
Artist: Ray Price
Album: Night Life
Year: 1962
This guy's basically the hick version of Frank Sinatra. Even the cover of this album looks quite a bit like a creepier version of Sinatra's Songs for Swingin' Lovers. Unfortunately this album offers little by way of anything approximating "swinging." If anything it's a little more like In the Wee Small Hours, an album about heartbreak.
Price has a nice enough crooning-style voice on this record, and songs like "Lonely Street" show off some nice harmonies. "The Twenty-Fourth Hour" is honky-town emo. Get this man a tissue already. "Pride" has the album's strongest melody and a strong rhythm section gives this one a bit more energy than the rest of the slow-to-mid-tempo proceedings.
I guess this album was fine. Not gonna lie, it's a little boring. Lots of the songs are similar and the lyrics are generally mopey and cliched. The voice is good, kind of in the Johnny Cash realm. I'm guessing this guy was an influence upon Cash, for that matter. Not essential listening, but traditional country on the whole doesn't do much for me.
Rating: Not worth a listen
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