Sam Harris Bassist Brewer and Back Again
The death of Charley Pride left a giant hole in the heart of land music. He was the genre's first African-American star, and decades subsequently, still i of a handful of people of color to accept any kind of lasting success as a country singer. Despite indelible a stream of racist beliefs from land music fans, radio professionals and even his young man singers when he broke into the business concern, Pride put together a discography that stands up well against everyone of his era. "Osculation an Angel Good Morning" and "Is Everyone Going to San Antone?" are pure country gold.
Pride besides had strong ties in the world of baseball, of form. The Mississippi native was a teenager when Jackie Robinson integrated Major League Baseball game and set out to make his own mark in the game. He pitched for the Memphis Red Sox and Birmingham Black Barons in the early 1950s and played briefly in the low minors on a couple of occasions. His talent for singing got him noticed, and he oftentimes entertained fans before ballgames and his teammates after them. Fifty-fifty when he established himself equally a singer, he never strayed too far from his love of the game. He could sometimes be seen in uniform at spring training for diverse teams and fifty-fifty bought a pocket-size stake in the Texas Rangers in 2010. He was on the Board of Directors of the Negro Leagues Baseball game Museum.
Pride died on December 12 at the age of 86 from complications of COVID 19. It's an atrocious loss on a year that has piled heartbreak on elevation of heartbreak. It'due south also an infuriating loss, as Pride was asked to take a dangerous risk and perform at an indoor music awards prove in the summit of a pandemic, located in a city that's pretty much given up any hope of containing the virus. And the association that should have been looking out for his best interests was the one that sent him there.
Let's talk near Nashville, which is one of my favorite cities in the country. You lot couldn't pay me enough money to visit in that location right now, because it's just non rubber. All summer long, Nashville has get one of the capitals of the anti-mask, "muh freedom" movements. All summertime long, some of Nashville'south near popular tourist bars have been fighting the urban center regime about mask-wearing and occupancy regulations. On most any weekend in Nashville this past summer, and you would have seen a throng of maskless partiers outside the bars on Lower Broadway – merely a frightening display of blissful ignorance and the perfect breeding footing for a super-spreader event.
To admittedly nobody's surprise, a summer full of drunken hedonism has given manner to a fall and wintertime of nightmarish COVID statistics. This nautical chart from the New York Times (see below) represents the "hot spots" for COVID-19, updated on December 19. The darker red the block, the worse things are going. Take a look at Tennessee, particularly when compared to the states around it. In that location isn't a safe place in the entire state. If Typhoid Mary was a land, she would be Tennessee.
Let's expect at November 11, 2020, as an example. On November 11, in that location were 3,586 new cases of COVID-19 reported in Tennessee, according to New York Times data. There were 1,904 hospitalizations from COVID-19 in the land and 88 reported deaths. In all instances, those numbers were function of a rising tendency. Illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths have soared ever since, to the point that Tennessee's Gov. Neb Lee – a huge proponent of the "economy first, human life 2d" theory – has started to beg for mask-wearing (without setting a mandate, as doing so would involve actual leadership). There hasn't been a practiced time to be in Tennessee since the start of summer. November 11, though, was a bad day.
Also on Nov xi, this happened:
Charley Pride and Jimmie Allen sang a duet at the Country Music Association Awards every bit office of Pride receiving a Lifetime Achievement Laurels. That video is Pride'southward last public functioning. One month and a day later, he was expressionless.
The entire CMA Awards show was designed to be completely discrete from reality. "It'due south been a yr, y'all. Merely for 3 hours next Midweek on ABC, this is a no drama zone. More 20 one-of-a-kind performances will assist you forget the weight of the earth for just a little while," it announced on its social media feed. That meant no talk about politics, no mention of COVID, and nothing at all to practise with the Black Lives Thing movement. It afterward had to back downwardly from that position when people complained that it was censoring artists, but it's clear the CMA wanted to create the most out-of-touch awards show in history, and it succeeded in that attribute. Look in the crowd and wait on the stage. Endeavour to detect even one mask. The Dallas Observer pointed out that the theme of the evening appeared to be "herd amnesty."
Despite its best efforts, the CMA Awards could not negate reality. Several of the scheduled performers, including Florida-Georgia Line, Lady A and Jenee Fleenor, had to abolish because of COVID-19 illnesses or exposure. Merely for those who could attend, the entire night consisted of non-mask compliance in an indoor venue that featured plenty of singing, which is known to increment the spread of the virus. Incidentally, scientists accept determined that public singing tin be a safe activity — as long as protective measures are taken. Go back to that video and see if you can identify any protective measures.
Cheers to the fact that contact tracing is something that the U.S. just doesn't practise, we can't conclusively show that Pride contracted the novel Coronavirus on his trip to Nashville and back. Simply the timing is too great to ignore – he flew from Texas to Nashville around November x, flew home around the twelfth, was hospitalized in tardily November with what his family thought was pneumonia and died on December 12.
The day Pride died, the CMA and Pride'due south representatives issued the following statement: "Everyone affiliated with the CMA Awards followed strict testing protocols outlined by the city health department and unions. Charley was tested prior to traveling to Nashville. He was tested upon landing in Nashville, and once more on show solar day, with all tests coming back negative. After returning to Texas following the CMA Awards, Charley again tested negative multiple times. All of u.s. in the Country Music community are heartbroken past Charley'due south passing. Out of respect for his family during their grieving period, nosotros will not be commenting on this further."
Testing by itself is not a preventative measure out against COVID-19. Given the false negative rates, some of the rapid tests aren't fifty-fifty that useful as tests.
Kevin Bailey, Pride'due south managing director and bass histrion, defended the CMA and its protocols and criticized those who questioned the timing. "I remember information technology'southward unfortunate that people are out there crusading to stir up some mud," he told the Dallas News. He also noted that the entertainer and his married woman were very cautious about staying home and wearing masks. If that is the case, then the performance at the CMA Awards looks even more suspicious, as it was such an outlier of his normal routine.
Charley Pride was a grown man and was more than than capable of making his ain decisions. Nobody twisted his arm to brand the appearance. However, Charley Pride was an former-school country vocaliser, and the Country Music Association is the primary organization in state music. Pride was the CMA Entertainer of the Year in 1971 and the Male Vocalist in 1971 and '72. Country music's other association, the University of State Music, didn't award him with anything until he received a Pioneer Award in 1994. When racists were questioning if Pride even belonged in land music, the CMA awarded him with their pinnacle honors. So when that same association asked him to travel to Nashville in 2020 to have a Lifetime Accomplishment Award, naturally he did what he had to practise to get at that place.
There'due south zippo to exist done about it now. It was a disaster waiting to happen, and the worst happened. Simply I can't assistance simply feel frustration of the senselessness of it all. We've figured out how to do everything from concerts to tardily-night talk shows through Zoom or Facebook Alive. There was no reason for Charley Pride to go to Nashville when the laurels could accept been presented remotely. If it was absolutely necessary for him to sing, he and his band could have used ane of the currently shuttered music venues in Texas or a local TV studio. Certain, it would have taken a petty luster off the moment, but there wasn't a soul watching who wouldn't have understood. In the CMA's try to defy reality and nowadays a "drama-free" awards show, it betrayed one of its legends.
Source: https://ripbaseball.com/2020/12/21/charley-pride-and-nashvilles-lethal-ignorance/
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