Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music

Historisch wichtig, aber musikalisch zu gleichförmig. Trotz Ray Charles’ starker Stimme fehlt es dem Album an Abwechslung.

It's just too old and schmaltzy for me. I'm sure it sounds beautiful on a cold winter's night. It's all very well played but it's not for me.

Here Ray has taken old country standards and freshened them by using a mix of pop and jazz bringing them to a wider audience. As someone who used to play in a Hillbilly band (his words) he always knew he could do a good job with them. And he did.

Could not get into this!

On Spotify it was the deluxe version that's 2 disc and is more than an hour long. I wasn't planning on watching it until I realized it was the deluxe version and the real album was the first disc, so I decided to finally listen, and it was so good that I ended up listening to like half of the second disc without even knowing

I liked this, but I wouldn't really say it's something I'm drawn to. Although, this was extremely well made and I honestly think the questions brought up (often implicitly) by this are often more interesting than the music that's here. I wouldn't know it if I didn't look stuff up about this album, but this consists entirely of covers of country classics. However Ray Charles very tastefully adapts them to R&B in a way that I'm not sure anyone else could have. He really, truly makes them into R&B songs, but the compositions remain intact, even though they are transformed. I think one of the most interesting things this album asks is, "Is composition genre agnostic?". In other words, I have to wonder if any composition can be truly made into any genre of music. Where does a cover end and an original begin? Can a song be both a cover *and* an original? I don't know. But this is a truly unique example of interpretation as an artform. And while I don't think I'll be returning to this that often, it is very pleasant, and this kind of does need to be heard.

What do you get when you combine a genre I generally dislike and an artist I’ve never gotten? Genuinely one of my favorite discoveries of this project, obviously.

En compleet overzicht van verouderde stijlen. Niet mijn smaak dus. Maar het hoort natuurlijk bij een muzikaal overzicht. En kies dan deze plaat maar. Want Ray kan wel zingen.

Wiki benadrukt de muziek- en cultuurdoorbrekende opzet. Want Soul en Country waren (zijn) toch echt twee verschillende werelden. Ik beleef zelf weinig luisterplezier aan dit album. Maar al met al kan ik deze man niet met een onvoldoende laten zitten.

Erinomaisesti sovitettu kokoelma klassikoita!

Great! Loved the big band tales of country songs - maybe needed one more big and faster number midway through the second half to keep the pace up, but fantastic nonetheless

Is this the 1962 equivalent of Cowboy Carter or Lil Nas X? Sixty years later, these songs do not sound at all controversial but I'll believe what I've read about how many feathers were ruffled at the time. Conversely, it's also hard to wrap my head around everything I've read about how influential this was in mainstreaming (and influencing) country music.
There were only a few moments in this album where I could hear the country bleeding through in the arrangements, otherwise this played like a pretty standard album of early 60's R&B/Soul/Pop crooning, just based on country songs. I could have done with fewer violins, but I understand that was a thing at this time.
I feel like I appreciate this as much as I appreciated "The Genius of Ray Charles" when I listened to that but I understand that this album is probably more culturally significant and thus more necessary pre-death listening. That makes rating complicated. In any case, I’m glad I held back a little bit on my 'Genius' review so I can say it here: Ray Charles was a visionary. Someone get this guy a Diet Pepsi.

Fun, not the most amazing. Some great covers though.

I’m at a 10. I feel like I’m floating.

Just unbelievable, really. I’m too pressed for time to write anything that long, but I think if you take Ray Charles, some deeply reworked country songs, & an orchestra that perfectly compliments the natural charisma that he displays throughout this album, then you have the recipe for a masterpiece.

Genuinely, I’m stunned to the point of speechlessness. I truly cannot believe this is from 1962, and I can’t believe how fucking crisp the 2024 remasters are on Spotify. This is our first Ray Charles album, and while I had a pretty damn healthy respect for the guy, I’ve never listened to one of his full albums like this. I’m aware of his hits, but they couldn’t have prepared me for this album. Far from it – Ray Charles feels like he’s singing these straight from his soul, and that’s the sort of mixture of total zen & true passion that you can only tap into a handful of times, in the most magical moments. Somehow, I think Ray Charles pulls it out on this album for almost all of the 12 tracks. Granted, that might just be because I fully closed my eyes and got absolutely lost in each track, but I think that’s the best way to listen to this album. The lyrics are a helpful enough guide, sure, but for this one, just let them go. Ray Charles will take the brain to places that feel like they’re a heartbeat away, if you allow him to take you there.

I truly can’t explain what I felt while listening to this – the closest comparison I have is when we got “Lady Soul” by Aretha Franklin, and even then, this just felt different. It’s an easy, easy 10. Ray Charles might just be magic, man.

Not so big on this - I understand reading about it that it has some historical significance, but I can't help feeling that Ray's voice is quite weak on the orchestral backing tracks and the strings / group vocals feel very outdated. Overall it doesn't make a mark, is at most pleasant.

A fun take on some country staples. Although I think I prefer the originals when all is said and done.

Really enjoyed the first volume, but with a second volume as well it just felt overly long. Was surprised how many songs i recognised, but obviously some of this was due to them being standards and in the case of what you hot cooking, just brought flashbacks to the horrible Findus advert from the 80s

So far in this list, I haven't met a double (or triple!) album which wouldn't have benefitted from a good editor to whip it into a nice 45 minute album. This is no exception, as it drags a bit in the middle.

That being said, what a voice! And I'm predisposed to love big band, brass numbers so parts of this were really up my alley. Bye Bye Love was particularly enjoyable in this style.

I think this could have been higher, but the filler in the middle brings in down to

3/5

Better than Coldplay!

An inoffensive, charming listen of historical importance, but the impact of this album will most certainly have lessened over the years. “Famous soul singer takes on country and western classics” does not have the same impact now and it would have in 1962. Expectations radically shifted in the 60s. If an artist is not a songwriter it’s hard for them to maintain the same legendary space that they once held

Did he seriously say he wasn't blind anymore