Customer Reviews

Genius Hits the Road

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Theme albums don't always work according to plan. Don't take my word for it. Just listen to Carly Simon's "Film Noir" or k.d.lang's "Drag" and you'll catch my drift. But with the genius plotting the course, it's money in the bank you won't go astray. This album contains some of the absolute swingingest Ray Charles this side of Chattanooga. Dig Ray's heartfelt reading of Moonlight in Vermont or Georgia On My Mind. And wait until you hear him yukin' it up on Deep In the Heart of Texas and my favorite New York's My Home, where he applies just the right amount of gleeful good humor. Hit the road runnin' and pick up on this one. It's a sure fire winner.

Ray Charles takes you from Alabama to Georgia, to New Orleans, then Mississippi and he doesn't leave out New York and California, when he hits the road with this record. "Georgia on My Mind" is one of the best recordings to ever hit wax. Many have covered it, Willie Nelson's version is very well done, but none of the covers touches the original. "Basin Street Blues" alone would make this one of the ten best records of 1960, but when you ad in Ray's version of "California, Here I Come," well there you go, this is a must have disc, back then as well as now.

But wait, there's more, Ray's version of "Blue Hawaii", though very different than Elvis Presley's version from the movie, is a heartbreakingly good song. This record (the original) ends with "Hit the Road Jack" one of Rays' signature songs and a real rocker. If you don't have soul, this record will give it to you, it gives you the hibigeebies, it's so darned good.

Thank Rhino for reissuing this overlooked album. This was his first after he split from Atlantic for ABC/Paramount. People like to think that his ABC/Paramount period starts with MODERN SOUNDS, but you can see the "road" Ray's traveling with this album. Most of the orchestration is done with a lot of taste and not syrupy as might plague some later recordings. These cuts sound classic today and not dated -- well, except for the silliness over Deep in the Heart of Texas.

Enjoy this album for more than Ray's signature tune of Georgia on my Mind, Ray's solo on Moon over Miami, for example. The bonus cuts complete the experience. This album will help bridge those who only know Ray from his Atlantic years into the rest of his career - about a 40 year period!

When Ray Charles left Atlantic for ABC-Paramount, he also sought to expand his stardom on the pop carts, solidifying the crossover success he'd begun with the single "What'd I Say" and the album The Genius of Ray Charles. The first outing for his new label was this 12-song release, whose travel- and place-related theme was sufficiently broad to leave Charles room to roam. The song list was compiled from numbers familiar to Charles, and others pitched by his new producer Sid Feller. The titles include tin pan alley classics, Dixieland standards, trad jazz and pop numbers and even the nineteenth century minstrel tune, sung here as gospel with the Raeletts, "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny."

The productions are backed by brassy orchestrations, lush strings and chorused vocals, leaving only short spaces for piano and sax solos. The upbeat numbers are sizzling, swinging supper club jazz, and the ballads, especially Charles' tour de force interpretation of Hoagy Charmichael's "Georgia on My Mind," are deeply soulful. A few of the songs play like novelties today (and perhaps did so in 1960), but Charles gives each his complete his attention and has fun on lighter numbers such as the boastful "New York's My Home" and the gleeful "Chattanooga Choo-Choo." Still, even Charles' effort can't save a jokey call-and-response version of "Deep in the Heart of Texas."

By this point in his career, Charles was marketing himself more as a vocalist than a pianist, but his mastery of the keys can be heard in the rolling notes of "Basin Street Blues" and the dreamy flights of "Moonlight in Vermont." The seven bonus tracks on this reissue duplicate the first four appended to Rhino's 1997 version, including the chart-topping "Hit the Road Jack" and a swinging soul take on Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky." Newly added are a romantic version of "The Long and Winding Road," the country-soul original "I Was On Georgia Time," and a ham-and-cheesy cover of John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads." Rhino's bonus picks of "I'm Movin' On" and "Lonely Avenue" were more solid outings.

These tracks aren't the gutty jazz and soul of Charles' Atlantic period, nor the groundbreaking interpretational work he'd unleash on 1962's Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. They're a way-point, a transition between Charles' roots as a jazz player and his future as a pop crooner. The material is a mix of novelties and well-selected chestnuts, and though the orchestrations can get a bit strong, Charles holds down the center with a voice that makes it all worth hearing. As his first top-10 pop album, and hosting his first chart-topping pop single ("Georgia on My Mind"), there are enough winning cuts, particularly the ballads, to merit adding this to your collection. 3-1/2 stars, if allowed fractional ratings. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Please note that the poor rating I gave is for this particular reissue. It is NOT a comment on this benchmark Ray Charles LP. "The Genius Hits The Road" is a teriffic LP that is a must-have for any Ray Charles fan, just not this HALLMAKK reissue from 2011.

I recently purchased the 2011 HALLMARK reissue of "Genius Hits The Road" in June 2011. Immediately after putting it on, I noticed a fair amount of distortion on the recording. Also, the disc had an overall muddy quality to it. If you'e familiar w/ this recording, the LP sound is bright, dynamic and punchy. This CD version is certainly not that!

It could have been that I got a "bad" one, but being somewhat familar with the CD replication process, it sounds more like a poor mastering job, or perhaps a defect in the mastering. Add to the poor sound the fact that cover art is a somewhat truncated version of the original LP picture, no liner notes or anything, this seems like a licensing job for a cheap overseas distributor.

I returned the disorted CD to the seller with no problem. I purchased instead the 2009 version of GHTR re-issued on Concord. I wish I'd found the Concord version first! Excellent liner notes, musician documenation, bonus tracks, etc. And the CD sounds teriffic!

Concord is the same company that recently reissued the long-out-of-print LPs, "Ray Charles Live In Concert" & "A Message From The People" on CD. They did an outstanding job on those discs, too. I'm guessing they've taken over the ABC/Paramount Ray Charles catalogue from Rhino (whose ABC Charles reissues were top notch as well). If so, one hopes we can expect more of the same on any subsequent RC reissues.

After awhile, Ray Charles starts sounding like a spokesperson for 'Travel in America' as each 19 songs on this CD speak of hittin' the road and visiting, not the musical road less travelled, but the swinging nightclubs and hot spots where Steve and Eydie Gormet may be the opening act. We're reminded what a great hit single, "Hit the Road Jack", was, an explosion of anger at the heat of a romantic conflict as the vocals scream and demand in two part melody. The first twelve songs are the original tracks from his 1959 album, "The Genius of Ray Charles", and the transfer to CD has left them sounding a little hollow like Charles is singing from another room. One suspects the vocals were sung over at the time this album was compiled. The Bonus Tracks are much better but hey! did I say something negative about this cool laid-back groovy album? You have to hear the half spoken/half vocal call and response of "New York's My Home", as Charles grinds his gravelly voice over his blues/pop piano and wins any argument against New York City. "Georgis On My Mind" is also here and a less grave "Rainy Night In Georgia", where Charles even hiccups over a drink in the fade out of the vocal tracks. Now that's casual.

I remember my parents playing this album frequently when I was very small and it was always one of my all-time favorites. I recently bought it on CD and it brings back great memories. Every song is a true classic, especially the song "Georgia". Despite several versions by several people, NOBODY sings it like Ray does.

It's more than just possible that the legacy of Ray Charles music on ABC-Paramount in the early 60's is entirely misunderstood. So much has been said about his using this period of career to corner the "pop market",i.e white people,etc. Well what most people at this point might not realize was how shrewd Ray was in regard to his musical choices. This was a guy who was in love with the music of Hank Williams and Nat King Cole in his youth so the joining of jazz,gospel,country and blues with pop that made up soul music beginnings was by now second nature to him. The elements had always been there and all he really did with his music of this era is bump up the orchestral elements a little bit. At any rate this is a spectacular album from a spectacular musician: not only does it emphasize more then the always mixed passions of that voice of his but his way around his own musical flavors AND (yes) his great blues/jazz piano style. Also here is "Georgia On My Mind" and....well I cannot say anymore about that song that hasn't already been said. During a period when concepts albums were rare,especially in the relatively new R&B world of the time. Ray offers one up here and a really good one for a hard touring performer such as himself: life on the road. The range of song range from standards to traditional (there is a difference,by the way) songs done up as only Ray can do them. "Alabamy Bound","Basin Street Blues","Mississippi Mud", "California,Here I Come" and "Moon Over Miami" all make the best use of that great big band soul/jazz sound that Ray had made the base of his well rounded and distinctive sound. One of the things that make treatments of...say the old spiritual "Carry Me Back To Old Virginny" is The Raeletts in that case but the orchestra AND choirs,produced by Ralph Burns turn what very easily could've ended up corny,dated arrangements into darkley hued and quite beautiful gospel/soul emotionalism. Again with The Raelettes on "New York's My Home" and more humorously on "Deep In The Heart Of Texas" Ray engages in some pointed call and response and excersises his ability with clever vocal interpretations. Another of the most extrodinary features of this are the bonus cuts,all excellent and presented from different periods of his career,extending conceptually to the travelling theme of the orginal album. "Hit The Road Jack"....a great cut we all know is here and will add familiarity for those buying this album with little experience with Ray's music.Even more fascinating is the bluesy,slurred rendition of "Sentimental Journey" and the 80's style...."countrypolitan" c&w/R&B mixture of "I Was On Georgia Time". Ray was not known for his contributions to music during the 70' but "Rainy Night In Georgia"...Brook Benton not withstanding this version has some great funky,minor chorded fender rhodes work and a lot of gospel type reverb on that and his singing. Even though people may not have been listening much by then it shows Ray was aware of the newer funkier music around him. "The Long And Winding Road",as with the Beatles version has a lot of orchestration but in this case not only is it used to better affect but the arrangement is tweaked just enough to give the some more of a downbeat flavor. John Denver's "Take Me Home,Country Roads",from the now in print album A Message from the People puts a very early 70's interpretation of old timey gospel to the folksy original and comes up.....smelling like roses. Time changes,music changes and there are some things that just work. And this album,bonus tracks and all is a great example of a sound very much a mirror of it's age that,as my own father once pointed out has a certain timelessness as well.

Picture the pitch session..."Ray, you've done country, you created a new genre by reworking gospel, now? It's time to do a bunch of forgettable tunes that HAPPEN to have place names in them!"

Of course, Ray could make "Happy Birthday" new and exciting, and there are some good moments here. But it is NOT the place to START your Ray collection.

This album is unbelievably good. Even without a slew of great bonus tracks, it still would be one of Ray's best albums. The digital remastering sounds great. The performance of every song is just classic. This is one of those rare discs in which every second of it is a joy to listen to.