Charley Pride - Choices

With a robust career still going strong in the touring industry, Charley Pride returns with his first all-new collection of country recordings in eight years with Choices. Does the 72 year old legend come through with a strong album?

With a lengthy list of chart-topping hits to his credit, Charley Pride certainly doesn’t need to release a new record yet that’s exactly what he’s doing here with Choices, his first all-new country recording in eight years (2003’s Comfort In Her Wings). The track “America The Great” could be considered jingoistic by some but what we find is that the 72 year old Pride is singing from a slightly nostalgic place where he wants to remind people that the greatness in America starts with “you and me” to make the changes and that ‘standing up with each other and fight for what’s right’ will help return America to the greatness of the past.  I have a feeling some GOP politicians may hope to use that song as a theme song somewhere down the road.

Lead single “Except For You” finds Pride in strong voice (a voice that’s still better than many country singers 1/3 his age) and it’s a heartfelt ballad about the way a woman has made his life strong (it was written by Ben Peters, the writer behind “Kiss An Angel Good Morning”).  With his gift for storytelling through song, Charley Pride takes “Hickory Hollow Times & Country News” and “Guntersville Gazette” and spins tales of small-town life and how life back home is still the same and how no matter where we go, we always long to return or at least hear about the goings on back home. 

“The Choices She Made,” “You Touched My Life,” and “You Can’t Sit Still” are three tunes from Ted Harris (the Country Music Writer’s Hall of Fame member who wrote “The Happiness of Having You” for Charley).  They’re all strong tunes that suit the soothing pocket found in Pride baritone tenor.  Of the bunch, “You Can’t Sit Still” is the only one to bring a boppin’ tempo to the table and it’s a fun little two-stepper that is sure to be a crowd-pleaser live. 

Charley’s son Dion co-wrote “I Miss My Home” with Bruce Wallace and Burton Collins and this fiddle-drenched ballad features a fine soulful melody and one of the strongest vocals on this record.  “The Bottom Line” is a tune that is perhaps the most ‘modern radio ready’ of the tunes on this record but I don’t really think modern radio is the goal of Charley Pride’s career at this point.  He’s simply collecting fantastic tunes to deliver a strong new album that fans of traditional or ‘countrypolitan’ country music will be sure to eat up.



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