CD Review: Ray Charles "Friendship" (Columbia Legacy)
- From: "Red Tunic Troll" <redtunictroll@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2005 21:46:09 -0400
Ray Charles "Friendship" (Columbia Legacy)
A couple of years after Charles joined Columbia, he waxed this album of duets with many of the label's country artists. Unlike the his revolutionary 1962 "Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music," the presence of mainstream country superstars pulled the singer more towards then then-contemporary Nashville style. Rather than re-contextualizing country songs as soul music, Charles simply revels in the pleasure of singing with friends - those he knew personally, and those whose acquaintance he made through this music. Much like his GrammyTM winning studio swan song "Genius Loves Company," this collection is more about making music than making revolutions, and it's set among similarly comfortable arrangements and singing partners. Billy Sherrill provides clean '80s production, as he'd done for so many albums of the era, resulting in an album that's more of its era than of a proclivity for invention and ground-breaking.
Charles was a tremendously talented duet partner, lending his soulful core to everything he sang while at the same time generously following the leads of his partners. Hank Jr. sparks Charles' bluesy side, the Oak Ridge Boys back him with gospel harmonies, and Ricky Skaggs adds a taste of high-and-lonesome. Janie Fricke plays Tammy Wynette to Charles' George Jones, and Jones himself takes a playful spin with Charles on "We Didn't See a Thing." The album's hit single, "Seven Spanish Angels," performed with Willie Nelson, a backing choir, and a large string section effectively contrasts the husky soulfulness of Charles' voice with Nelson's reediness.
Hook-ups with Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash and a few others are fine - reflecting the obvious pleasure everyone derived from this project - but do not add anything particularly substantial to any of the artists' canons. This CD reissue adds a pair of later duets to the original ten tracks, "Everybody Has the Blues" with Tony Bennett, and "Baby Grand" with Billy Joel. Both tracks fit into the pleasant and professional vibe of the album, but offer no further leaps forward. [(c)2005 redtunictroll at hotmail dot com]
DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT (DRM) NOTE: This release of this disc is protected by digital rights management software. Windows users must load the DRM software included on the disc before an approved software player can be used to play or rip the audio tracks. Using such an approved player (which does not include Apple's iTunes), you will only be able to rip into a protected WMA format that is incompatible with some portable music players, including the Apple iPod. Further, the number of times that you will be able to burn these protected WMA tracks to a CD-R is limited by the DRM software. For more information, including a multistep workaround that allows you to port the music for an iPod, see cp.sonybmg.com/xcp. Those using Apple OS or Linux-based computers are not affected by the DRM.
.
- Prev by Date: CD Review: Keith Sewell "Love is a Journey" (Skaggs Family)
- Next by Date: CD/DVD Review: Richard Thompson "Live From Austin, TX" (New West)
- Previous by thread: CD Review: Keith Sewell "Love is a Journey" (Skaggs Family)
- Next by thread: CD/DVD Review: Richard Thompson "Live From Austin, TX" (New West)
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
