Boo Ray Shares "A Tune You Can Whistle"

Boo Ray. Photo by Price Harrison.

November 15, 2018 -- Nashville outlaw country rocker Boo Ray has announced a February 15th release for his latest LP Tennessee Alabama Fireworks, and has shared the lead single "A Tune You Can Whistle" at Wide Open Country. The outlet praised Ray's return to the fold succinctly, saying "Boo Ray is back with a bang." 
 
Black mirrors and social feeds have damaged our ability to connect on a deeply meaningful level. Outlaw guitar-slinger Boo Ray delves deeply into the dire state of communication in the modern world with his new record, Tennessee Alabama Fireworks. The album, in his own words, explores the “nitty-gritty, guts and ugly parts of the human experience.” These songs creep into the brain with his most poignant lyrics to-date. Ray is every bit a hard-boiled poet as many of the pioneers that came before him, from the likes of Jerry Reed to Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. 
 
Ray fervently draws upon the difficulties and hurdles that make the world such a treacherous environment. Carrying over some of the same subject matter as 2016’s Sea of Lights, Ray dives headfirst into even more vulnerable territory as he wrangles themes of heartache, reopened wounds, and swallowing his pride. With “A Tune You Can Whistle,” a raucous honky-tonk boogie that is as shiny as it is melancholic, he laments about “one nation under the influence” of computer screens that have cast our humanity into a shroud of anxiety and detachment.

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“She Wrote the Song” feels just as heavy and downcast. Ray’s voice is always choked full of gravel, but carries with it a richness encased in warmth and wisdom attained over the course of his life and career. Ray’s road song “Don’t Look Back” plays to the contrast of his dog-tired exterior and his love of life on the highway. He conjures imagery of speeding down the ragtop in his Cadillac, vowing to leave the past and its troubles buried beneath layers of dust and burnt rubber.
 
Tennessee Alabama Fireworks was tracked live to tape over five days at Nashville’s Welcome to 1979 Studio, which has recently seen the likes of Rodney Crowell, Steve Earle, Jason Isbell and many more capturing their sounds within. “Those sessions were super special,” says Ray. Producer Noah Shain, whose pedigree includes work with fellow outlaws Nikki Lane, Nico Vega, Dead Sara and Badflower, among countless others, frames Ray’s storytelling in vibrant, aptly-stenciled soundscapes that hit right at the heart without pulling any punches.
 
Ray grew up in the mountains a few hours west of Asheville, North Carolina, and began songwriting when he was twelve years old. A flat pickin’ folk artist handed him a Martin guitar with heavy gauge strings at fourteen, but he passed on the opportunity, as he wanted to strengthen his craft a bit more. When his dexterity developed over the next few years, he came across a Fender Stratocaster guitar and locked himself in a room for 90 days. He reemerged more self-possessed and started his first band, a full-time southern power trio of countrified rock’ n’ roll akin to Delbert McClinton, Tom Petty, and Jim Lauderdale.
 
In the coming years, Ray wandered from Athens, Georgia, out to Los Angeles, where he spent three years cutting his teeth before he was picked up by a bondsman and hauled back down south. Feeling stranded and downtrodden, he slapped together ten of his best tracks at the time -- with the help of Steve Ferrone, Noah Shain and Paul Ill -- and pressed his 2010 album Bad News Travels Fast out of a halfway house. That record was cobbled together from half-finished sessions across the country and serves as a testament to his abilities as much as his determination.
 
Having learned what a one sheet was, he shipped out around 100 promos stuffed with CDs and Moon Pies--his way of making sure nothing got lost in a stack of other mailers. Initially, he didn’t see much of a return until Dallas station KFAN 107.9 took a leap of faith on Ray. Two weeks after sending out his promo, Ray called her up to ask about how much she enjoyed the Moon Pie -- without a word uttered about the music. As a result of Ray’s amazing songs and his tireless work ethic, his record would stay in the Top 100 of the Americana Chart and the Top 50 of the Roots Music Report for an entire year.
 
Six Weeks in a Motel would follow in 2012, his first self-proclaimed “Nashville record.” Through the years since his first album, he has made conscious efforts to re-record standout tracks to give them a fair shake -- production-wise-- with more grit and punch, including “Bad News Travels Fast” and “Six Weeks in a Motel.”

In addition to his music, Ray spends much of his free time making guitar straps, a hobby he first nurtured in 2006. “I grew up with a hole punch in my hand and fixing livestock tack my whole life,” he says. During a visit to LA’s SAV-MOR Leather in the garment district, he soon realized he already possessed the skills necessary to make similar double-sided rivet leather work. “I started building ‘cause I couldn’t afford to buy it.” His customers have included Johnny Knoxville, Juliette Lewis, Billy Gibbons, and countless other household names. 
 
Upon returning from tour earlier this year, Ray went straight into the studio to lay down his next record. His creativity hit on all cylinders, and Tennessee Alabama Fireworks was born out of an unquenchable ache to address the grim reality of today’s world and its people, who are forever fated to catastrophic and constantly-disconnected relationships. The album shifts between joyous optimism (“Don’t Look Back”) and unwavering gloom (“Outrun the Wind”) that can only come from living life and learning to navigate dark waters. Even considering such hard, inescapable truths, Ray eyes a future full of promise and replenished intimacy with craftsmanship that is built to last. 
 
Boo Ray has been an official endorser of Olathe Boots since 2010 and has a new shirt line coming soon with Western Ranchwear H BAR C.