What Georgian doesn't feel a tinge of pride every time we hear Ray Charles sing “Georgia on my Mind”? It's Georgia's official state song, and maybe the reason it sounds especially soulful is that Charles was singing about home. Born in Albany, Ray Charles Robinson later changed his name to avoid confusion with boxer “Sugar” […]
Macon usually gets top billing when it comes to Georgia’s musical heritage, but Columbus has a trump card – “Ma” Rainey, the “Mother of the Blues,” who was honored on this day in 1994 by the U.S. Postal Service. Gertrude “Ma” Rainey was born in 1886 in Columbus, where she first started performing in vaudeville […]
When the hit song, “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay” went to number one on the charts in 1968, the artist who wrote and sang it had been dead for four months. Otis Redding became one of the most influential and popular soul musicians of all time. He was born in Dawson. When his […]
