In Review, Kenny Blue Ray, "Pull the Strings"  by Phil Loarie June 28, 1999

My name is Phil Loarie, I am a student of the blues, albeit I have
been playing music for 40 years mostly in contemporary electronic
music circles. I have a deep appreciation for blues guitar and the people
in the business and my hats off to every working player out there.
Once in a great while a player of exceptional ability and accomplishment
stands out and deserves our support. The following is my effort to
this goal.

In the big picture of music there is only good music and bad music
at least that's what I learned from Satchmo. But wait a minute,
what makes great music? What is the difference of a Stradivarius
in the hands of Itzhak Pearlman vs any other first chair player
in the world? Who can make a violin sing like that? What is it?  It has
to be more than just a rare talent honed to perfection--that's just
mechanical though accurate. Great music demands if not mandates a passion
for expression with a will that won't quit. After all isn't great music about 
making notes come alive, grabbing you by the ears, never letting go while
taking you through a sonic landscape you have never experienced before?
I think I have found that mix of virtues in the music of blues guitarist,
Kenny Blue Ray.

I wanted to ask the man if he was born with shades. I wasn't kidding.
Finally the opportunity was knocking on my door or email window in my case.

"Of course" Kenny Blue Ray replied. I am not surprised that a God given talent
beaming like a lighthouse was also given the shades to handle the Blue Ray tone.
It's one thing to know the notes, the rhythm, and the touch to fit the groove
it's another to illuminate a groove with a wonderful and enchanting tone--Blue
Ray tone. You've probably read all the reviews of Kenny and his many appearances
and all those blues legends that Kenny has worked with on stage or in a studio.
Names like: Stevie Ray Vaughan, Albert Collins, Smokey Wilson, Charlie
Musselwhite, Little Charlie and the Nightcats, William Clarke, Tommy Castro,
and Big Mama Thornton.

Ok, I'm name dropping. Name dropping is one thing, riff popping,
lick sucking tone is another--I don't know anyone who can claim
all these things and stand balanced on a point of singularity like Kenny.
He has to be the black hole of blues, on spot and on time with a take
no prisoners attitude, his music will swallow you up and spit you out into
another dimension. You go where your ears have never gone before.

Blue Ray tone isn't about being loud to be heard, or shrill to cut through
the mix. This tone comes from the heart and soul. It takes a master's touch,
the best instruments tweaked to diamond clearity, and together Kenny can go
from the sweetness of a fresh apple cut right off the tree to a complex tasty
mix of overtones as if it were apple pie ala mode. Case in point on his cut
of "Listen to me Baby" you hear the sober sweetness of vintage Fender Tweed
tone (Ron Ott's replica of a tweed bandmaster, the King amp) meeting Van
Zandt's pickups on a Kenny homemade Tele, Kenny takes it up to heaven
and back--I think the angels are jealous. On "Nightmare in North Beach" you get
the softer edge of raspy when a '65 Super Reverb shakes hands with another
of Kenny's homemades with Van Zandt Blues pickups, this one is a Strat.

Kenny tells me, "I use my fingers and thumb where at all possible, which is
about 70% of the time." Folks that's as in no picks, it's like a true virtuoso
violinist playing pizzicato. Unlike a violinist, it sounds more like a
Debussy'ian harp being drawn with a bow, making it magic as in the 'how to get
sustain like that?' The spirit of this music runs from his soul, takes a swan
dive into his heart, then pours out his hands and fingers like a waterfall for
your ear to bathe in. People talk about Blues tone in a spectra of "clean" to
"dirty" which really doesn't do justice to what I hear in the Blue Ray tone
on "Pull the Strings". Instead, I hear a spectra going from glassy chimes to
a cello that thinks it's a saxophone on steroids--the sound that can transform
a neighborhood bar into the Cotton Club complete with the haunts of hoofers
like Mr. Bo Jangles.

In the last 5 years Kenny has released nine CDs of his music, each one has
received critical praise from the significant Blues media--not a bad word
on 9 CDs, in 5 years. Wow.

There are some incredible blues guitar masters out there that shed some 
unique colors and vibrant shades but if you wanna see a rainbow you need
to have the sunshine--let there be light, and let it be Blue Ray's.