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Few states or regions can lay claim to producing as much musical talent as Arkansas, especially that easternmost corridor where the soil is as rich as the souls of the men and women who walk and work it. Legends known ‘round the globe — like Johnny Cash, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Levon Helm — once called the Arkansas Delta home. While traces of musical greatness can be found up and down that alluvial plain, some communities just became synonymous with the artists who lived there and the works they produced. Think Helena and Robert Johnson’s legend; Conway Twitty’s awards; or Brinkley and Louis Jordan’s sax, Al Bell’s labels; or Turkey Scratch — yes, even Turkey Scratch — and its famous natives Helm and Robert Lockwood Jr. Often overlooked, though, in the fanfare of Phillips County’s blues lore are the contributions of two St. Francis County sons: Al Green and Charlie Rich. Born more than a decade but just eight miles apart, the two musicians shot to stardom almost in lockstep. They climbed to the tops of two very different charts, traveled two very different paths after their ascension, but both were shaped, influenced and inspired by the same row crops and religion of St. Francis County. Rich was born in 1932 in the town of Colt, home to fewer than 300 people at the time. His parents were salt-of-the-earth Missionary Baptists, both members of the church quartet, and his mother played the piano during Sunday service. For Rich, music was everywhere. Country music played on radios outside the gas station; church family practiced gospel music in the evenings after supper; and Forrest City Mustang band members played through sheets of jazz music outside the schoolhouse. But it was on the family farm that Rich would receive the most inspiration, where he would learn blues licks and piano from a
His feathered mane of hair had already begun to turn white, earning him the nickname that would stick with him for life: Silver Fox.
farmhand named C.J., who also joined the family during some of those Saturday night jam sessions at home. Rich would join the high school band, too, and play his way up to the University of Arkansas Razorback marching band. But after only one year of higher education, he left and joined the U.S. Air Force. During his time in the military, he helped start a blues group called the Velvetones. His wife, whom he married right after high school, was the lead singer. After four years in the Air Force, Rich came home to east Arkansas. He tried his hand at farming, playing the few local bars at night. He was only in his 20s, but his feathered mane of hair had already begun to turn white, earning him the nickname that would stick with him for life: Silver Fox.
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************ Meanwhile, 45 miles west in Forrest City, a young Al Greene (he would later drop the “e”) was also being steeped in the soulful sounds of gospel music produced by his family. Greene was born in 1946 to a sharecropper family known for their gospel group, the Greene Brothers. He was a key member of the family group as young as age 9, touring and performing, and at one point even moving to Michigan. But when he took a liking to more secular music, Greene’s father kicked him out of the group and out of the family home. He was only 16 years old. Once out on his own, the teenage Greene was recruited by a band called the Creations. Greene became Green, and the Creations became Al Green and the Soul Mates.
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