Charley Pride Biography

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Charley Pride
Country Music | 3 CD Set
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Being black and a country musician may seem like a contradiction, but in the case of Charley Pride it is a fact. And Pride is one of the most successful country artists of the past thirty years. He was born Charl Frank Pride in 1938 on a cotton farm in Mississippi but his first name was written by a midwife as Charley. As a youngster, Charley heard country music on the radio and naturally took a liking to it, not getting into the blues so prevalent among the black population in the '30s and '40s. He was learning to play on a cheap guitar as a youngster but he was also playing baseball and after high school became a player in the Negro American Baseball League. He played semi-pro and minor league ball for several years on a major league farm team but was eventually told he did not have the tools to be a major leaguer. He had moved to Montana by 1964, working in a smelter, when he was discovered by country's Red Sovine, who convinced him to give Nashville a try. Charley had grown up listening to the Grand Ole Opry. Chet Atkins, at RCA Records, liked Pride's work and produced his first hit, "Snakes Crawl At Night". It was followed by "Just Between You and Me", which won a Grammy for Pride. In 1967, Ernest Tubb introduced Pride to the Grand Ole Opry, the first black on the show since 1925, when DeFord Bailey appeared. Although racial bias was apparent in some quarters, Pride's talent overcame most of that and he has become a major country star since. His biggest pop hit was 1971's "Kiss An Angel Good Mornin'", which made it to No. 21, but he has had an awesome array of country hits, nailing down 29 No. 1 singles in the genre. Over the years, Pride has put out his easy-listening country music without it being cast as either black or white. His concerts were sellouts for many years and today he still occasionally performs to capacity audiences (his son Dion plays in his band) and releases new albums. He left RCA in the mid-'80s as the company continued its foray into "new country," when massive production values took away from the more traditional sounds. His voice is still a study in emotional contrasts. He has won a number of awards, including Grammy and Country Music Association honors, and even sang gospel occasionally.

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