Each person’s journey through life varies in its direction; some turn left, some turn right, while others go straight, resulting in unique personalities. Boo Ray‘s journey has led him coast to coast across our nation and set forth experiences that made him who he is, led to his eccentric style of music, and laid the groundwork for his path towards the future.
We spoke with the Nashville artist about his personal journey, recent projects with Lilly Winwood (Americana singer and daughter of Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Steve Winwood), and his vinyl series Boocoo Amigos.
CN: You grew up in Western North Carolina, and your career as a troubadour has taken you to South Georgia, the Gulf Coast, Nashville and Los Angeles. In what ways have your experiences on this journey molded not only your style of music, but you as a person?
BR: Well, I spent two years incarcerated, 90 days at a time cumulatively, and 5 years in halfway houses on both sides of the country while I was trying to get sober. I’ve existed on the kindness of others and a few lucky breaks. As a person, I can sleep through a pretty good commotion and I’ve become a little bit nocturnal. Appalachian pentatonic melodies and song forms are still part of my main tool-kit and that Macon, Georgia sound’s probably part of my musical DNA too. I dig what happens to a 2-step when it travels south around Mobile and starts to kick back a little bit and swagger. Along the way I discovered that I’m more like Texas country than Nashville country, influenced by the gulf coast and entangled with the Los Angeles songwriter scene.
CN: You are said to be following in the footsteps of some the greats including Kris Kristofferson, Gram Parsons, and Jerry Reed. How have these legends influenced and inspired you and your career?
BR: Hell, I’ll take it, thanks. I’m not as cool as those cats but I identify with the way they’re said to have chased songs where ever they might run off to. Those guys all went out to California… Kristofferson’s word smithing is important to me and I’m trying to land some songs in that same kind of classic territory. Stephen Bruton told me Kristofferson would like my song “Six Weeks In A Motel”… Jerry Reed’s been a hero since I was a kid, before I knew that he was a guitar virtuoso. The other day Bill Cody told me some wonderful Reed stories on his WSM Radio show “Coffee, Country and Cody”. My great pal Buddy Blackmon was Jerry’s band leader in the heyday during the “East Bound And Down” single and Smokey And The Bandit movie. I’d only known the very PG movie side of Jerry Reed until I heard some of the stories and this rehearsal recording of Jerry Reed working up “East Bound And Down” with his band for the 1st time. Buddy and David Blackmon were both in that band. Jerry counted the tune off “1, 2 do it man!’… they played halfway through the 1st verse and he called it off and said, “Naw man you gotta get behind that son-of-a-*!%$! That rehearsal recording is just incredible! Yeah man, Jerry Reed forever!
CN: Please take us through your songwriting process. Do you pull mostly from personal experiences, experiences of those around you, or elsewhere?
BR: Sure, there’re different kinds of songwriting. I do a little bit of target writing for movie trailers and scenes and other artists. But writing songs to record on my records and perform myself like “One More Round” or “Bad News Travels Fast”, that’s an ongoing dramatic process kinda like Tenacious D’s “The Greatest Song In The World” hahaha!.. But “A Melody, Some Guitars And A Rhyme” was literally a phone conversation with a sober buddy who’d just finished cutting 100 acres of Costal Bermuda hay. Last leg tired, talking about blazing Georgia sunsets and the call of the neon, he said “I can damned near taste the whiskey and almost hear the band getting busy, but I’ve got livestock and seeds in the ground” confirming that he wasn’t going down to the honky tonk and starting a tear. And then he said “The sun goes down on me and the day fades away, it breaks my heart every single time”. We hung up the phone and I wrote it all down and arranged the conversation into verses and choruses.
Lilly’s great and we had a blast working on this. She’s a top-notch pro; smart, funny, soulful, sincere and fierce. It’s not hard to tell she’s a world-class vocalist. Lilly’s a great guitar player and singer songwriter, and an excellent band leader and stylist in her own right. She has a real fresh take on roots music. Get Lilly Winwood’s “Silver Stage” EP on iTunes.
CN: “Hard to Tell” is such a fun, bluesy duet that showcases Lilly’s vocals in contrast to your lower, raspy register accompanied by electric and steel guitar. A co-write by the both of you, how did the song come about?
BR: That song was in my unfinished folder for a couple of years. I was writing it for a salty female country singer like Kasey Musgraves or Miranda Lambert as a drunken honky tonk waltz, and just couldn’t find the right words in a couple of spots. Lilly had a cool, quick lyric fix, we flipped the beat and put it on a laid back R&B/Muscle Shoals groove. The recording session for the song had the benefit of my band being just off a string of shows and recording sessions from “Islands In The Stream”, “All Strung Out Like Christmas Lights” and a few others. Matt Workman on electric guitar and background vocals, Smith Curry on Steel, Will Moore on Bass, Patrick Bubert on Drums and the production team of close friends Sol Littlefield and Alex Gilson at Gold Cassette Studio. Sol and I’ve been making records together since 2012.
CN: Both songs are sides A & B of your most recent release of the vinyl collaboration series “Boocoo Amigos.” What was the idea behind creating this? And while vinyl has been seeing quite the comeback in recent years, what made you decide on using vinyl?
BR: 2016’s Sea Of Lights album was my 1st record really recorded on the front end to be manufactured and listened to on vinyl. It released digitally 2016 and it released on 12″ vinyl LP last fall 2017. After playing a pretty good bunch of 3 hour shows with my band over the last couple of years, we’ve developed a sound and recorded a new full-length record with Noah Shain at Welcome To 1979 Studio which comes out this August. After recording that new album we talked about the idea of cutting A and B side singles for a series, as its own thing, allowed to exist outside the stylistic character of my own records. And it’s just cool to record 2 songs at a time without the complexity of recording 10 songs for a full-length LP. So this single collaboration series is a great opportunity to work with Kindercore Vinyl and utilize the amazing production team that has grown out of this process. Noah Shain, Sol Littlefield and Alex Gilson are 1st choice producers I’ve been working with for years now. And then working with Pete Lyman mastering these vinyl records has really been a game changer for us in getting the grit and the grease to carry all the way through to the finished product. Welcome To 1979 Studio makes our stampers and works directly with Kindercore. It’s a real dream team of record making.
CN: You have a partnership with Kindercore Vinyl, which has a very environmentally friendly approach to creating stacks of wax. Can you talk about what Kindercore does different?
BR: In my layman’s terms: Basically, record presses and vinyl record manufacturing technology didn’t evolve much, if any during the heyday of CD’s… and Kindercore’s new cutting-edge WarmTone Presses use automation and data science (CNC Machine/Cad Design type technology) to make records that sound real good… Jack White uses the same presses at Third Man Records. Also, Kindercore’s Chief Technical Officer Dan Geller, a research engineer with experience in developing plant-based alternatives to fuels and other products, is working to revolutionize the materials of the records themselves. Geller and KCV are taking active steps in research and development toward renewable PVC replacements, seeking to be the first pressing plant to offer petroleum free phonograph records in the coming years.
CN: Your next “Boocoo Amigos” release will feature celebrity chef Sean Brock. What can fans expect from that?
BR: Sean’s fans know what an important and incredible talent he is. Don’t think I know anyone else who’s got as great of a command of as much information as Sean Brock does. Personally as a fan of Sean’s from watching him on Anthony Bourdain, Chef’s Table and YouTube cooking videos, his joyous mischievous laugh and lightning sharp wit are solid gold. Kinda like, If Sean and I went to school together, we’d have been separated and not allowed to have the same home room. He gets tickled about the funniest things and it slays me laughing. Sean’s a real cool guitar player and we’ve written a couple of songs that are a blast and I think y’all are going to dig it.
CN: If you could describe yourself in one word, what would it be and why?
BR: If you asked Bill Cody at WSM that question, and Bill Cody said, “If you ask Jerry Reed that question, he’d look at you and laugh and say “Son! One word is not enough to describe me… I’m too big a star!!! and he’d laugh like heck.”…. So how about “Twang” then. I’ll take that thank you much.
CN: What else is on the horizon for you?
BR: I’m real excited about my collaboration with H Bar C Ranchwear coming soon. Also Nick Greer at Greer Amps in Athens, Georgia is making a pedal for me that I’m just completely cranked up about. And we’ve got a Yazoo Brewery collaboration this summer. I’m playing some dates around the south this summer and looking forward to sharing some big announcements soon.
For more information on Boo Ray, visit his website at: www.booraymusic.com