The final recording sessions of the late Ray Price are being made available for the first time on April 15. BEAUTY IS … will be released on AmeriMonte Records and feature duets with country superstars Vince Gill and Martina McBride. It will be available at Wal-Mart, Cracker Barrel stores and online retailers. At the helm of the project was legendary record producer Fred Foster. “[Ray] called me in 2012 and said, ‘I think I have one album left in me; I’m not well, you know,'” Foster recalls. “He said, ‘I want to do one last one, and I want you to do it with me.’ The whole time we were working together, his state of mind was always really good. You would never know how sick he was to talk to him. What a classy guy.” In advance of the full-length album, which will be available for pre-order March 18, a three-song EP will be available digitally on March 16, featuring ‘Beauty Lies in the Eyes of the Beholder’ (with Vince Gill), “This Thing of Ours” and ‘I Wish I Was 18 Again.’ Foster brought the album’s new songs to the iconic singer and suggested the inspirational ‘I Believe’ while Price selected songs from two fellow Texans and Country Music Hall of Fame members Cindy Walker (‘Until Then’) and Willie Nelson (‘It Will Always Be’). His wife, Janie, chose the 1957 Vic Damone pop hit and movie theme tune ‘An Affair to Remember’. “Offstage, he was just the guy I love,” says Janie Price. “When that red light went on in the studio, or when he stepped onto the stage and they handed him that microphone, something happened. It was a higher power. This transformation took place in him. He turned into RAY PRICE.” The country legend died of complications from pancreatic cancer at his Mount Pleasant, Texas, home on December 16, 2013. He was 87. BEAUTY IS … track listing: Beauty Lies in the Eyes of the Beholder (with Vince Gill) This Thing of Ours I Can See You It Will Always Be No More Songs to Sing An Affair to Remember (with Martina McBride) Senses Until Then (with Vince Gill) Beautiful Dreamer I Wish I Was 18 Again Among My Souvenirs I Believe
