyd probably wave me over and offer me a sandwich.
I can’t say the same about buckethead, Axl rose, Lady Gaga, etc
This is what people from outside country music don’t understand because they are so used to the idea of celebrity being a put on, a façade.
But in country music, celebrity is one of the most revealing things about a person.
Merle Haggard was not imagery, he was the real deal, all of that stuff he wrote was genuine, it was something about Merle Haggard that Merle Haggard put out there so all of us could see Merle Haggard, the way Merle Haggard was
Ray Charles may not have begun his career making country music, but he grew up in that culture of authenticity. Being the real deal both with yourself, and with the people who listen to you.
And when Ray Charles did come to country music, he came with both of our understanding of what country music culture was, but he demonstrated that he understood it by releasing an album of songs any country fan already knew by heart
He didn’t try to change country music culture to prove that there was room for him. He changed himself to prove that he could fit into country music
By which I mean, he showed country fans the basic respect of demonstrating an understanding of their tastes.
People who haven’t been steeped in country music culture simply do not have the background to understand, or realize that, for most of country music history, this honesty and authenticity, created a sense of community that other institutionalized art forms simply do not have
And And this is why that even people who grew up listening to 90s country, struggle to connect with modern country stars. In fact, this is why so many modern country stars are such nobodies in greater popular culture.
There is only a certain group of people who like this modernized redneck imagery, who are such inauthentic people that they require an inauthentic version of their imagery
This is why that Zach Bryan has made such a big splash, because in a decades, long window of inauthenticity, which, for the sake of argument, let’s say, began sometime around 2007, he’s one of the most genuine, for real artists to hit the mainstream
February 28, 2024 @ 9:48 am
“This is something that anyone from outside the country, music institution, cannot understand, because in the music, world outside of country, and Bluegrass, music, and jazz, everything is image. Everything is fake. Bands have stage get ups and imagery, their members have stage names,
Flea, buckethead, axl, slash, Izzy.
It’s all image.”
congratulations, you’ve managed to cherry pick some people that have stage names to support your apparently very limited and biased view of music!
did you know johnny paycheck’s real name was… donald? patsy cline? tammy wynette?
country musicians don’t have stage get ups? can i introduce you to the nudie suit? lmao.
all to paint country music as some holier than thou genre and every other as insincere.
c’mon.
February 28, 2024 @ 12:32 pm
You… really missed the point there, chief.
Of course those were abbreviated or downright stage names, but they *usually* weren’t random edgy words that created rebellious or dystopian imagery.
As for the nudie suit, that imagery didn’t belong to any one singular or even group of performers.
The nudie suit was imagery belonging to country music as an institution. Like cowboy hats.
And sure, you can cherry pick names from country music to counter my cherry picking names from rock but let’s not pretend that the names from rock even sound like normal names a person is given at birth
Who names a baby slash?
Sure Buck Owens was born Alvis but throughout history there’s been so many bucks or buckys that it’s a moot point.
The rock imagery is deliberately counter cultural and dare I use the colloquial ‘edgy’
And in rap it’s even worse, because nicknames are almost a requirement.
These are inherent institutions belonging to each genre
It’s very rare in country music from 1950 to 1990 using a random noun as a name but very common in rap
And to pretend that these trends don’t exist or are ‘negligible’ shows a general lack of understanding of the cultural appeal of each genre of music to its fan base
In the rap world, the kind of vulnerability shown by a haggard or a Jones admitting a woman broke their heart is usually seen as weakness.
In the country music world, counter culture and generational anger represent something unamerican, while in the rock world, anything ‘old and in the way’ is a tool of an out of touch oppressor
Sure you can find dozens of examples to the contrary and I can respond with dozens more to reinforce my point. It’s a zero sum game that I won’t participate in further.
But my underlying point that country music as an institution possesses its own culture that is misunderstood by those from outside is both irrefutable and so well documented in dozens of scm articles im surprised you wigged out over my comment as opposed to the dozens of articles about this exact issue
February 28, 2024 @ 9:30 am
Country music should feel incredibly lucky to count Ray Charles as part of its family. That man transcended genre in the best way possible. I still consider Georgia On My Mind to be a country song.
February 28, 2024 @ 9:46 am
I very much enjoyed this article I learned several new things that I deeply appreciated reading- I DJ on a small radio station in Ketchikan Alaska Monday nights, and I’ll be sharing some of this information so I truly thank you for it. Just one caveat, Linda Martel -Color me country.
I very much feel this album by a black woman in the 60s deserves mention in this historical overview.
If you have not heard her Music check her out.
February 28, 2024 @ 11:32 am
Just to clarify, this was not meant to be a historical overview of Black artists in country music. I have published those as well, and Linda Martell has been included there. This was more about dispelling the myth that Ray Charles only released one country album, which is an opinion I have personally seen or been cited to me directly half a dozen times in the last couple of weeks.
I have spelled this information out about Ray Charles before, but this time wanted to do it in a dedicated manner, if for no other reason than to have a link to all the information in one place whenever I see someone spreading this misnomer.
The simple fact is when you start digging for Black contributions in country music, they’re all over the place. One article will cite Linda Martell, and another will cite Anita Pointer, still another will cite Alice Randall, but few if anyone is putting them all together to conclude that there actually were quite a few Black women involved in country music.
Nonetheless, the fact that is has been so difficult for Black creators in country to find traction is the reason we should highlight these achievements as opposed to diminishing them.
February 28, 2024 @ 9:51 am
My dad raised me on Ray Charles, along with Waylon and Hank Jr. I consider him as country as anybody else during that period.
February 28, 2024 @ 10:39 am
My guess is that the same type of people who complain about Beyonce were complaining about Ray Charles back in the day. And like Ray was quoted” its hard to argue with something that is that big of a hit” Sound familiar?
February 28, 2024 @ 11:46 am
A big issue with the Beyonce songs and one of the reasons they are not a comparable to “Modern Sounds in Country Music” is that they are just not that great. This is something that the people who are full throated behind Beyonce’s entry into country really need to reckon with, yet will refuse to do due to fandom.
The Washington Post, Pitchfork, Azalia Banks, and others have spelled this out, and folks are just not listening. There might be some great songs on the album itself, and I look forward to hearing it, and have reserved my full judgement on her music until I hear it. But to compare “Texas Hold ‘Em” to classics such as “You Don’t Know Me” or “You Win Again” is impossible.
A great song will solve a lot of problems. It’s a panacea for all the criticisms about genre, gatekeeping, authenticity, etc. So far, we’ve yet to hear that great song from Beyonce’s country catalog. I’m not even sure if it’s fair to call the songs infectious or catchy. Saying “Welp, if you call the Applebee’s Song country, you got to call this country” is not the kind of discussions you want swirling around your country songs.
February 28, 2024 @ 12:10 pm
All true. No doubt if she chose to sing the “standards” of country in the way Ray did it she would win over anybody who doubted her sincerity of delving into country music.
Now, are we going to address the Frog in the room? Should Bruce Cockburn be looking for mailbox money?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyIhmbfdrMU
February 28, 2024 @ 10:54 am
Friendship was effectively Ray’s “Genius Loves Company” in the country genre and it was a terrific album. Five hit singles and probably any of the rest of the tracks were good enough to be on the radio. He got a Horizon Award nomination after that album, which I thought was a trifle sketchy given his long history in country.
Modern Sounds was a landmark album in American music and it was what Ray wanted to do as soon as he had the clout to do it. It was organic and people went for it big time because it was absolutely believable.
February 28, 2024 @ 12:00 pm
“Black performers have clearly received less opportunities in country music historically,..But there are other factors to this as well, including how there have just been less Black performers attempting to pursue country music as a career over the years.”
I’ve always felt this to also be true about female artists, albeit to a much lesser degree.
February 28, 2024 @ 12:14 pm
This is a minor point. I know, but Ray didn’t leave Atlantic Records in 1980. He left them in 1959.His last single for the label ? A remake of “I’m Movin’ On”. He went to ABC-Paramount for more money, eventual ownership of his masters, and the creative freedom to do albums like “Modern Sounds”.(Peter Guralnick goes into more detail about this in the book “Sweet Soul Music”.)
February 28, 2024 @ 12:19 pm
Didn’t he return to Atlantic in 1977 with the album “True to Life”? You’re right, his legacy on Atlantic was bisected by ABC. But he released four albums on Atlantic between 1977 and 1980.
February 28, 2024 @ 12:19 pm
I’m glad you wrote this, I was unaware of any later-career Ray Charles country albums aside from the one with all the duets (some of which were radio hits, especially Seven Spanish Angels). I guess my parents must’ve had that album because, looking at that track list, I remember almost every song (albeit not the other Columbia releases, which look like they might be out of print). And I was totally clueless about Stoney Edwards.
Bobby “Blue” Bland did an amazing album of mostly country covers, although adapted for a big-band R&B style. It’s hard to find though, only import CDs or if you can find an old used vinyl. He did “Today I Started Loving You Again,” “You’ve Never Been This Far Before,” lots of good stuff. One of my favorite LPs in any genre. It’d be hard to argue that Bland was as big a deal as Charles though, so I guess it’s kind of forgotten.
Giving Charles a run at the country audience in the mid-’80s makes its own kind of sense. He’d already given it a shot back when he was at his career peak, so he seemed like someone with a genuine love for it instead of just an opportunist. And a lot of the fans of the first wave or two of rock and R&B artists – especially white and middle-America types – had probably migrated to either country or easy listening by then. What counted as rock and pop by then might’ve seemed too wild, loud, youth-oriented etc. for the older folks.
I like Beyonce and don’t consider myself a gatekeeper for what counts as “country” even if I’ve got my own preferred strains of it. Her new songs are fine in my book, they just sound like modern big-production pop with some country elements thrown in. But then again so do most of the usual suspects on modern country radio.
February 28, 2024 @ 12:53 pm
Seven Spanish Angels still gives me chills. That is proof Ray Charles was put on this earth to sing
February 28, 2024 @ 6:18 pm
Ray Charles, GEORGIA.
I do not know of a more classy song.
Simply Beautiful
February 28, 2024 @ 1:29 pm
Authenticity is key. Ray Charles had it and, yes, he (along with Charley Pride, Stoney Edwards, and others) did have a rural background which certainly helped. But Anita Pointer was from Oakland and she too was authentic. “Country is living in the city, knowing your people, knowing your kind.” Pointer may not have been able to authentically sing about working on a ranch, but her two entries on the country chart were about escaping a toxic relationship (“Fairtyale”) and having regrets about your past (“Too Many Times”) and those themes are pretty damn universal.
Similarly, I remember coming across an old Steve Earle interview once where he said something along the lines of Bruce Springsteen’s album Nebraska being “a great hillbilly record.” And it is. It may not be drenched in fiddle and steel, but neither was Johnny Cash. Thematically, nothing on it would be out of place on a classic country album. Cash himself seemed to think so and covered two songs from it. And “Atlantic City” has been covered by several country artists. The bottom line is that it was real, authentic songwriting about the struggles that real people deal with.
Beyonce, though, seems to be describing her own lifestyle of that of her peers in the 1%. I don’t know too many country people who drive a Lexus to dive bars (a dive bar that is “nice,” which is kind of an oxymoron). And liquor is too expensive to pour it on her. Furs? Don’t be a bitch? What does any of this have to do with anything a common working class person can relate to? To be clear, it isn’t any less country than Sam Hunt. (Nobody who has driven on a back road and had to deal with the potholes, mud slides, and gravel would believe it to be something complimentary to say about your partner’s body.) But it’s still not worth playing when there is much better music out there.
February 28, 2024 @ 6:34 pm
I think that the thing with Ray Charles is that it was those ’60s country-reoedings like “You Don’t Know Me” and “I Can’t Stop Loving You” that stopped people in their tracks then, and have continued to be played and be influential for well over half a century.
His ’80s period as an artist in Columbia’s country division produced a few hits–pretty much all duets with straigjt country stars of that era, but nothing pathbreaking. “Seven Spanish Angels” with Willie Nelson may be the only one of the sides that had any sort of extended life.
February 28, 2024 @ 7:48 pm
Do I Ever Cross Your Mind is a really good, forgotten album. And, not telling y’all anything you don’t know, but it wasn’t just Brother Ray. It was Johnny Adams and Solomon Burke and Rev Al Green and Clarence Carter and on and on. Of course, none of them are country (though Carter gets close occasionally), but they all obviously loved country music and covered country songs. To me, it never felt like a gimmick: they were just playing the songs they heard growing up with AM radio. Anywho…
February 29, 2024 @ 9:12 am
I own everything that Ray Charles ever recorded, including some bootleg concerts (ok, shoot me). Do I Ever Cross Your Mind, in my mind, is his greatest recording. Beautiful, gut wrenching song that should have received some radio attention. Thanks for this article. I have said many of these things to friends and grandkids over the years. Ray was the GOAT. So much more to his legacy than the top 10 hits.
February 29, 2024 @ 3:11 am
Great article!
Ray’s legacy should not get erased, and article’s like this help keep it alive when mainstream media will not.
February 29, 2024 @ 7:26 am
Beyoncé’s (and progressive culture warriors’) ‘reclamation’ claim is purely of the moment. She and hers are attempting to reclaim the cultural thing that is country music now. And I really don’t see any other artist’s contribution to country being ‘erased’ as a result. I doubt the majority of Millennials and Gen Z of any race think about Ray Charles at all, in any way, ever. He’s ancient history to them. My daughter is 21 and she thinks U2 are ancient history, let alone someone who was born in 1930 – a human lifetime before she was. Same goes for Charley Pride. As far as the Beyoncé fans and promoters know, she IS reclaiming country. Country has ONE visible, popular black singer now – Darius Rucker – a guy who became famous first for white, frat boy rock. If Ray Charles was currently on the country charts then adding Beyoncé wouldn’t be much of a big deal. History is important for knowing why the current Zeitgeist is the current Zeitgeist. It’s no help when trying to justify an institution against the reaction of the current mood.
February 29, 2024 @ 10:33 am
Trigs point is that many journalists are erasing the legacy of Ray Charles and others to Country music, so that they can anoint their chosen messiah Beyonce as ” the first”. There are lies and misinformation being specifically being written as we speak. There absolutely is a responsibility to be as accurate as possible when writing as an authority. SO this article does a great job of setting the record straight. Re- writing history is an atrocity and its shocking that you believe its ok. The fact that a 21 year old isn’t aware of Ray Charles or Charley Pride does not matter in this discussion. Historical facts and firsts are significant regardless of what the current twenty somethings know or are unfamiliar with. These things matter to a lot of people. I’m one of them.
February 29, 2024 @ 11:03 am
I’m well past 21 and there are still a lot of things I don’t know about a lot of things. But I do hope that there are people out there who DO know those things and will tell me the truth when those topics come up. I’m assuming your daughter’s teachers didn’t tell her that history began the day she was born or that people only began writing stories or poetry in the 21st century. You should hold the commentators she listens to in the media to the same standard.
We all start somewhere. For some people, these songs will be their first exposure to “country” music (and I use that term lightly) and Beyonce will be the black woman they see participate in the genre. And that’s cool. A lot of us had our first exposure to punk rock through bands like Green Day and Blink 182 or first learned of bluegrass and old time music through a George Clooney movie. But we were never lead to believe that those genres began there. In fact, back then there were responsible journalists who tried to inform people of the long, storied histories of those genres.
To take this to another medium, go watch any interview with Quentin Tarantino. He’ll name drop more movies in 10 minutes than you’ve watched in the past year. He knows his craft and he acknowledges those who came before him. Even if he may be the first filmmaker to get Oscar nominations for the types of movies he makes, he never takes credit for things he doesn’t deserve credit for. More than once, I’ve heard him mention a film I’d never heard of and then went and watched it myself. Beyonce could do the same thing if her love for country music is genuine. Which country artists are on her playlist? Which artists did she hear growing up that really made her a country fan? I can answer that question. Ray Charles could have answered that question. I’m still unconvinced that Beyonce can.
February 29, 2024 @ 11:53 am
“Country has ONE visible, popular black singer now – Darius Rucker – a guy who became famous first for white, frat boy rock.”
This is incorrect, and underscores once again how overlooked country’s Black artists are. Darius did have a dozen #1 songs, five #1 albums, and is a Grand Ole Opry member. But most would consider him past his prime as well.
The one visible Black country artist at the moment is Kane Brown. He has eleven #1 songs. The other would be Jimmie Allen who’s had similar success, but he was recently Me Too’d, taking him out of contention. At that time, I talked about how significant losing Jimmie Allen would be to the discussion of race and country music, and folks thought I was crazy at that time. with this Beyonce news and so many outlets reporting on the lack of Black performers, this article proved to be prescient:
https://savingcountrymusic.com/jimmie-allen-accusations-exacerbate-countrys-diversity-dilemma/
February 29, 2024 @ 12:20 pm
OK, I forgot Kane Brown. So two popular black artists. One hot and one as you say, past his prime. That doesn’t undermine my point at all. Country music SEEMS/LOOKS/FEELS racist or at least resistant to black and minority voices. I’m not saying that it is. I’m saying it LOOKS that way. So people THINK it’s that way. Which is why they think Beyoncé is breaking ground. If they think she is, she is. That’s my point. Knowing that Ray Charles put out a bunch of country records back in the day and was on the country charts and was Willie’s pal doesn’t change anything NOW. There IS a lack of black country performers. The genre is overwhelmingly white and comes packaged in a ton of cultural whiteness. So when Beyoncé has a song on the charts it SEEMS groundbreaking. Journalists aren’t ‘erasing’ Ray Charles. They could begin every Beyoncé article with ‘although Ray Charles had many country hits’ and everyone would still think Beyoncé is breaking new ground. She’s breaking new ground because people are looking with their eyes and listening with their ears and thinking wow, she’s breaking new ground. Thinking ‘oh everyone is just uneducated/don’t understand history’ denies the reality of the present, which will always trump history.
February 29, 2024 @ 2:22 pm
No, there are multiple Black current “popular” artists. Not just two. You cannot overlook Jimmie Allen, who won the CMA’s New Artist of the Year award, and the ACM’s Best New Male Artist of the Year award. He also has numerous #1 songs. That means the country music industry was supporting him. Unfortunately, he had to allegedly do some very bad things, and now the industry will be blamed for not supporting a Black artist, when in reality, it’s Jimmie Allen’s fault, not “country music.”
There are also many, many other current Black country artists who are quite successful. I stood in a field with 25,000 other people last summer watching Charley Crockett perform. He may not be on country radio, but that doesn’t mean he’s not popular, or important.
I do agree that there is a perception that country music is mostly or solely white. I also agree that’s a problem in how it could discourage Black artists or fans from pursuing the music. All I know to do about that is to try and highlight the Black legacy of country music to dispel that myth. Hence, articles like this.
And yes, I have literally read articles in the last couple of weeks prefacing country’s Black legacy, and giving Ray Charles credit for releasing only one country album. I have literally had people clap back at me when I mention Ray Charles, saying, “yeah, but he only released one album.” That’s the reason I decided to take the time to research, write, and publish this article.
I’m not “denying the reality of the present.” I am doing what I can to try and make sure the public is properly informed, and country’s Black performers are properly credited.
March 1, 2024 @ 4:49 am
Can’t argue with that. Thanks, Trigger.
February 29, 2024 @ 5:23 pm
This is an interesting (and hard to address) point because of this cultural insistence that gatekeeping is bad
I think the lack of gatekeepers is how we have allowed ourselves to get to this point in society, where Pokémon games are poorly designed unfinished Dreck That in No way resembles the RPG the franchise was supposed to be, Country music is just pop made by people who didn’t grow up in a major city center, Velma is black and everything is either anime or calarts bean face
This assumption that gatekeeping keeps people from enjoying things, and subsequently needs to be abolished, is part of why so many things have gone to pot
Normalizing Appreciating where things came from, and a basic education about the history of things would go along way
I will speak for myself, as someone who probably knows more about country music of the 1930s and 40s through the 70s than almost anyone
Once upon a time, I didn’t know squat. My first exposure to country music was a rerun of hee haw.
And I googled that show, I googled the people I saw working on that show, and I found out that so many of those people worked for these other people, and I saw interviews were those people talked about being influenced by other people, and I started going to the library and checking out those CDs so I could understand what was being talked about
By the time I graduated high school, I probably already knew more about the early years of country music than most people. Because I didn’t wanna sound like I didn’t know what I was talking about when I talk to country music with people.
And maybe I am a rare sort of person. Maybe I am looking at the whole thing about people making fun of people who don’t know everything about everything the wrong way.
But I guess if you don’t want to be made fun of for not knowing what you’re talking about about some thing either don’t talk about it, or study up on it
And I chose to study up on country music.
In that one avengers movie didn’t Spider-Man call alien a really old movie? To a lot of people. It probably is a really old movie. It’s probably older than some peoples parents now.
But as someone who saw Roy Rogers on heehaw And wound up, going to the library and watching some of his old black-and-white movies, alien isn’t that old.
I had a teacher once when I was in high school who told me that there were certain things everyone would expect me to know about, things like Ian McClellan was Gandalf, Michael Crawford was phantom of the opera, injun joe was from Tom saywer
And probably a lot of kids in the middle and high school would benefit from a couple classes that are just general histories of things
A basic understanding of the major works in fantasy, including lord, of the rings, chronicles of Narnia and stuff, most important movies, like alien, and the first two terminators, Forrest Gump,
Elvis, The Beatles, Ray Charles, etc.
Some people might call it gatekeeping, to insist that people be boned up on the history of things
But everybody has to start somewhere, and the simple fact is that the opinion of 100 people is completely worthless if none of them knows a thing about the subject
Maybe it’s unreasonable to expect anybody who appreciates Pokémon to have seen every episode of the anime. There’s over 1000 of them now it’s almost as long as one piece, But at least indigo league is a reasonable expectation,
Lowe stokes, uncle Dave Macon and Roy acuff might be a bit too far back for casual country music education
But at least Buck Merle and porter wagoner is a reasonable crash course
And if people want to call it gatekeeping, I’m not going to lose sleep over it. But as far as I’m concerned, if you want to participate in some thing, you have to do it with a basic respect of what that thing is supposed to be.
February 29, 2024 @ 10:05 am
Ray is probably my favourite non strictly country artist of all time even if i never really loved some renditions in Modern Sounds
February 29, 2024 @ 11:46 am
I do wonder if Ray Charles provoked the same sort of comments when he released his country albums as other non country artists recently. Ray Charles is not country and never has been. He was an outstanding artist and I have always been a fan. His soul take on the ‘country music’ albums is brilliant. Did he deserve Hall of Fame? As a country artist, no. As someone who helped bring country music into the mainstream. Probably.
March 1, 2024 @ 6:49 pm
The Rhino box set “Complete Country and Western Recordings: 1959-1986” says it all — 92 tracks across 4 CDs. ‘Nuff said.
March 3, 2024 @ 9:04 am
Ray Charles’s first professional job as a musician was as a piano player for a western swing outfit called The Florida Playboys, right here in Jacksonville, FL. There is some dispute about that, but Ray said it was.