Country Charley Pride

Photo: Greg Mathison

Country Charley Pride

A Guest Post by Charles Pogue

 

The world of country music owes a debt of gratitude to a baseball injury. You see, Charley Pride was a promising pitcher in the Yankees organization until an injury stole the zip from his fastball. Who knows how Charley Pride would have fared as a baseball player, but as a country singer, Charley is one of the bona-fide legends of the greatest era of Country music.

Charley, one of eleven children, (families were usually big back in 1938) was born in Sledge, Mississippi, but has made his home in Dallas, Texas for a long time now. Charley proves that not only do a lot of good things come out of Texas, but a lot of good things go into it too.

The first time I remember hearing Charley sing was when I was a teenager growing up on a ranch in Central Texas. We were working on a windmill that had a broken plunger, or some such problem, and were listening to the radio as we made the repairs. Although, that was not the first time I had heard Charley sing, nor the first time I had heard, Just Between You and Me, for some reason that occasion just stuck in my mind. What a voice, he had and continues to have! 

 

 

One of Charley’s greatest songs is Crystal Chandeliers

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s my favorite Charley song, Before I Met You

 

 

When Charley sings a song that someone else has made famous, he can really put his own special twist to it. That is true with the old Hank Williams classic, Kaw-liga.

The greatest of the country singers have sadly been pushed aside by the music gurus, and the what they call country music nowadays is not a thirty-second cousin from what we called country music that day we were working on that old windmill 46 years ago.

Thankfully, though, legends like Charley Pride can still be heard, and their recordings can still be purchased. May that be true for a long, long time to come.

 

 

Do you enjoy listening to the old country singers like Charley Pride?

 

 

 

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