Although it may have shocked some people at the time, Ray Charles’ fascination with country and western music was anything but an overnight development. As a child in Florida, he’d listened to the Grand Ole Opry’s radio broadcasts through the Southern skies. Thus his 1962 gold-certified album Modern Sounds in Country & Western Music and its encore Modern Sounds in Country & Western Music, Volume 2 represented a lifelong dream – and may have transformed country music along with it.
The two albums, which featured the hits “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” “Take These Chains From My Heart” and “You Don’t Know Me,” will be reissued together in an expanded reissue titled Modern Sounds in Country & Western Music, Volumes 1 & 2 by Concord Records on June 2, 2009. New liner notes by musicologist Bill Dahl are included alongside original notes by Rick Ward and Charles’ longtime recording supervisor Sid Feller.
Audio Stream for “You Are My Sunshine” – WMV:
Audio Stream for “You Don’t Know Me” – WMV:
Video for “You Are My Sunshine”:
[youtube a8o4os6Um6g nolink]
Video for “You Don’t Know Me”:
[youtube L-5LwRinkJ0 nolink]
