“You Look Nothing Like Your Mother, You Look Everything Like Your Mother” Ray Charles’ “Mothers”, Ambiguity & Country Music."

• In Event: "Envisioning Freedom: Black Women’s Creativity, Memory, and Resistance Across Pan-African Landscapes"

Abstract

This paper offers a close reading of Ray Charles’ performance of “Georgia on My Mind” live in Japan in 1975. In 1960, Charles surprised fans and the industry by expressing interest in recording country music. “Georgia on My Mind” was the first single in this endeavor, followed by the two-volume project Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music in 1962. Charles’ relationship with country (and music in general) was cultivated during his childhood alongside a cohort of women who helped take care of him. By 1975, country music was championed as the music of the conservative right – despite the myriads of country artists with left-leaning politics – further solidifying the racialization of country music. Using the theory of sincerity, which acknowledges the multiplicitous nature of performance, I view Charles’ performance as a country-tinged elegy to the women from his childhood. I argue that this kind of performance exists among cultures of living memory, where music is used to draw the past and present into one space.

Author

• Olivia Ekeh, Indiana University Bloomington