Word
came Saturday the Charley Pride, the
first Black singer to carve out a long and successful career in country
music died of complications of the Coronavirus at the age of 86. Some other performers have speculated that he
might have been exposed at the Country Music Association Awards (CMA), which were held indoors at the Music City Center in Nashville,
Tennessee, on November 11 and where
he was presented the Willie Nelson
Lifetime Achievement Award.
Although
the CMA said it screened attendees
for the virus and “took precautions” social
distancing was not practiced and
few, if any, wore masks. Several acts had to cancel appearances when they or members of their bands or crew tested positive
including Lee Price, Lady A, Rascal Flats, and Florida
Georgia Line. Pride was reported to
have tested negative “multiple times” after returning to his Dallas, Texas home, but those tests
might have been conducted after he
had become exposed but before he was
symptomatic.
Despite
the pandemic, 2020 had been a career crowning year for Price. In addition to his CMA Lifetime Achievement
Award he was at long last inducted
into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Previous
honors included three American Music
Awards, four Grammys including
a Lifetime achievement award, the Academy
of Country Music Pioneer Award, and three previous CMA Awards for Entertainer of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year. He was one of just three Black members of
the Grand Ol’ Opry along with harmonica whiz DeFord Bailey and Darius Rucker.
Country
music roots were tangled inexorably with Black folk music, each influencing the other. African
slaves brought the banjo and Scotch-Irish fiddling was adapted to
Black dancing. Ballads
like John Henry, Frankie and Johnnie, and House
of the Rising Sun were sung and adopted by both. European
hymns became Black gospel music
and showed up again in White churches in the new form. Field calls and shout and response laid the foundation
of the blues. Delta bluesmen introduced the slide
guitar style that would become a backbone of country music and Western Swing on the electric steel pedal guitar. Louis
Armstrong played on Jimmer Rodgers’ famous Blue Yodel #9 recording.
According
to Patrick Huber, a history
professor at Missouri University of Science and Technology in his 2013 essay Black
Hillbillies: African American Musicians on Old-Time Records, 1924-1932,
hillbilly featured a higher frequency
of integrated recording sessions
than any other genre except vaudeville blues. Nearly 50 African-American singers and musicians appeared
on commercial hillbilly records between those years because the music was not a
white agrarian tradition, but a fluid phenomenon passed back and forth
between the races. Black and white
musicians often played the same barn
dances even in the Deep South.
But
by the early 1930’s recording companies
were splitting their record labels and marketing into white hillbilly music and “race music.” Only occasionally
on the vaudeville stage were a handful of African-Americans allowed to perform
with white acts as comic relief and
usually adopting minstrel show stereotypes
and even blackface. DeFord Bailey was the only performer from
the cross-fertilization period to
finally allowed to join the early WSM
Grand Ol’ Opry. But Bailey’s race was mostly hidden from his radio audience, and when he did go on tour with the Opry, he was forced to
find separate accommodations in a segregated South. “He was a mascot—he was very much treated
paternalistically,” Huber said. Bailey was fired
unceremoniously in 1941 and spent the rest of his life shining shoes
As
hillbilly music, cowboy music, and
western swing blended together in post-World War II America as country
music it was as whites only as a Mississippi drinking fountain or lunch counter.
Rhythm & Blues (R&B) star Ray Charles first breached
the wall in 1962 with his phenomenally
popular Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music which included his hit I
Can’t Stop Loving You. Not only
did he top the R&B and Country Charts
but also crossed over to pop chart success. The album was so successful that it
helped boost all of country music to
a mainstream audience. Charles went
on to make a follow-up Vol. II, but afterwards turned from
country music to play bluesy jazz and
soul music and to take a career hiatus while he battled heroin addiction.
That
was the world Charlie Pride found himself in when he tried to break into
country music in the mid-1960
Pride
was born on March 18, 1934, in Sledge,
Mississippi, the fourth of eleven
children of poor sharecroppers. He came by his love of country music because
it was all he heard on the radio. By his teens he was noodling around on an
old guitar and trying to imitate the twang of his heroes like Roy Acuff, Hank Williams, and Ernest Tubbs.
But
his dream was to follow his older brother into baseball. In 1952, he pitched for the Memphis Red Sox of the Negro
American League. In 1953, he signed a contract with the Boise Yankees, the Class C farm team of the New
York Yankees. During that season, an injury
caused him to lose the mustard on
his fastball, and he was sent to the
Yankees' Class D team in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. His career was interrupted
when he was drafted into the Army in 1956. After basic training, he was stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado, where he was a quartermaster and played baseball team
which won the All Army championship.
When discharged in 1958, he rejoined the Memphis Red Sox. As a Negro League player he was a two-time All Star and tried out with the Major League Angels and Mets in the
early ‘60s but failed to make either team.
He
was out of baseball and working construction in Helena, Montana when he was
recruited to play for the semi-pro East
Helena Smelterites where most of his earnings were from a job reserved for
players at local Asarco lead smelter. That was grueling, hot work and exposed
him to all of the hazards of toxic lead. But his seemingly dead-end baseball career
open a door to another possibility when Pride’s manager heard him singing in the locker room and hired him to sing for 15 minutes before home games. He was paid $10 for each performance, the same
as he was paid to play. Soon he was
playing around Montana covering country music favorites with his rich baritone voice and authentic twang.
Before
he even left Montana Price was trying to get Nashville interested in his music. He
was encouraged by some important singers like Red Sovine and Red Foley, But in several trips there he found doors
shut in his Black face at record labels.
Finally guitar legend and
producer/executive Chet Atkins submitted
a demo tape to the company without identifying him as Black. The label signed him in 1966 and he released
his is first two singles with little fanfare
or support but they got behind the
third, Just Between You and Me, received the full support of the label’s
A&R team. Copies were brought to disc jockeys with promotional
brochures calling the artist Country
Charlie Pride but the customary
photo was omitted, as was any mention of Price’s race. The song reached #9 on Hot Country Songs list in
1967 and was nominated for the Song the of Year Grammy the next year.
Pride
race was not a total secret. He and a back-up combo had played club dates in Montana, Tennessee, and Texas, but most radio listeners and
record buyers were still unaware. He had
a hard time booking major venues or
joining packaged tours of country
star until he got a shot at a show at Olympia
Stadium in Detroit. The Motor
City was the home of a large Appalachian diaspora community attracted by the auto industry and World War II Defense plants. Since no biographical information had been
included with his singles, few of the 10,000 country fans who came to the show
knew Pride was Black until he walked out on the and only discovered the fact when he walked onto the stage. Enthusiastic audience applause trickled off to silence Pride later remembered. “I told the audience, ‘Friends, I
realize it’s a little unique, me coming out here—with a permanent suntan—to
sing country and western to you. But that’s the way it is." His strong show won them over.
About
the same time after 10 years in Montana, Pride moved his family to Texas where he
could more effectively pursue his career.
Not moving to Nashville was intentional.
He
never became involved in the Civil Rights Movement or made political
statements, which helped the country audience eventually accept him as a “good
Negro.” He was criticized for this by some Black leaders, but it was the only
way his career could thrive. Even so
some of his appearances in the Deep
South drew protests and occasional
threats. The public support of some of the biggest names in the business like Johnny Cash gave him some protection.
Pride’s
career really took off with several singles charting over the next few years,
his albums selling well, and he was booked on national TV shows. In 1967,
he became the first Black performer to appear at the Grand Ol’ Opry since
founding member DeFord Bailey, who had last appeared in 1941—but he was not
invited to officially join the Opry until 1993,
Between
1969 and 1971, Pride had eight singles that reached #1 on the US Country Hit Parade and also charted
on the Billboard Hot 100 culminating in his 1971 crossover hit Kiss
an Angel Good Mornin’ which became his signature tune and most honored
song. In 1969, his compilation album, The Best of Charley Pride,
sold more than one million copies, and was awarded a Gold Record. Elvis Presley
was the only artist who sold more records than Pride for RCA Victor.
He
continued to chart hits through the ‘70s and early 80s. Eventually, like most other older country
stars he was banished by the new tightly formatted country radio stations that
favored hot younger acts with a rock-influenced style. But a loyal fan base continued to attend
Pride’s concerts.
In
the first two decades of the 21st Century
Pride was re-discovered by young
country artists. While the genre
remained white dominated, he paved the way for Darius Rucker, the former
front man of the pop
group Hootie & the Blowfish and
now a handful of new artists including Mickey
Guytonr, Rhiannon Giddens, and
even rapper Lil Nas X. He was also showered with career capping honors.
Today
we will turn to Charlie Pride’s title
song from his 1970 RCA Victor album Christmas in My Home Town.
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