MICHAEL RAY WRESTLES “SPIRITS & DEMONS” WITH MEGHAN PATRICK

Duet with 2x Canadian Country Music Female Meghan Patrick

Unleashes a Tempest in a Power Ballad

Country music has always been about harnessing the drama that is real life. That authenticity of having been there, witnessing those moments whether harrowing or hallelujah, imbues the best songs with a larger force. For Michael Ray, who’d come of age playing central Florida’s icehouses, dive bars and honky tonks, when he heard “Spirits & Demons,” he knew he had something that melted down the tangle of how heartache makes you drink, booze makes you hurt and forgetting is the hardest thing to do.

“Sometimes you hear a song, and it hits you: that’s just how it is,” marvels the smoldering maverick. “You play enough bars beyond the city limits, you see it all go down. Really good people who get in their feelings, the way a good time or a way out becomes a bottomless pit. The more I listened, the more I thought it needed something else...”

That something else was a woman’s voice, both as a counterbalance and the echo of what was gone. Not quite a voice of reason, but certainly a measured reflection of how far gone, how deep the pain. Working with Dive Bars & Broken Hearts’ producer Michael Knox, they talked about and listened to many female vocalists, seeking a voice that was just the right amount of passion, fire and raw ache to match the song’s emotional charge.

“We went through so many thoughts and names; they were all great, but nobody felt quite right,” Ray now laughs. “And it’s funny, because the answer was right under my nose. I’ve been friends with Meghan for years, in the way you’ve got your ‘Hey, I’m off the road. Wanna grab a beer?’ friends when you’re home for two or three days.

“So many of us are out there weeks at a time, chasing the dream. When you’re always gone, those friends who get you and get the commitment it takes, where you pick up right where you left off? They’re gold. Meghan’s not only a friend and a great hang, no matter who’s around, she’s got a voice that can blister concrete – and a gift to reach right into a song and rip its heart out, put it in her throat and meet you line for line with some intense emotions.

“Not only do I have the woman, who like so many things on this record, is exactly what I heard in my mind, but I’ve got someone who’s actually one of my friends. To be able to sing with her, that’s awesome; and to see how people responded at The 5 Spot, when we’d never sung it in front of people, that tells me everyone else feels what she brings to this song, too.”

With Dive Bars & Broken Hearts available for pre-order, fans have been enjoying three songs already. A decided return to Ray’s harder country roots, Macon-born producer Knox upped the stakes in emotional engagement and how hard these songs hit. Already landing four #1s on the Country Airplay chart, Dive Bars & Broken Hearts reinforces a specific kind of country that comes from classic Hank Jr., Merle Haggard, Conway Twitty and an era of men of contrasts, both strong and sensitive, aware and tough.

After his sneak Dive Bars & Broken Hearts debut at The 5 Spot and his 71st appearance at the Grand Ole Opry, Ray and Patrick recaptured their magic at the Warner/Yeehaw Brewing Co. show to close out his CMA Fest. Now he’s back on the road, heading to Wildwood, NJ’s Barefoot Country Music Festival June 15 as direct support to Jon Pardi, People’s Natural Park in Johnston, PA June 16 and rejoining Pardi for WBCT’s Birthday Bash in Grand Rapids, MI June 17.

MICHAEL RAY DEBUTS "DIVE BARS & BROKEN HEARTS" TO FULL HOUSE

Intimate CMA Music Fest Kick-Off Event Shares Entire EP

6 Songs, 2 #1s and a Whole Lotta Fans at E. Nashville’s The 5 Spot

Photo Credit: Connor Vaughan Morrs

Over the last year, Michael Ray has been honing his craft, focusing his sound and going deeper and deeper into the kind of country music he was raised on in the heart of central Florida. Working with CMA Album of the Year-winning producer Michael Knox, the pair doubled down on a lean, working man’s country sound that pulled traces of Conway Twitty, Merle Haggard, Vern Gosdin, Hank Jr. and Alabama.

Thursday night, at East Nashville’s locals mostly The 5 Spot – where Lady Gaga famously kicked off her own Dive Bar Tour in support of her back-to-roots Joanne – the no frills songwriter treated his own fans to the first front-to-back performance of "Dive Bars & Broken Hearts". The six-song EP explores the phases of life, the emotions that define how we live, the reality of where we find ourselves for good times and bad.

“I had been wanting a way to play this to the people who’ve been part of my life and my career from the beginning,” says the dark-headed vocalist. “CMA Fest brings country music fans together from not just across North America, but all over the world. So many of my fans come every year, this seemed like the perfect way to debut all this music as a whole collected work without playing favorites and picking a city.”

Hunger for his new music was high. Tickets for the intimate rock bar show were gone in less than 18 hours; the fans started lining up before daybreak. With a line down the block and around the corner, spirits were high among those lucky enough to get tickets – and on Knox’s bus were the band, who’d been dropping a few songs into their set, would finally get to put it all together.

“Songs on a record are one thing,” Ray said. “But songs in a bar with real people are something else. Not until you get into that room and hear the people do you know. And growing up in Eustis, with my Grandpa working all day, coming home, getting dressed up and heading out to where the music was, I learned the power of that pretty young.”

With the teaser tracks “Workin’ On It” and “Get Her Back” drawing the strongest response, as the crowd sang along at full voice, even the unfamiliar songs seemed to hit home. From the opening “Dive Bars & Broken Hearts,” Ray drew the crowd into a world of short-circuiting neon, young bucks acting up in their trucks, heartaches that drive you to drink and the idea that beyond perfection is the happiness of trying to be a better person every single day.

"Dive Bars & Broken Hearts" is available for pre-order now. Three of the six tracks will be instantly available; June 23, the rest of the project will be completed. For fans of how real life creates great songs and reasons to hang on and get through it, Ray understands. With four chart-toppers of his own, he performed “Think A Little Less” and “Whiskey & Rain” as the cherry on top of the new music sundae. With stops at the Grand Old Opry June 9 and the Warner/Yee-Haw Brewing Co. show June 10, it’s all about getting the music into the hands of the ones who deserve it the most: the fans.