Ray Price - Beauty Is … The Final Sessions
AmeriMonte Records
04142
It’s rare that a singer has the opportunity to record a farewell album, knowing all too well that there’s little chance that he will record again. When the late Ray Price stepped into the Nashville studio in the summer of 2013 to record this album, he knew it would be for the last time and he wanted to make the resultant album something rather special. He has succeeded in that quest magnificently. Having set out in the early 1950s as a hard-country honky-tonker who perfected the country shuffle like no one has before or since, he confounded his die-hard fans in the late 1960s when he seemingly turned his back on honky-tonkin’ country music to become a suave purveyor of sophisticated and lushly arranged popular music. It was a shrewd and risky move, but it paid off as Ray Price graduated from being a little-known country star to a highly successful and regarded country-pop performer with a mantelpiece full of gold records and awards.
This album, produced by old friend Fred Foster and featuring some of Nashville’s finest musicians, is a very mellow, late-night listening collection, very much in the style of those huge countrypolitan hits of some 40-odd years ago. Popular standards like Among My Souvenirs and Beautiful Dreamer, hit you like a velvet glove, then you have the vulnerability of I Can See You With My Eyes Closed and the brooding No More Songs To Sing that eases like a cooling salve. Despite his 87 years, Ray still possessed a powerful yet versatile voice, which copes admirably with the songs. He is joined by Vince Gill for the lush opening Beauty Lies In The Eyes Of The Beholder and Cindy Walker’s Until Then. The latter is the only track that hints at Ray’s rich country music roots, being a steel and fiddle driven lament that is quite timeless in its execution. Another highlight is the poignant late-night torch song This Thing Of Ours; enhancing his restraint are a softly stroked piano, a profusion of strings and a chorus to second his emotions. A dramatic and somewhat touching rendition of I Believe closes the collection majestically.
This is one of those albums that should be embraced by music lovers of all persuasions and justifiably acclaimed as a genuine classic. Why this album has ended up on a relatively small indie label instead of being released by one of the big majors is beyond apprehension and speaks volumes of how low the so called ‘music business’ has sunk over the past 30-odd years. We need more ‘music people’ like Fred Foster and less ‘music suits’ who will never understand artistic integrity all the time there’s a fast buck to be made with inferior commercial dross.
www.BeautyIsRayPrice.com
04142
It’s rare that a singer has the opportunity to record a farewell album, knowing all too well that there’s little chance that he will record again. When the late Ray Price stepped into the Nashville studio in the summer of 2013 to record this album, he knew it would be for the last time and he wanted to make the resultant album something rather special. He has succeeded in that quest magnificently. Having set out in the early 1950s as a hard-country honky-tonker who perfected the country shuffle like no one has before or since, he confounded his die-hard fans in the late 1960s when he seemingly turned his back on honky-tonkin’ country music to become a suave purveyor of sophisticated and lushly arranged popular music. It was a shrewd and risky move, but it paid off as Ray Price graduated from being a little-known country star to a highly successful and regarded country-pop performer with a mantelpiece full of gold records and awards.This album, produced by old friend Fred Foster and featuring some of Nashville’s finest musicians, is a very mellow, late-night listening collection, very much in the style of those huge countrypolitan hits of some 40-odd years ago. Popular standards like Among My Souvenirs and Beautiful Dreamer, hit you like a velvet glove, then you have the vulnerability of I Can See You With My Eyes Closed and the brooding No More Songs To Sing that eases like a cooling salve. Despite his 87 years, Ray still possessed a powerful yet versatile voice, which copes admirably with the songs. He is joined by Vince Gill for the lush opening Beauty Lies In The Eyes Of The Beholder and Cindy Walker’s Until Then. The latter is the only track that hints at Ray’s rich country music roots, being a steel and fiddle driven lament that is quite timeless in its execution. Another highlight is the poignant late-night torch song This Thing Of Ours; enhancing his restraint are a softly stroked piano, a profusion of strings and a chorus to second his emotions. A dramatic and somewhat touching rendition of I Believe closes the collection majestically.
This is one of those albums that should be embraced by music lovers of all persuasions and justifiably acclaimed as a genuine classic. Why this album has ended up on a relatively small indie label instead of being released by one of the big majors is beyond apprehension and speaks volumes of how low the so called ‘music business’ has sunk over the past 30-odd years. We need more ‘music people’ like Fred Foster and less ‘music suits’ who will never understand artistic integrity all the time there’s a fast buck to be made with inferior commercial dross.
www.BeautyIsRayPrice.com