Pride: The Charley Pride Story

Before Pride came on the scene in the 1960s, ``there were no mainstream black performers in country music and never had been.'' The story he tells in this excellent autobiography is, thus, more than the rise to fame and fortune of a poor sharecroppper's son from rural Mississippi. Starting in small-town bars, Pride broke the color line in the heart of redneck country where it was unheard of for a black man to enter the door. His first concert-size appearance, opening for Buck Owens and Merle Haggard in Detroit's Olympia Arena in 1966, was cautiously arranged after he had already established himself on radio with such hits as ``Snakes Crawl at Night'' and ``Just Between You and Me.'' His way with a song outweighed the surprise of his color and since then he has sold 25 million records. Ironically, music was not the first love of this singer who was a good enough ballplayer to pitch and play oufield in the Negro Leagues in their dying years. Pride's earliest hero was Jackie Robinson and it seems fair to say he has been as much of a pioneer as that celebrated athlete. Photos not seen by PW. Author tour. (Feb.)