Out of the Past Music artist: Katy Hobgood Ray featuring Dave Ray - I Dream of Water - New Release Review

I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, I Dream of Water, from Katy Hobgood Ray featuring Dave Ray and it's a interesting set of blues and country blended tracks. Opening with Lollie Bottoms, a simple, pop country style track singer songwriter, Katy Hobgood Ray conjures up the feeling of the early days of country rock and the likes of Bobbie Gentry and her story telling songs. Supported by Chuck Dodson on piano, Dave Hoffpauir on drums, Jason Weinheimer on bass and Greg Spradlin on guitars a solid opener. One of my favorite tracks on the release is Washed Away with it's strong, gospel style melody and warm vocal backing by Dave Ray, and Vikki McGee and the addition of nicely complimenting guitar work by Spradlin and the key organ and piano work of Dodson. With a Latin beat, House Divided features Dave Ray on lead vocal, blended nicely with Katy and clean piano lines by Dodson. Very nice. My favorite vocals by Katy on the release are in the lead of Dirty Water with it's spiritual feel and complimented by choir like backing vocals, organ and piano. Shuffle track, That Really Matters has a real nice feel with Dave upfront blending with Katy on vocal and bouncy piano work by Dodson. Wrapping the release is light pop track, Kings, Queens and Jesters with a sweet melody... vocal and piano with only a light bottom. A very nice closer for a solid release. 

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DAVE RAY (Koerner, Ray & Glover) "Legacy" this SUN, 12/07 on NPR Weekend Edition

DAVE RAY    The late songwriter and guitarist's legacy remembered this Sunday, December 7  on NPR Weekend Edition, click here for regional air times   LEGACY,  a deluxe 3-CD package with 32-page booklet, is out now on Red House Records A collection of rare and unreleased recordings from 1962 - 2002 from an American Blues Master    “Hopefully this collection does what it set out to do; illustrate just what an amazingly gifted musician and vocalist Dave was, and how wide he rode through the musical spheres.” - Tony Glover (Koerner, Ray & Glover)   December 5, 2014:  One of the first white artists to study and learn the then little-known blues tunes from the 20s, 30s and 40s and part of the Minneapolis folk and blues revival that spawned Bob Dylan, Dave "Snaker" Ray brought an enthusiasm and raw, raunchy earthiness to his performance style which set the stage for artists that followed. Koerner, Ray & Glover’s recordings were enormously influential among their fellow musicians, with artists from David Bowie and John Lennon to Bonnie Raitt, Lucinda Williams and Beck citing them as an influence. Ray's career, celebrated on Legacy, a three-CD collection of rare and unreleased songs by the influential acoustic bluesman painstakingly compiled by Ray’s longtime bandmate/collaborator Tony Glover, will be featured on NPR WEEKEND EDITION this Sunday, December 7.  The piece will also be archived online at http://www.npr.org/programs/weekend-edition-sunday/.   NPR's Jim Bickel speaks to Tony Glover about Legacy, a 10-year-in the-making tribute to his friend and former bandmate. The 55-song collection features a 32-page booklet with rare photos and extensive liner notes and additional info by Glover. Legacy spans Ray's career, starting in the 1960s in Minneapolis, MN’s West Bank neighborhood with “Spider” John Koerner and Tony Glover  through his subsequent collaborations, solo albums and untimely death on Thanksgiving, 2002.    To me he was a brother from another family – the family of sound. He brought a vitality to the blues that the scholars who’d been on the scene couldn’t muster,” Glover says.     Along with live recordings and rarities, Legacy includes selections from out-of-print recordings including Ashes in My Whiskey (Rough Trade) and One Foot in the Groove (Tim /Kerr Records).  Unless noted, the tracks on Legacy are previously unreleased and include performances taken from a wide variety of mediums including reel-to-reel analog tapes, old sound board mix cassettes and live broadcasts.    “Since Dave was doing Lead Belly and I was working on my Sonny Terry riffs, people thought it would be a good idea to put us together,” Glover recalls. “We both had very similar tastes in blues, preferring the deep, down-home raw numbers. After the initial learning-by-rote process we made a point of going for the feel of a song, trying to capture its aura rather than doing a note-by-note cover.” It was a musical partnership that ended up lasting four decades.   Since the album's release, the Twin Cities declared November 9 to be Dave Ray Day; that evening, friends and fellow musicians attended a sold-out tribute concert at the Minnesota History Center which included a display of Ray's memorabilia, hand-written lyrics and two of his guitars. The City of St. Paul held a street-naming ceremony on November 24 dedicating a stretch of Franklin Avenue as Dave Ray Avenue. QUOTES   "Nobody has topped them for feel or drive or humor or sheer affection for their folk-blues forebears like Leadbelly and Memphis Minnie - four stars." - Rolling Stone   "As a trio, Koerner, Ray and Glover brought a raucous, highly rhythmic approach to the acoustic blues that effectively captured the essence of their forbears." - Playboy   "The instrumental work on here is just plain awesome...and really puts up a case for them being reclassified from upstart revivalists onto American roots music greats." - Folk Roots (U.K.)     RED HOUSE DISCOGRAPHY   Dave Ray Legacy: Rare and unreleased recordings 1962 - 2002 from an American Blues Master  (2014)    Koerner, Ray & Glover  Blues, Rags, and Hollers (re-issue of the classic 1963 release with four bonus tracks)  Lots More Blues, Rags, and Hollers (re-issue of the 1964 classic)  The Return of Koerner, Ray & Glover (re-issue of the 1965 classic)

Red House Records artist: Dave Ray - Legacy - New Release Review

I just received the newest release (October 28, 2014) Legacy, from Dave Ray and I have to say the intensity of these recordings is staggering. I've been listening to the raw blues since I was a kid and am really only familiar with Ray's work in passing. This is a 3 disc collection of blues tunes with roots in the 20's, 30's and 40's which for the most part has never been widely available. Disc one is primarily solo work, recorded between 1962 and 1987. 16 tracks beginning with Leroy Carr's Alabama Women and you would swear that this is a clean recording of an original artist from the time. Excellent! Included on this disc are a number of tracks written by Ledbelly, Brownie McGhee, Skip James, Sleepy John, Muddy, Blind Blake, originals by Ray and concluding with an incredible version of Fenton Robinson's Loan Me A Dime. Outstanding! The second disc covers 1988 to 1994 and the Ray and Tony Glover Years. 21 tracks on this disc are a little more polished but retain that raw energy. Covering Jimmy Rogers, Muddy, Memphis Minnie, Robert Petway, Tommy Johnson, Blind Willie McTell, Memphis Slim and Mississippi Fred these tracks are real and raw. Excellent! Just listen to the second track on this disc, Muddy Water's  Long Distance Call and you hear a pure artist, doing another artist's track and making it sound original and vibrant! Blind Willie McTell's Statesboro Blues has a life of it's own with real blues syncopation... not modern timing. Very very nice! Disc 3 has a cleaner more modern recording sound but the blues is still raw and real. These 18 tracks were recorded between 1995 and Rays death in 2002. Opening with Tommy McClennan's Shake 'em On Down , Ray has you in the palm of his hand. Beautiful harp trimming on top of a rhythmic guitar with true blues vocals. Super! The countryified Coal Man, written by Peg Leg Howell has real life. Percy Mayfield's My Mind Is Trying To Leave Me is excellent! Further tracks by Big Joe Williams, Bill Monroe, Percy Sledge, Joe Callicott, Blind Blake, Bobby Womack, Big Bill Broonzy, and the great Arthur Crudup make this one of the absolute best "modern roots of blues" releases that I may have ever heard. Ray on 6 and 12 string acoustic and electric guitars and vocals accompanied by really hot harp work by Tony Glover. There is a terrific 32 page booklet with insight into the Ray's life and recordings, photos, track listing and commentary. This is one of the true raw early style blue gems that I have had the privilege to review since starting my report a number of years back. This is an excellent collection and I highly recommend it.

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