Чарли Маккой: Гармоника шебері және Нэшвиллдің сессиялық музыканты

American musician

Charlie McCoy (born Charles Ray McCoy, March 28, 1941), is an American harmonica virtuoso and multi instrumentalist in country music. He is best known for his harmonica solos on iconic recordings such as Candy Man (Roy Orbison), He Stopped Loving Her Today (George Jones), I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool (Barbara Mandrell), and others. He was a member of the progressive country rock bands Area Code 615 and Barefoot Jerry. After recording with Bob Dylan in New York, McCoy is credited for unknowingly influencing Dylan to decide to come to Nashville to record the critically acclaimed 1966 album "Blonde on Blonde". A prolific session musician, McCoy performed on many recordings by established artists, including Elvis Presley (on eight of his film sound tracks), Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Chet Atkins, Waylon Jennings, Roy Orbison, Leon Russell, and Loretta Lynn. In the recording industry, he was known as the "utility man" because of his ability to play with sufficient skill on many different instruments in addition to the harmonica; for example, he played trumpet on Dylan's "Rainy Day Women ♯12 & 35", saxophone on Roy Orbison's "Oh, Pretty Woman", and bass harmonica on Simon and Garfunkel's "The Boxer". For Elvis Presley's 1965 film Harum Scarum (soundtrack), he played guitar, harmonica, organ, and vibraphone. He is a member of three halls of fame, including the Country Music Hall of Fame and the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame; he was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2007 as a part of a group of session musicians dubbed "The Nashville A Team". For 19 years, McCoy worked as music director for Nashville's popular television show, Hee Haw. In 2022, he became a member of the Grand Ole Opry. His memoir, Fifty Cents and a Box Top– The Creative Life of Nashville Session Musician Charlie McCoy, was published in 2017.

McCoy was born in Oak Hill, West Virginia, United States. His family moved to nearby Fayetteville when he was a boy and then to Miami, Florida. In 1949, at age 8, McCoy saw an advertisement in a comic book, that read: "Learn to play harmonica in seven days or your money back." It required a box top from a cereal product plus 50 cents. When the instrument arrived, McCoy found it hard to get any music out of it, and lost interest. At age sixteen he accompanied a friend to a Miami based country music barn dance radio show called the "Old South Jamboree". Upon their arrival, McCoy's friend left him in the crowd and went to talk to "Happy" Harold Thaxton, the host of the show, with the intention of coaxing the reluctant McCoy up on stage to sing. McCoy's performance that night, along with the positive response from the audience, led to the band, Charlie McCoy and the Agendas, being signed to the Old South Jamboree. McCoy, who still wanted to make a career in music, decided to return to Nashville, a difficult decision, because it meant quitting college, and would disappoint his father.

Chet Atkins heard one of McCoy's demo tapes and immediately hired him as a staff musician in May, 1961. His first recording session for RCA as a harmonica player was with an unknown singer from Sweden named Ann Margret. She was beautiful, and only 18 at the time. He accompanied her on the song "I Just Don't Understand" Fred Foster of Monument Records then booked McCoy for McCoy's second session, this time with Roy Orbison, which included the song, "Candy Man". and went to No. 16 in the Billboard country charts. His next album, The Real McCoy, won a Grammy at the 15th Annual Grammy Awards from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. His album Good Time Charlie reached No. 1 in the Billboard country chart. He has won two CMA Awards and seven ACM Awards.

McCoy was visiting in New York in 1965; his friend and producer, Bob Johnston, mentioned that he was producing a Bob Dylan session, and he invited McCoy to come and meet Dylan. Several months later, McCoy got a call that Dylan was indeed coming to Nashville, and a date had been set. McCoy would be the session leader and was tasked with picking the musicians. It was a big deal back then, because Nashville's connection for recording with folk singers was not stellar. McCoy said, "There were no folk rock people performing here [Nashville] before Blonde on Blonde; and after that came out, it was like the floodgates opened It was Joan Baez, Buffy Sainte Marie, The Byrds, and Leonard Cohen." Some of his memorable harmonica solos were on (Old Dogs, Children and) Watermelon Wine (Tom T. Hall), Candy Man (Roy Orbison), He Stopped Loving Her Today (George Jones), and I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool"( Barbara Mandrell). For 19 years McCoy worked as music director for the popular television show Hee Haw, He is a member of the International Musicians Hall of Fame and the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame. In May, 2016, West Virginia University awarded McCoy an Honorary Doctor of Musical Arts. In 2017, The West Virginia University Press published Fifty Cents and a Box Top: The Creative Life of Nashville Session Musician Charlie McCoy. The induction ceremony took place on July 13, 2022.

McCoy has two children with his first wife and five grandchildren. Each of his grandchildren has contributed to one of his albums in some way. His second granddaughter did the artwork for three album covers (Somewhere Over The Rainbow, Smooth Sailing, Celtic Dreams) and sang on one of his Christmas CDs. His oldest granddaughter played flute and sang on a few of his albums. Each of the youngest three has sung on one of his albums, as has his son (Charlie, Jr.) and daughter (Ginger).