A Taste Of Honey May 21 2015
A very good friend of mine and a successful music man, reminded me of an artist that started his career as a session musician for Sam Phillips’s Sun Records in 1958.He played on records with Jerry Lee Lewis,Johnny Cash and other Sun artists’ recordings.His career stopped and started recording wise and his songs were recorded by other artists while his career struggled until in 1967 he signed with Epic Records. Under the watchful eye of producer Billy Sherrill, who directed him into the ‘Nashville Sound’ balladeer genre known as “Countrypolitan” he broke through in 1972 with the title track from his album ‘Behind Closed Doors’ – this became a number one hit and he followed it up with “The Most Beautiful Girl In The World”. Known to all as “The Silver Fox”, Charlie Rich went on to top both the country charts and the pop charts and won two Grammy awards among many other awards. He had a prolific career that crossed over from country to pop and back again and into the area of ‘blue eyed soul’. He recorded one final album in 1992 for Sire Records ‘Pictures and Paintings’ which is one of the best kept secrets in the recording business- few mainstream music lovers are aware of this album BUT once hearing it they are hooked…… and it was this album that triggered my emotions(after being reminded of it) and I decided that a spotlight slot for Charlie Rich would be a good thing to do and hiliting his music will hopefully encourage a new interest in his talent.
We generally tend to be snobby about country artists or those that have their roots in this genre, however spending time listening to these superstars always results in amazing music being uncovered – Charlie Rich is no exception-quite the opposite.
In addition this week, new music from Dee Dee Bridgewater,Irvin Mayfield & The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, J D Souther, Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell and Mark Knopfler.
This program is dedicated to my very dear friend Martin James who passed away on Wednesday May 13 far too soon. I will miss you Marty. Rest In Peace.