From Sunday's Times and News-Star
A
lot of country music entertainers through the years have brought me much joy
without being able to -- what you’d call in the strictest sense -- sing.
Not
the case with a chosen few like George Jones, Larry Gatlin, Merle Haggard,
Tammy Wynette and, the subject of today’s effort, Ray Price. Price, who passed
away this month in Mt. Pleasant, Texas, could sing the sandspurs out of a cow’s
tail.
Maybe
it’s because he didn’t score a classic in the 1980s, as Haggard and Jones and
Willie Nelson did, that he’s not mentioned as often as those three, who would comprise
three-fourths of the male country music Mt. Rushmore. But he picked up the
slack left by the death of his old roommate, Hank Williams, back in the day,
then kept the ball rolling, adding strings along the way and hired for his band
some now-familiar names like Willie, Roger Miller and Johnny Austin
Paycheck.
And
all the while singing a hard-to-match country tenor. If you’re covering a
Gatlin or Price song, you’d better buckle your chin strap.
According
to Billboard, Price charted 46 Top 10s, eight No. 1s and 109 titles total from
1952-1989 on the Hot Country Songs chart. He was inducted into the Country
Music Hall of Fame in 1996.
A
Ray Top 10? That’s tough. In this bureau, it would go like this:
10.
Faded Love (we always say “Faded” as if it rhymes with “Batted,” just because;
9.
Night Life;
8.
San Antonio Rose with Willie Nelson, a Bob Wills classic like “Fadded Love,”
and also like No. 3 on this list;
7.
Burning Memories;
6.
Crazy Arms;
5.
City Lights, written by Whisperin’ Bill Anderson;
4.
Heartaches by the Number, a Harlan Howard classic;
3.
My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You;
2.
Danny Boy
1.
For the Good Times, with thanks to author Kris Kristofferson.
Two
quick Ray Price stories:
The
night was smoky and the music was too in the little bar, either in Shreveport
or right across the line in East Texas. It was late late and my old friend
Speedy, a former all-American football player and now a young cowboy – the real
kind – was relaxing with a cold one and minding his own when somebody said Ray
Price was in the joint. Not only that, he was about to sing. Right there. In
this little bar.
Speedy
figured that would happen about the same time the cattle he’d worked that day
started flying. Paid it no mind. Until the house band started playing again and
the guest lead singer, at least for this set, was Ray Price, fresh off a nearby
gig, still in his Nudie suit and fine voice.
Speedy
stayed til past closing time.
The
mid-December weekend that Price’s battle with pancreatic cancer ended, a Mt.
Pleasant Justice of the Peace and friend of the Price family called my old
pastor buddy to please come pay with the family. He went over and waited while
the phone rang, friends calling to check on Ray. Larry Gatlin called, and Ray’s
wife, Janie, put the phone to her husband’s ear. Gatlin launched into the old
gospel favorite, “In the Garden.” Wow…
A
few minutes later, Willie Nelson called. He didn’t sing; he was just calling to
check on his friend. That was Sunday, Dec. 15.
Ray
Price died the next day. My friend was called back to pray with the gathered
family, and as he prepared to, another interesting moment occurred, one of
those surreal times you know you’ll never forget. Willie’s Roadhouse XM station
was playing on the television. Just before the family prayed, the station
played Ray Price. He was singing “Danny Boy.”
-30-
