By Ron Wynn
NASHVILLE, TN — It took much longer than anticipated, but the man known as “The Genius” is now in the Country Music Hall of Fame. Charles was among the inductees announced last week along with Pete Drake, Eddie Bayers, and The Judds. Charles was announced as the annual Veteran Era artist. The Judds received the Modern Era Artist medallion. Bayers and Drake earned indction in the Recording/Touring musician category, with both receiving benefit of a tie vote, the first since 2010.
The 2021 class brings the total Country Music Hall of Fame inductees to 146. Inductees are voted on by CMA’s Hall of Fame Panels of Electors, an anonymous body chosen by the CMA Board of Directors. Plans for the formal induction ceremony will be announced at a later date.The Hall of Fame plans to induct its 2020 class — which had its ceremony postponed last year — this November, “pending public health guidance and the state of the pandemic.”
Though he’s been a major presence in R&B, soul and jazz, Ray Charles also has an extensive background in country music. He was a childhood fan of WSM and listened to it and the Grand Ole Opry. One of his earliest professional jobs was playing country music as a teen with the Florida Playboys in Tampa honky-tonk bars. But it was in 1962 that he enjoyed his first major impact in country circles. That’s when his LP “Modern Sounds in Country & Western Music” was released.
“Modern Sounds” featured country anthems from Hank Williams, Eddy Arnold and Don Gibson presented through Charles’ filter of smooth pop arrangements and unquestionably soulful performance. “I just wanted to try my hand at hillbilly music,” Charles said in ‘Brother Ray: Ray Charles’ Own Story,” his 1978 autobiography. “After all, the Grand Ole Opry had been performing inside my head since I was a kid in the country.” No song defined the project better than “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” a best-selling single reaching listeners who tuned into pop and R&B radio. “I Can’t Stop Lovin You” and others on “Modern Sounds” gave country songwriting a place among listeners who otherwise may have never discovered it.
“When Ray did ‘I Can’t Stop Loving You,’ that was probably the time when country music was heard by more people than ever before,” Willie Nelson told The Tennessean in 2006. “He kicked country music forward 50 years. Before him, a lot of people had probably never heard of songs by Don Gibson or Hank Williams.” The commercial success of “Modern Sounds” led Charles to release a “Volume 2” in October 1962. It featured more Williams, Gibson and Arnold, among others.
In her memoir “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” Loretta Lynn said in the 1960s that the “whole country was ripe for country music” — thanks to Charles. “Ray Charles made it easier for all of us to reach a bigger audience,” Lynn said in the 1976 book, “and I don’t feel he’s ever gotten the credit he deserves from Nashville.”
In 1970 Ray Charles spent his 40th birthday covering “Ring of Fire” from the Ryman Auditorium as part of the “Johnny Cash Show.”
In 1984, Charles released “Friendships,” a duets album with famed country singers including Haggard, Cash and Chet Atkins with George Jones. On the album, he teamed with Willie Nelson for “Seven Spanish Angels,” a song that reached No. 1 on country charts,
Charles died in 2004 at age 73. His last trip to Nashville came a year earlier, when Charles performed Charlie Rich’s “Behind Closed Doors” for a CMT special. The Country Music Hall of Fame honored in 2006 with an exhibit exploring his contributions to the genre.
In 2019, the Grand Ole Opry paid tribute to him with a concert featuring Darius Rucker, Trisha Yearwood, Chris Young, Boyz II Men, Ronnie Milsap and Lukas Nelson, among others. “I don’t get outside of myself,” Charles once said regarding his music. “I stay within my own boundaries.”
