Music genres are funny things and often used as gatekeeping barriers for reasons completely unrelated to the actual music. Not that long ago there was much clutching of pearls (and other, viler, reactions) in the Country music establishment when Beyoncé released her Cowboy Carter album. However, such genre crossing is nothing new as today’s 1962 album from the legendary Ray Charles demonstrates.
He takes a fine selection of country classics and adds a soulful, jazzy, bluesy twist to them that works perfectly. It just goes to show that for all of their cultural differences C&W and the blues have common roots in the folk songs and traditions of the Mississippi delta and rural America. After all, songs like Your Cheatin’ Heart by Hank Williams speak to common human experiences of heartache as well finding joy in the simple pleasures of life.
This really is an album to wallow in, and if it gets R&B fans to listen to more Country (and vice versa) then the world is all the better for it.
https://album.link/gb/i/1744974346
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