Ray Charles - Crying Time (2024 Remaster)

Ray Charles turned heartbreak into high art on Crying Time, a 1966 album that moves between country, blues and soul with effortless authority, presented here in its 2024 remaster.

By the mid-1960s Charles had already torn down the walls between genres, famously bringing country songs into his soul repertoire and making them entirely his own. Crying Time continues that mission with a set built around loss, longing and wry humor, framed by lush orchestration, punchy horns and gospel-fired backing vocals that answer his every cry.

The title track, a Buck Owens song, became one of his signature hits, Ray's weathered voice wrapping around every line as if he had lived it. Let's Go Get Stoned swaggers with barroom grit and a call-and-response groove, while Drifting Blues sinks into slow, late-night melancholy, the kind of performance that shows just how deep his blues roots ran.

Throughout, his piano keeps things grounded, and that voice moves from a whisper to a holler without ever sounding forced.

This 2024 remaster offers a fresh way into one of the most rewarding albums of his ABC years, a record that proves heartbreak never sounded so good and that genre labels never stood a chance against a voice like his.