Charley Pride’s voice — immaculate in its purity; a rich baritone not unlike a fine bourbon — is alive once more.
Five years ago this December, the country icon died in Dallas at the age of 86 from complications from COVID-19. Next month, his estate will release a new, previously unheard album Pride cut almost 40 years ago and never released.
Endlessly: A Tribute to Brook Benton will be released on Sept. 19 via Music City Records. That date is significant, as it would’ve been Benton’s 94th birthday — the South Carolina singer-songwriter died in 1988 at 56 years old.
Benton was a pathbreaking Black artist who moved between R&B and country, often blurring the boundaries between the genres, much as Pride himself would do about a decade after Benton’s first success. Although Benton had success in country music, it was primarily Benton’s R&B output which Pride sought to honor with this project.
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Pride cut the album, which draws most heavily from Benton’s 1959-61 output, in the late 1980s at his CECCA Sound studio in Dallas, working with producer Bob Pickering and a clutch of locally-based musicians, all of whom lived in North Texas during that time: Bassist Chuck Rainey, drummer/percussionist Gene Glover, jazz pianist Fred Crane, guitarist Jerry Matheny and saxophonist Billy Briggs Jr.
“I was very excited to play on a Charley Pride recording where I would have one-on-one experience with this legendary music icon,” Rainey said in the liner notes for Endlessly. “As time went by, our personal relationship did grow. I have fond memories, admiration and respect of and for Charley.”
Pride was between record labels at the time (leaving RCA Records; joining 16th Avenue records), and the 10-song collection is a fascinating left turn for the staunchly traditional Pride — although Benton’s work climbed the pop charts (most notably with his 1959 Top Five hit “It’s Just a Matter of Time”), Pride also weaves in R&B, soul and a few Nashvillian flourishes.
The lead single, “Thank You Pretty Baby,” which is streaming now on all digital music providers, is goosed by Briggs’ sax, an electric piano and a rubbery, double-time beat — Pride’s singular voice rides the groove effortlessly.
Endlessly, which in its current incarnation sounds for all the world like a completely finished, polished album, was never released for unclear reasons.
In 2017, the reels for the project were discovered in a storage room in Pride’s production office in Dallas. In 2021, the year after Pride’s death, the tapes were transferred to multi-track digital audio files for mixing and mastering.
Preston Jones is a North Texas freelance writer and regular contributor to KXT. Email him at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky (@prestonjones.bsky.social).Our work is made possible by our generous, music-loving members. If you like how we lift up local music, consider becoming a KXT sustaining member right here.
Source: https://kxt.org/2025/09/previously-unreleased-charley-pride-album-set-for-sept-19-release/
