Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music - Ray Charles (1962)

Originally released in two volumes, the digital versions are combined into one.

Appalachian “Hillbilly music,” midwestern “Cowboy songs,” the country-tinged hot jazz of “western swing,” and dozen other styles of traditional or traditional-sounding American music got mashed into the record label genre called “country and western.” A lot of these songs made their way out of Georgia, or into it, and past the ears of a young Ray Charles.

Known as a soul singer (a genre that’s just as deep a tradition but just as racially coded as country was), Charles just loved a good song. He gets a great mix of old school country from the likes of Don Gibson, Hank Williams, and Floyd Tillman, and turns them into his own distinctly Ray Charles inventions.

Tracks I Liked

Just A Little Lovin - Country a la Peter Gunn

You Are My Sunshine - a classic, done in classic Ray fashion

Midnight - gorgeous harmony