Broke the Rules and Reinvented Them

When Ray Charles moved from Atlantic to ABC, the label expected to get a big selling R&B artist with enough appeal to cross over to pop audiences. Ray at first complied to this narrow view of him and his talents. He started at ABC with big R&B hits as Unchain my Heart. He felt he owed it to the label to give them what they expected. They had just given him an unprecedented contract in which he would keep the rights over his masters and gave him complete artistic freedom. Ray knew his time would come. Soon he made his wish known he wanted to record a record with Country tunes. This idea was met with great apprehension. This doubt in the concept was not without grounds. The R&B world and the country world were at the time still very separate entities. Black artist playing white music was not done in the record industry. Ray went ahead and broke the rules, succeeding marvelously, just as he did when he mixed R&B and Gospel a few years prior.

Wanted this one for a long time

I had this album a long time ago in college and loved it. It was great to catch up with it again.

One Of Ray's Shining Gems

This superb album of country music by the great Ray Charles was rereleased and remastered in this 1990 version. These are not the only country songs Ray took on with such ease, there is also a box set of country tunes. The first track on this is, in my opinion, the worse. 'Bye Bye Love' just doesn't cut it for some reason or other. Note 'Here We Go Again' is pre Norah Jones and Ray Charles duet but a great version nevertheless.Wonderful keyboards!!