Artist:     Ray Charles

Album:     Modern Sounds In Country Music, Vols. 1 & 2

Label:     Concord

Release Date:     2.22.2019

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In 1959, Atlantic Records and Ray Charles were sitting in the catbird seat of both R&B and Pop charts with Ray’s recording of the double-sided What’d I Say, Parts 1 & 2. So when Charles wanted to record a country tune and stretch things a bit further, the main suits (Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler ) got very nervous and may of borrowed a lyric from that monster hit and said “Now Wait A Minute.” It seems prophetic that the last session Ray did for Atlantic was Hank Snow’s country hit from 1950, “I’m Moving On”. Move on Charles did, to ABC/Paramount, and even though they gave him a carte blanche super deal recording contract like none other before, they too were more than a little nervous when he wanted to follow up his first few hits there like “Hit The Road Jack” and “Unchain My Heart” with a country song album.

Their fears were unfounded, when a month after its release, Modern Sounds In Country and Western Music, was certified Gold in May of 1962. It would also yield four chart topping singles including the monster “I Can’t Stop Loving You” that brought entire new audiences to Ray. The label naturally would follow with Vol. 2. Through the decades, both have racked awards and accolades, including a special Grammy in 1999 for historical significance. Vol. 1 is considered by just about every music trade journal and most critics as one of the greatest albums of all time.

To help him with this landmark recording, Charles turned to A&R man Sid Feller to gather the material. About 250 songs were considered for the 24 cuts. All got the Ray Charles treatment, which on some, like “It Makes No Difference Now” by songwriters Floyd Tillman and Jimmie Davis, he took complete liberty and jettisoned a very memorable melody. Then had his horn section repeat a riff almost to point of absurdity, perhaps to drive home the point of the futility of the relationship—who knows? Charles once said in an interview, “ You take country music, you take black music, you got the same goddamn thing exactly” On Tillman’s monster copyright, “I Love You So Much It Hurts Me” Charles stayed basically true to the wrenching melody, contrasted by a MOR Gordon-Jenkin’s style orchestra and chorus arrangement.

Fun fact: Sid Feller thought that “I Can’t Stop Loving You” was the weakest song on Vol. 1, and placed it at cut 11. On its initial release as a single, 100,000 copies per week were flying off the shelves, causing distributors to exclaim “Even folks without record players must be buying it!” It topped every chart worldwide, and received a special Grammy too. My advance copy did not include the liner notes, but Concord normally does a stellar job on them. A recording this significant deserves nothing less.

—Ken Spooner