Ray Charles – Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music, Vols 1 & 2 (2024 Remaster) (1962/2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:14:10 minutes | 838 MB | Genre: Soul, R&B
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Tangerine Records
The iconic, game changing Modern Sounds in Country And Western albums, combined into a single release for CD in the 2000s, will be restored and released individually, as originally intended. The significance of these records cannot be overlooked. They are proof that great country music is malleable, and open to interpretation. Volume 1 quickly became one of the best-selling albums recorded by a Black musician of the time, as well as one of the best-selling country albums. It topped the Billboard Pop Album Chart of a month, and spawned four hit singles, including “I Can’t Stop Loving” which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, R&B, and the Adult Contemporary Charts, was nominated for Record Of The Year, and won the GRAMMY for Best Rhythm & Blues Recording at the 5th Annual Grammy Awards in 1963. “You Don’t Know Me” met with similar success. Ray Charles remains the first and only Black performer to earn a GRAMMY Award and a #1 Billboard Pop Chart Hit with a country and western song as he did with “l Can’t Stop Loving You.” Volume 2 followed its predecessor by just six months, and is widely regarded as just as strong, if not stronger than the first – the second made with the confidence that this formula or country & soul works. With three hit singles on both the R&B and Pop charts, including the #1 hit You Are My Sunshine, both volumes changed the course of popular music and remain a testament to the genius of Ray Charles.
Blessed with an intuitive genius that illuminated his entire career, Ray Charles sensed that country music and the blues had a common soul that he could touch with his expressive voice and natural gifts for phrasing. Having left Atlantic Records for the ABC label where he was guaranteed artistic freedom, Charles decided to step through the looking glass; in the middle of the civil rights movement he turned country music into lush, R&B-influenced 60s pop, blurring racial and artistic barriers in the process. As proof of his success, the single, “I Can’t Stop Loving You” (written by white country star Don Gibson) spent five weeks at #1 on the pop charts and sixteen weeks at #1 on the R&B charts before winning the 1962 Grammy Award for Best Rhythm and Blues Recording. As fresh today as when they were recorded, no context is required to appreciate these sublime tracks, which have now been combined into a single package. Charles knew a hit song when he heard it and he convincingly transformed a well-known track like Hank Williams’ “Your Cheating Heart” into a sweet, sexy ballad that seems as right as the original. For instrumental backup, Charles used two modes: strings and vocal choir by arranger Marty Paich for ballads like “I Can’t Stop Loving You” and punchier swing band arrangements by famed composer/arranger Gerald Wilson for tracks like “Hey Good Lookin’.” While a snappy, brass-led version of Williams’ “Move it Over” is a revelation, the utterly transformative version of one of country music’s most storied touchstones, “You Are My Sunshine,” featuring Charles in full Atlantic-era R&B mode—complete with Raelettes—is spectacular. One of the finest moments in an acclaimed career, the expansive vision and charismatic vocals heard here are still breathtaking. – Robert Baird
Tracklist:
1-1. Ray Charles – Bye Bye Love (2024 Remaster) (02:13)
1-2. Ray Charles – You Don’t Know Me (2024 Remaster) (03:18)
1-3. Ray Charles – Half As Much (2024 Remaster) (03:28)
1-4. Ray Charles – I Love You So Much It Hurts (2024 Remaster) (03:36)
1-5. Ray Charles – Just A Little Lovin’ (Will Go A Long Way) (2024 Remaster) (03:31)
1-6. Ray Charles – Born to Lose (2024 Remaster) (03:15)
1-7. Ray Charles – Worried Mind (2024 Remaster) (02:57)
1-8. Ray Charles – It Makes No Difference Now (2024 Remaster) (03:35)
1-9. Ray Charles – You Win Again (2024 Remaster) (03:32)
1-10. Ray Charles – Careless Love (2024 Remaster) (03:59)
1-11. Ray Charles – I Can’t Stop Loving You (2024 Remaster) (04:16)
1-12. Ray Charles – Hey, Good Lookin’ (2024 Remaster) (02:12)
2-1. Ray Charles – You Are My Sunshine (2024 Remaster) (03:01)
2-2. Ray Charles – No Letter Today (2024 Remaster) (03:00)
2-3. Ray Charles – Someday (You’ll Want Me To Want You) (2024 Remaster) (02:41)
2-4. Ray Charles – Don’t Tell Me Your Troubles (2024 Remaster) (02:07)
2-5. Ray Charles – Midnight (2024 Remaster) (03:17)
2-6. Ray Charles – Oh, Lonesome Me (2024 Remaster) (02:11)
2-7. Ray Charles – Take These Chains From My Heart (2024 Remaster) (02:57)
2-8. Ray Charles – Your Cheatin’ Heart (2024 Remaster) (03:35)
2-9. Ray Charles – I’ll Never Stand In Your Way (2024 Remaster) (02:19)
2-10. Ray Charles – Making Believe (2024 Remaster) (02:52)
2-11. Ray Charles – Teardrops In My Heart (2024 Remaster) (03:05)
2-12. Ray Charles – Hang Your Head In Shame (2024 Remaster) (03:13)
