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“I never wanted to be famous, I only wanted to be great.” – Ray Charles
Founded by Ray Charles in the 1960s, Tangerine Records is proud to celebrate the 17x GRAMMY® Award-winning singer, songwriter, and pianist’s singular legacy with the Tangerine Master Series, a new slate of reissues highlighting Charles’ best-known music alongside classic records long out of print, and ready for rediscovery. Each album has been restored and remastered under the direct supervision of The Ray Charles Foundation, painting a vivid new portrait of an artist and icon whose impact continues to expand and inspire.
The Tangerine Master Series continues today with 1970s out-of-print classic , available everywhere now for the first time since its original release. A fan favorite that’s one of the finest examples of Charles’ crossover work, Love Country Style is the most soulful of his country records, as well as arguably the album that’s the most connected to the current sound of today’s country superstars. The album finds Charles once again embracing his love for the genre by delivering heartfelt renditions of songs by Mickey Newbury and Jimmy Webb with his signature blend of soul and sophistication. Backed by lush gospel-tinged arrangements, songs like his iconic version of “Ring of Fire” and “Don’t Change On Me” (which hit the top 20 at R&B as well as the overall top 40) highlight Charles’s unrivaled ability to transform country standards into something unmistakably his own. Out of print since its original release more than 50 years ago, Love Country Style now finally returns, fully restored and remastered in cooperation with the Ray Charles Foundation.
“Love Country Style, released in June 1970, drinks deeply from the country music well of genius, but is as rhythm-and-blues-rooted as it is in the countrypolitan idiom,” writes author/DJ/cultural critic Ayana Contreras in an exclusive essay penned expressly for this new reissue. “[The album] draws from top-shelf country material from ‘Ring Of Fire’ (written by June Carter and Merle Kilgore and popularized by Johnny Cash) to ‘I Keep It Hid’ (penned by Jimmy Webb, known for his classics ‘Wichita Lineman’ and ‘By The Time I Get To Phoenix’). Both tracks are nothing short of revelations. In his hands, ‘Ring Of Fire’ is cast as a chorus of half-breathless seduction well-suited for an isolated mid-century modern motel somewhere in the high desert of the American Southwest.
“Charles went on to release four more well-received country albums during his career…And although Modern Sounds Vol. I was nominated for Album of the Year, and Charles went on to ultimately win 17 GRAMMYs® in his lifetime (in rhythm & blues, gospel, and pop), a Country Music-specific GRAMMY® win eluded him…. Love Country Style remains as a testament. The album embodies Charles’s ability to cross genres with ease, weaving country traditions into his R&B and gospel sensibility. In doing so, he left a lasting imprint on the soundscape of American popular music.”
STREAM/PURCHASE LOVE COUNTRY STYLE
READ AYANA CONTRERAS’S FULL LOVE COUNTRY STYLE ESSAY
Love Country Style marks the latest release in the Tangerine Master Series, following the long-overdue reissue of 1963’s milestone Ingredients in a Recipe for Soul, available now digitally, on CD, and on vinyl for the first time in more than half a century. A top 10 stew of jazz, soul, and pop standards highlighted by the GRAMMY® Award-winning, top 5 hit, “Busted,” this is the first and only legitimate reissue of this essential album on vinyl – as well as its first appearance on CD since the 1990s.
Ingredients in a Recipe for Soul, in turn, followed a newly remastered Tangerine Master Series edition of 1974’s Come Live With Me, a blend of pop and gospel-infused soul that sees Charles demonstrating his unmatched versatility, is available now at all DSPs, on CD, and on vinyl for the first time in over 50 years.
STREAM/PURCHASE INGREDIENTS IN A RECIPE FOR SOUL
WATCH “BUSTED” OFFICIAL LYRIC VIDEO
STREAM/PURCHASE COME LIVE WITH ME
WATCH “COME LIVE WITH ME” OFFICIAL LYRIC VIDEO
WATCH “SOMEBODY” OFFICIAL LYRIC VIDEO
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In the early ’60s, just one pop hit – the revolutionary “What’d I Say” – into his career, Ray Charles realized he’d outgrown the traditional music business. Risking everything to secure his creative and financial independence, he negotiated a deal that would reshape the industry, granting him full control and ownership of his recordings and the means to build his own publishing company, recording studio, and business offices. Recording what he wanted, when he wanted, Ray Charles would answer to nobody but himself. This is where the story of Tangerine Records begins, created by Ray Charles to achieve greatness on his own terms, and the label that remains the only authorized home of some of his greatest works.
The Tangerine Master Series will also see reissues of such masterpieces as No One Does It Like…Ray Charles! – The Great Ray Charles Album That Should Have Been, a previously uncompiled collection of singles circa 1962-1965, released for the first time ever as a cohesive body of work, offering a rare glimpse into a prolific and creatively explosive period in Charles’ multi-decade career.
As a truly independent artist with the freedom to trust his taste and the talent to back it up, Ray Charles summed up his own A&R strategy simply: “If I like it, I’m gonna sing it.” The result is an oeuvre that boldly defies categorization, rewarding open ears and curious minds. With decades of hindsight, the consistently staggering quality of the music Charles made on Tangerine Records becomes far more obvious than it ever was to critics trying to make real-time sense of an artist who had no concerns for fleeting trends or nostalgic expectations. That means for every iconic song, for every classic album, there are a dozen revelations just waiting to be heard, each crafted with as much care and delivered with as much soul as the immortal Ray Charles hits that continue to be passed across generations and around the world.
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RAY CHARLES
LOVE COUNTRY STYLE
(Tangerine Record Corporation)
Tracklist:
If You Were Mine
Ring of Fire
Your Love Is So Doggone Good
Don’t Change On Me
Till I Can’t Take It Anymore
You’ve Still Got a Place in My Heart
I Keep It Hid
Sweet Memories
Good Morning Dear
Show Me the Sunshine
CONNECT WITH RAY CHARLES
RAYCHARLES.COM | THE RAYCHARLESFOUNDATION.ORG
ABOUT THE RAY CHARLES FOUNDATION:
Ray Charles was equipped with a keen sensibility to the needs of others. It was this selfless generosity that motivated him when he founded The Robinson Foundation for Hearing Disorders, Inc. in 1986. The mission and purpose of the foundation is to provide financial support in the area of hearing disorders, as well as to support education. Charles thought, “The inability to hear was a handicap, not the inability to see,” said Valerie Ervin. In 2006, the official name of the foundation became The Ray Charles Foundation in order to bring awareness to his name, but the mission remained the same. Ray Charles often made contributions anonymously to help fund cochlear implants for those who could not afford the operation, and shortly thereafter, he started supporting educational institutions for those who could not afford an education.
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