Ray Charles' "Modern Sounds in Country & Western Music" Getting Reissued by Concord Music Group

Ray Charles’ fascination with country and western music was anything but an accident or whim. As a child in Florida, he’d listened to the Grand Ole Opry’s radio broadcasts every single weekend. As a result, 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 albums would ultimately be made into a Country Music Hall Of Fame exhibit seen by millions.

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.

The reissue release is part of Concord’s ambitious Ray Charles reissue program that launched this year. Dahl writes. “So to him it wasn’t a radical concept. What was earth shattering was the way he redefined each song. When Ray unleashed the roaring horn section from his recently formed big band, those country evergreens swung like never before.”