Ray Charles - Love Country Style

Love Country Style finds Ray Charles back in the country songbook, a 1970 album pressed here on orange vinyl that suits its warm, sunlit soul.

Eight years after Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music tore down the walls between genres, Charles returned to the music of Nashville on his own terms. Released on his own Tangerine label, the album treats country songs as raw material for his gospel-charged phrasing, and the results sound like nobody but him.

If You Were Mine opens the record with tender longing, and his take on Ring of Fire, the song made famous by Johnny Cash, is reshaped completely in his own image. Your Love Is So Doggone Good has a playful bounce, while Sweet Memories gives that unmistakable voice all the room it needs to ache, every line stretched and savored.

Throughout, the line between country, soul and gospel blurs until it all but disappears, which was always the point with Ray. The arrangements are lush without ever smothering him, and the songs feel lived in rather than borrowed.

For anyone who treasures Modern Sounds, this lesser-known return to the same well is a rewarding discovery for any crate digger, and the orange pressing makes it easy to spot on the shelf.