"Pictures And Paintings" - Charlie Rich

This album, like many of Charlie Rich's best work, deserved, and still deserves a much wider audience. Like any great music, the sound on this album is hard to pin down. Charlie Rich achieved his greatest fame in the Country field (with #1 hits such as "Behind Closed Doors" and "The Most Beautiful Girl"),  but on this album, Country is one of only many genres which he touches upon. There's a good deal of a Jazz feel to this album, along with a dollop of Soul.

It's almost hard to express how full of emotion are such standout tracks as the title track (written by Doc Pomus and Mac Rebennack AKA Dr. John) and "Go Ahead And Cry" (written by Charlie Rich's wife, Margaret Ann Rich). "Pictures And Paintings" beautifully paints an indelible picture of a man who cannot let go of a love that may never even have existed. And while the lyrics are certainly not at all upbeat, the music is a fairly upbeat shuffle. The next track on the album ("You Don't Know Me") is a painfully slow heartbreaker, a cover of a Country standard (a huge hit for Eddy Arnold, and later Ray Charles).

"Feel Like Going Home," the final track of the album naturally, is one of his most powerful and soulful songs. It ties in with author Peter Guralnick, who wrote a book of the same title after he heard Rich's demo version from the 1970's (which frankly is a more moving version of the song, it can be found on the 2-CD "Essential Charlie Rich") and also wrote the liner notes and served as one of the executive producers on the album.

"Pictures And Paintings" was the last album that Charlie Rich recorded.  It was released in 1992 and Rich passed away in 1995. The albums serves as a fitting epitaph to a varied and wide-ranging music career.