As all poetry aspires to the condition of hiphop lyrics, all American musicians aspire to the condition of Ray Charles. That ability of his to speak the nation's vernacular truths as if he'd invented them. Echoing Whitman more than any other of our Tiresian crooners—so that when Ray Charles sings of America he's singing of himself, no matter what the RNC thought, then or now. God bless my Black American ass muckafuthas, how about that? Sangin' like you'd expect an African American blind man with a pistol and a lion's heart of gold to sing, sangin' about all that good warm light holed up... More >>>