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27 Ocak 2008 01:04:14
3232 Gösterim, 30 Yorum

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BCB Band sings Crazy Arms by Ray Price.

During his long and distinguished career, Ray Price has accomplished the remarkable feat of re-inventing hard-core honky-tonk and also gaining success with lushly arranged love ballads aimed at the country-and-pop crossover market. Whether clad
in rhinestone suits or tuxedos, he has maintained an independence characteristic of great innovators in all artistic fields.

He was born Ray Noble Price near Perryville, Texas, on Jan. 12, 1926. As a boy, he divided his time between his father's farm and his mother's home in Dallas, where she moved after she and her husband divorced. After serving in the U. S. Marines during World War II, Ray planned to become a veterinarian and attended North Texas Agricultural College.

Singing at nearby Roy's House Cafe, however, led Price down a different road, and with assistance from Dallas recording entrepreneur Jim Beck, he made his first record for the Nashville-based Bullet label in late 1949 or early 1950. Soon he was singing on Dallas radio programs, including the popular KRLD Big D Jamboree. His work impressed Peer-Southern publishing executive Troy Martin, who steered him to a contract with Columbia Records in 1951.

Hank Williams also helped Ray by featuring him on road shows and writing

"Weary Blues (From Waitin')" for him. Price's recording of the tune sold well enough to strengthen his bid for Grand Ole Opry membership. He joined the cast in 1952, roomed with Hank for a time, and shared Hank's Drifting Cowboys as his band. Not surprisingly, some of Ray's early 1950s recordings reveal Hank's influence, including 1952's "Talk to Your Heart," Price's first chart-making disc.

Gradually, though, Price let his own voice shine through. He put his own stamp on country's honky-tonk tradition with his No. 1 1956 hit "Crazy Arms," played and sung to a 4/4 shuffle beat that is now an integral part of country music. As "I've Got a New Heartache," "My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You" and other hits climbed the charts during the late '50s and early '60s, Price lent a hand to singers and songwriters like Willie Nelson, Roger Miller and Johnny Paycheck (each of whom played in his Cherokee Cowboys band); Harlan Howard, who wrote Price's classic "Heartaches by the Number" and Bill Anderson, author of the equally fine "City Lights."