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Boyz II Men and Trisha Yearwood are among the many artists within the Grand Ole Opry’s brief video tribute to Ray Charles, now out there to view in its Opry Black History sequence, as a part of Black History Month.
Shop the very best of Ray Charles’ discography on vinyl.
The two-minute clip crystallizes the indelible influence of “The Genius” on nation music, an affect that continues to at the present time. It focuses specifically on his seminal LP Modern Sounds In Country and Western Music, launched in April 1962 as his first for ABC-Paramount Records.
Yearwood and Boyz II Men characteristic within the tribute together with Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show, solo stars Chris Young and LeAnn Rimes, Nashville-based nation music journalist and historian Marcus Dowling of The Tennessean, genre-crossing artist Charlie Wilson, and Valerie Ervin of the Ray Charles Foundation. Each of them describes Charles’ distinctive potential to deliver his large musical palette, with components of blues, gospel, and R&B, to the nation area and again into the pop world.
Says Yearwood: “I think country music owes Ray Charles a big thank you, for making country music mainstream.” Adds Dowling: “Modern Sounds In Country and Western Music, it’s a record that introduced a broader swath, a more diverse cross-section of country music than any other country album in the history of the genre, still to this day. It’s the great intersection between blues and country and rhythm and blues.”
Reflects Young: “I think there’s very few people that have done anything as ambitious and as ‘betting on themselves’ as Ray Charles going ‘Ok, new record deal, but I’m going to make the first record a country record.’” Boyz II Men’s Shawn Stockman concludes: “It’s what I believe Ray envisioned for himself. He wanted to be able to have this type of music that represented several nationalities and races. This is what good music is all about.”
Listen to the very best of Ray Charles on Apple Music and Spotify.
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