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Jay Ray Bio...
Organically, Jay sought the help of close friend and record producer Mike Masters (Antigone Rising, Burning Brides) to polish the ideas. Over the next year Jay and Mike got together on weekends and chipped away with very simple yet elegant goals. To do everything themselves. To do everything in one or two takes, and to keep it as direct as possible adding embellishment only when absolutely necessary. A cut and compress approach to let the messages come through. After a while the time spent became Near Disasters/Sweet Hereafters. The result is an intimate recording, like Jay is playing just to you in your living room. The process Jay and Mike stumbled onto seemed to mirror the spirit of the music he grew up playing with his minister father and his family in and around Boise, Idaho in their country western/gospel group when he was 14 years old. “I love a lot of different types of music, but when it comes to writing my own, I always hear songs we played during that time. The Carter family and Johnny Cash. Willie, Waylon, and so on. A lot of Simon and Garfunkel and whatever was playing on the radio in the back of the station wagon seems to come through as well.” Over the years Jay Ray has had the pleasure of opening up shows for a lot of inspiring artists such as Alejandro Escovedo, Richard Buckner, Tim Easton, and Sixteen Horsepower. But starting to play the new album had a more difficult beginning. The first show in Wrightwood was at the local bar/pizza parlor called the Yodeler. Even after playing hundreds of shows in the past, Jay was a little bit nervous about how the quiet, melancholy nature of the music would go over to a drinking crowd. “I hadn’t played out in a while, so I was a little bit freaked out. Then I noticed the crowd was totally silent. I thought ‘great, this is really going to be easier than I thought.’ Then I realized that everyone was signing to each other and that the whole room was packed with a hearing impaired field trip that had stopped for dinner. It was the strangest kind of relief for a first show.” One person who could hear at that show was local concert promoter, and soon to be manager, Dan Campbell, who immediately contacted Jay Ray to play the Wrightwood summer music festival, Music In The Pines. “The music was so clean and clear, and you could really listen to the story in the songs. Finding someone who would actually sing and you could understand the words was very unusual.” The Festival introduced Jay and his music to the entire town and a very warm reception, and Dan Campbell had an idea. He contacted his friend Jim Barnes who was just starting the Ginormous Records label in Wrightwood. After a few conversations they decided to release Near Disasters/Sweet Hereafters. "I had actually been tossing around the idea of starting a record label for some time, and had heard Jay's stuff and really liked it. When I found out that Jay was looking for someone to fund his CD, it took me about two seconds to make the decision. I love the songs, and that says it all." Meetings like this, and the friendships that developed because of it don’t happen everyday. So, things have a strange way of working themselves out sometimes. Love gone south, lost friends and family, and just plain hard living happens to everyone. But sometimes you can survive, retreat, and come back with something that says ‘I made it through that, and life is still beautiful’. For Jay Ray, and hopefully the listener, this debut album is just that. Near Disasters/Sweet Hereafters indeed. Contact Information: Press: Lisa Gottheil, lisa@230publicity.com, www.230publicity.com Label: Jim Barnes, Ginormous Records, www.ginormousrecords.com Management: Dan Campbell, Yo Mama's Voodoo Lounge Presents, yomamasvoodoolounge.com Ray Reynaga...
Calabash Avenue, in Fontana, California is a stone's throw from the smokestacks of the once world famous, late, great, Kaiser Steel mill. Before I was born, my grandparents had a café on the corner of Calabash and San Bernardino avenues called The Chatterbox Café. The many steel workers would stop in to refresh or re-charge. Fast forward 50 years, and just down the street lies the home of the Reynagas. Ray and Marsha. A humble home full of music and love. On the walls were pictures of John Lennon, Ry Cooder, and Marilyn Monroe. Shelves of vinyl LPs, Ceramic art, a stand up bass in the corner. A wood floor, and a reel to reel tape recorder and other equipment on a table. Incense, a dog on the rug, music playing, and a feeling of being welcome any time. Also on the wall was an original pencil drawing of Ray “conducting” an orchestra of guitars and amps. The picture would later become the album cover for “Here”, Ray’s new release on Ginormous Records. Hours upon hours of music was recorded in that house, and the recording equipment occasionally would get upgraded and soon a studio was built adjoining the kitchen. Over the years songs were written and recorded by Ray and some friends. Songs for every season, every age, and every emotion. What was going on in the lives of the Reynagas and their loved ones was translated to music, and put down on tape. There were many happy times, sad times, young times and not so young anymore times. All put to music. The songs on “Here” are a snapshot, or a glimpse of a small slice of those years. A time and place when the times were not the happiest, maybe even the lowest, but the emotions and feelings were running very deep, and had to be put to song. It is now 2006. The Calabash home is gone, to make way for business development. The music equipment is scattered to different locations, all in use from time to time. Ray and Marsha are living very happily in Shady Point, Oklahoma with relatives close by, animals all over the property, and the same smiling faces that used to greet me when showing up at the Calabash house and the studio all those years ago. For Ray, “Here” represents a time in his life. A point in time, maybe just before a turning point, that would have been too much to handle without expressing his feelings with music. To me, “Here” will always be the home on Calabash Avenue. Jim Barnes Barnesville... "Barnesville" is the working title of the house project of Ginormous Records. With help from a lot of talented friends of the label, this album is in production now. Look for a possible release soon.
Coyote Keene...
The coyote is a songwriter that brings thoughts of the west, roads less traveled and life at a slower speed. We are currently in discussions on when and how to get his solo project rolling.
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Check here for updates on our current projects. We will get some sound clips posted on the sound page real soon. Drop us a line and let us know what you think. |
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