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Posts tagged as “Charley Pride”

MUSIC MONDAY: “Lean on Me” – Playlist Honoring Artists Who Passed in 2020 (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Lean on Me” – Playlist Honoring Artists Who Passed in 2020 (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on December 28, 2020

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

Here’s a playlist of music artists who died this year. Although their beautiful voices and talents were lost in 2020, we can enjoy them for years to come.

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Musicians are often our collective voices, sharing ideas and feelings through their lyrics and melodies that the rest of us struggle to express. It’s why the deaths of musicians are often difficult to process.

It’s hard to say goodbye to the people who made the art and culture that define our times and speak so directly to us. This collection features soul, hip-hop, country, jazz, and other artists that have been taken by COVID-19, long illness, natural causes, gun violence, and overdoses.

There’s only one way into this world, yet they keep making up new ones to take us out. But I digress. Please enjoy this collection of music that will resonate for eons by folks we’ve lost on this trying trip around the sun.

An early Happy New Year to you all. I can’t scrape 2020 off the bottom of my proverbial shoe fast enough.

Stay safe, sane, and kind you all.

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
MUSIC MONDAY: An Afroclectic Holiday Playlist for 2020 (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: An Afroclectic Holiday Playlist for 2020 (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on December 14, 2020

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

Happy Holidays, in this fifth day of Chanukah. I’ll keep it brief this time. Other contributors are also offering Christmastime collections.

Though as is my style, this one is pretty free-wheeling. This collection has Soul, Reggae, Gospel, Ska, and Jazz Christmas tracks. (I included a few Christmas songs by the late Charley Pride too.)

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There are Yuletide classics from legendary artists like Donny Hathaway and Marvin Gaye, to recent cuts by Lil Nas X, Daveed Diggs and Sharon Jones.

I have again included tracks about food, cold weather, and songs like Love’s “Alone Again Or” that is particularly apt for Christmas 2020.

I hope these collections have been as sustaining for you to listen to as they have been for me to make them. Please enjoy this Afroclectic playlist selected for this holiday season.

There are a couple of funky Chanukah tracks include, not only because they are great, but this year in particular the Festival of Lights that celebrates a small victory in the midst of battle, has a lesson and meaning for us all.

Whatever lights you have in your window this year, it is a stalwart signal of joy and tenacity in these toughest of times.

As always stay safe, sane, and kind.

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
Country Music Awards Honors Charley Pride with the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award Tonight on ABC

Country Music Awards Honors Charley Pride with the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award Tonight on ABC

By goodblacknews on November 11, 2020

by Jeff Meier (FB: Jeff.Meier.90)

We’re used to seeing Black musical artists honored regularly on the Grammy Awards, the American Music Awards, the MTV Awards, and, of course, the BET Awards. But this year, you can find several Black performers on the 54th annual CMA (Country Music Association) Awards, to be aired on ABC starting at 8P ET tonight.

Not that Black performers have never been on the CMAs before. Just last year rapper Lil Nas X won an award for his Billy Ray Cyrus collaboration “Old Town Road.”  In 2016, the Chicks (fka The Dixie Chicks) shocked the audience with an incredible live performance with fellow Texan Beyoncé of her song “Daddy Lessons” (see it here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85Ksi-uzuIg). But there have been many years where the closest the CMAs have gotten to Blackness was to give awards to Keith “Urban.”

CMA hosts Darius Rucker and Reba McEntire (photo courtesy CMA Awards)

Black country fans actually have three reasons to cheer during this year’s awards.  First, newcomer Jimmie Allen is up for Best New Artist. Second, former Hootie & the Blowfish lead vocalist turned country singer Darius Rucker is co-hosting the show with Reba McEntire. Rucker is perhaps the most well-known Black performer in contemporary country music – and previously won the CMA for Best New Artist in 2009.

Most importantly, Rucker will be leading the tribute to this year’s recipient of the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award, the legendary Charley Pride.

The aptly named Pride was a symbol of Black pride back in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s when he was the first major Black country artist to hit the charts. Coming on the heels of the Civil Rights Movement, Pride won Male Vocalist of the Year two years running in 1971 and 1972, in addition to also picking up Entertainer of the Year in 1971.

Nominated for Entertainer of the Year six years in a row from 1968 through 1973, Pride, now 86 years old, is a singular figure in country music history, as no Black performer has been nominated even one time since then.

Pride also previously co-hosted the CMA Awards on TV with Glen Campbell in 1975, the only Black host prior to Rucker’s co-hosting duties this year. Pride had 30 #1 country hits and over 50 Top 10 performances, and is perhaps most known for the song “Kiss An Angel Good Mornin.”

Beyond Pride, Rucker and Allen, there are lots of other exciting things happening in country music these days for Black performers, including new female artist Mickey Guyton and recent chart-topper Kane Brown.  Earlier this summer, Good Black News offered up “I Can’t Stop Loving You: A Collection of Black Country Music” as an overview of Black country music history.

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Check out the awards tonight – and catch all of the artists we’ve mentioned (and many more) on our playlist!

Country Star Charley Pride Takes His Place in History

By goodblacknews on October 4, 2012
When most people think of important African-American musicians from history, the list is long and varied, including everyone from Muddy Waters to John Coltrane to Jimi Hendrix to, nowadays, Jay-Z. Black people have a lot to be proud of when it comes to our contributions to America’s musical tapestry. But every now and again an icon gets lost, and Charley Pride has been lost too many times.  Which is why it’s exciting to hear that the Smithsonian’s forthcoming African-American history museum is going to include several Pride relics in its permanent collection.