Charley Pride was the best-selling recording artist RCA had since Elvis Presley.  His greatest successes were in the late 1960’s and throughout the 1970s.  Charley Pride released over 30 albums from 1966 – 1979.  This is his only Christmas album.

Charley Pride was born in northern Mississippi in a small town called Sledge.  His family was large and were poor sharecroppers.  After high school, Charley Pride chased his dream of professional baseball.  His older brother was already playing in the Negro Leagues.

After suffering a hand injury, Charley Pride spent all his baseball career in the Negro Leagues and in small farm teams of the major leagues.  While playing baseball, he continued to sing around locally.  By this time, he was living in Montana.  One of the baseball managers for a team he was playing for heard him sing and he hired Charley Pride to sing before the games.  All this time his real job was working at a smelting plant in Helena, Montana.

Charley Pride recorded a couple of demo records and Chet Atkins at RCA Nashville heard them and brought him down to Nashville.  Charley Pride signed with RCA Nashville in 1965.

Although he had a recording contract with a major label, his first few singles did not do well, and he stayed in Montana at the smelting plant.  The smelting plant was a dangerous job, and Charley Pride would rather have made his living playing baseball, but that wasn’t working out either.  With his third single, released in 1966, Charley Pride started getting noticed in the Country music scene.  He experienced racial bias in his early days, especially when he would show up for concerts and most fans did not know he was Black because his photo was never released on his singles.

Charley Pride was aware of Country music fans’ apprehensions and would talk about it and therefore get it out in the open.  After a short time, with songs consistently charting on Billboard’s Country charts, Charley Pride’s race became of little concern to Country music fans.

Charley Pride had his biggest hits in the late 1960s through the mid-1970s.  His biggest hit, and his signature song, Kiss An Angel Good Mornin’ was released in 1971.  He won awards all throughout his life through the Country Music Association, The Grammys and The American Music Awards.

Charley Pride died in Dallas, Texas of complications from Covid 19 in December of 2020.

The Christmas CD reviewed here is a reissue of Charley Pride’s Christmas album from 1970 originally titled Christmas In My Home Town.  This reissue was released by BMG Special Products in 1998.  Since then, another reissue was released with the original album title and three bonus Christmas songs.  (I may have to buy that one just for the three extra songs).

Because the reissue uses a different title, the original artwork has been replaced as well.  The cover of the CD I currently have, shows a picture of Charley Pride sitting with the sun directly above him.  It is an outdoor setting, and he is dressed casually.  The picture is surrounded by a red border.  The top of the CD cover has festive holly leaves and berries surrounding Charley Pride’s name and the CD title, which appear in red lettering.  A few song titles are listed at the bottom.  I really like the cover from the original album better.  It features Charley Pride leaning on a decorated mantle while wearing a Santa suit.  It is much more festive, and I wish they had used something similar for this CD cover.

The artwork on the back of the CD is similar to the front.  The festive holly leaves and berries surrounding Charley Pride’s name and the CD title are exactly as they are on the front, but where Charley Pride’s picture is on the front, on the back, that space has been replaced with a numerical track listing that also includes time signatures.  The bottom of the back cover features typical copywrite notices.

The front cover is a single piece of paper, and the back of the front cover has artwork that is similar to the back cover design.  The back of the CD cover has Charley Pride’s name and CD title as is on the front and back, but the festive holly leaves and berries are missing.  Also, just as on the back of the CD, there is a numerical track listing, but without time signatures.

So, very little information is provided with the CD.  No writer credits or recording information is provided.  Over half of the songs are original Christmas songs and writer credits would have been very helpful, but I was able to get them off the original album label.  Also, knowing this was recorded at RCA Nashville tells me that the musicians that play on the album were colloquially known as The ‘A’ Team.  Jack Clements produced the album, and it has that sweet Nashville sound that RCA was known for.

I guess along with a new title and new artwork, the producers at BMG Special Products decided to rearrange the songs as well.  They are in a completely different order than what was on the original album.

There were 10 songs on the original album, and they are all here.  Like I said earlier, the album was again reissued in 2013 with 3 additional bonus tracks.  Six of the songs featured on this CD are original Christmas songs unique to this album.  That’s what makes this such a unique Christmas record.  The other four songs are mostly traditional Christmas hymns.

Both the CD and the album begin with the original Christmas song made famous by Charley Pride, Christmas In My Home Town.  This is Charley Pride’s best known Christmas song.  The arrangement is very festive as Charley Pride describes all the sights and sounds of Christmas in his hometown.  The Jordanaires provide solid background harmonies.  This unique, popular Christmas song is in my Top 500 Classic Christmas Recordings.

The 2^nd song, Deck The Halls (With Boughs Of Holly), is traditional in all manners of arrangement and vocals.  Charley Pride has a strong voice, and it is used to great effect on this song.  Once again, The Jordanaires assist Charley Pride with the vocals.

Little Drummer Boy is the 3^rd song on the CD version.  I find the arrangement unique in that cellos accompany the melody that is mostly supplied by a studio band.  The snare drum is there as in most arrangements.  Usually, the vocals are delivered in a somber manner, but here, Charley Pride uses his deep voice to push the vocals to the front of the song.  The backup harmonies are provided by The Nashville Edition.

O Holy Night, the 4^th song, is sparse with the instrumentation, with the celeste carrying most of the melody.  All that is overshadowed by Charley Pride’s terrific vocals and The Nashville Edition providing reverent harmonies.

It just occurred to me that what makes Charley Pride’s vocals so different is that his diction is very pronounced as he annunciates all the syllables of the words.  He doesn’t colloquially run over the words as many singers, especially Country singers, do.

Starting with the 5^th song, Santa And The Kids, the rest of the CD is all original Christmas songs except for Silent Night.  Santa And The Kids is a fun Christmas song directed to children, cautioning them to heed an early bedtime on Christmas Eve.  Should they linger awhile, and try to sneak a peek, Santa will skip their house.  This is the first song on the CD that exemplifies a Country arrangement.  The melody begins with a fiddle that stays throughout the song.  It is nicely accompanied by celeste and a rolling drum pattern and closed guitar chords.  Once again, The Nashville Edition provides festive harmonies.

Another original Christmas song, The First Christmas Morn, is a treat due to the fact that while most original Christmas songs are secular in nature, The First Christmas Morn is a somber, passionate story of the first morning of Jesus’ birth. The arrangement begins lightly with lap steel guitar and celeste.  As the song progresses, the strings come in to play.  And as well, The Nashville Edition provides somber harmonies.

The 7^th song, Happy Christmas Day, is another original Christmas song unique to this album.  Charley Pride describes the traditional sights and sounds of Christmas, yet reminds us that that is not all it takes to make a Happy Christmas Day.  He implores us that we need to include the birth of Jesus to complete the perfect Christmas day.  The melody features lead guitar matched to the celeste, accompanied by sleigh bells.  The arrangement has a welcoming Country feel.

The 8^th song is Silent Night.  Charley Pride delivers the vocals in a somber mood.  The melody begins with organ and chimes and as the song progresses, the celeste begins to carry more of the arrangement.  The Jordanaires return to assist Charley Pride.  This is the most somber, reverent song on the CD.

Christmas And Love is the 9^th song and is another Christmas song unique to this album.  The song begins with lead guitar matched to the celeste.  As Charley Pride begins the vocals, they are joined by more contemporary band instruments.  The song speaks softly of a person reflecting on his meager means but accepting it willingly because by God sending His Son down to earth to cure the whole world with love, is all that Christmas needs to be for him.

The CD’s final song, They Stood In Silent Prayer, is another original, religious based Christmas song.  The song begins tremendously before the arrangement moves to softer instrumentation.  Charley Pride sings about the shepherds and livestock standing around the manger after Jesus’ birth.  It is a beautiful song that speaks strongly about what Christmas really is about.  The Nashville Edition provides reverent harmonies.

This is not a popular Christmas album in the 21^st century, and Charley Pride is not someone that comes to mind when you think of Classic Christmas artists, but it was his unique, slightly Southern, deep baritone voice and original Christmas songs that speak of Jesus that made this a Top Ten Christmas album in 1970.  This is a terrific album to mix in with more familiar Christmas songs.

If I must be honest, there are some songs on here that are not as good as others.  Deck The Halls (With Boughs Of Holly) is one that comes to mind.  It just seems flat, and the arrangement doesn’t allow Charley Pride’s voice to shine as well as on other songs.  But mostly, I think it’s the song itself.  It’s not the kind of song Charley Pride excels at.  He is best with happy children’s songs and reverent religious songs.

I have to remind myself this is a Country Christmas album from 1970.  The arrangements on the familiar songs are nice.  They are soft, lush and festive.  That is what RCA Nashville was known for.  Although there are strings included, they never overshadow the simpler instruments featured.

This is one of the better Christmas CDs I have in my collection because 60% of the songs are original Christmas songs, and they are the standout songs on this CD.  Christmas In My Home Town is a Classic Christmas song and should be familiar to regular listeners of Christmas music.  If you can appreciate that song and have not heard the other Christmas songs on this album, I think you would come to appreciate them just as much.

I give this CD :

****