Charley Pride – Classics with Pride

Though Charley Pride is widely regarded as the artist who broke the color barrier in country music (even if it often appears more that he’s the exception which proves the disturbing rule), he’s not the kind of artist who ever seemed very interested in breaking artistic barriers. Blessed with a smooth, rich voice as warm as the Southern climate in which he was raised, Pride has generally seemed content to churn out polished countrypolitan pop that suits the sweetness of his singing.

Taken as such, his music can be quite a treat, and Classics With Pride is an ideal representation of that. Even the one definitively country song included here, the Hank Williams signature hit “Lovesick Blues”, is rendered with an effortlessly casual feel that scrubs clean any real grit from the lyrics — yet Pride’s respectable yodeling and confident crooning makes the song eminently listenable.

Other highlights include the Hal David/Paul Hampton classic “Sea of Heartbreak”, which bounces along buoyantly like a mild summer swell; the opening “You’ve Got to Stand for Something”, a character-building anthem of sorts; and “Please Help Me, I’m Falling” and “Ramblin’ Rose”, which turn things a little more directly toward the countrified edge of country-pop. Overall, Classics With Pride weighs in much more heavily on the pop side of that equation — but, given the right time and place, there’s nothing wrong with that.