New music is coming from Michael Ray! The Florida native is putting the finishing touches on his forthcoming Dive Bars & Broken Hearts EP, scheduled to be released on June 23. The project marks the first time Ray is working with producer Michael Knox, best known for the country-meets-rock sound of Jason Aldean.
“I took some time to really think about what I wanted,” Ray says of the project. “When you strip it all back, think about what really matters to you, you cut away a whole lot of reasons that should never drive your music. I’m a kid from central Florida, raised singing at the Sunshine Opry, playing Froggers, turning it up when Jones, Hank Jr. and later Montgomery Gentry hit the dial. I like the ones who hit their country straight up and hard. I knew one guy who makes that kind of country: Michael Knox.”
As soon as Ray started discussing the project with Knox, he knew that the famed producer was the person to bring the songs on Dive Bars & Broken Hearts to life.
“The more we talked, the more I knew he understood where I came from,” Ray explains. “My kind of country doesn’t come from TikTok or a TV show. It’s all those straight-up country singers who knew life doesn’t always turn out like you think, but you keep going. I’m from a family of EMTs, cable-splicers, first responders; they had to get up and go to work, no matter what was happening… and when they got home, they reached for the music, whether they were going out with my grandpa Amos to watch him play, or some band they were playing in.
“That’s a whole different way to do this, and Michael got it,” he adds. “Just like he knows how dive bars and broken hearts are a lot like George Jones songs and steel guitars – they go together.”
In fact, Ray further relied on his musical influences in the studio, using several members of Aldean’s touring band, plus Tim McGraw’s lead guitarist Adam Shoenfeld and Kenny Chesney guitarist/utility player Danny Raider in the studio.
“Good ole boys grow up to be pretty good men,” Ray reflects. “Taking time to really think about what I wanted to say, writing some and listening to a whole lot of songs, I realized: people aren’t singing about what happens when you go from wild-eyed kid to anything other than a settled down husband and young father. So, this is country for the rest of us, for kids who only really listened to country music, who know their Gilley from their Conlee or their Conley… and we’re out there! I can’t wait to get some of this out there for people who love this kind of straight-up country.”
Ray released his Higher Education EP in 2021, which included his multi-week, No. 1 hit, “Whiskey and Rain,” as well as his latest single, “Holy Water.” Since then, the 34-year-old has been working on Dive Bars & Broken Hearts, making the record he has always wanted to make.
“This whole process has been exactly how I’ve always wanted to cut a record, being able to really dive into some stuff that I feel like people have been waiting for me to put out for a few years,” Ray told Everything Nash. “And, touch on some subjects I touched on, but also have some influences of what I grew up with. You’re gonna hear a lot of Allman Brothers, a lot of Skynyrd, and a lot of traditional country music mixed with ’90s country music.
“We just took a lot of different eras that I was influenced by and put them together,” he adds. “It’s by far the most excited I’ve been about putting a record out.”
Find all of Ray’s music and upcoming showsat MichaelRayMusic.com.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of EB Media / Conner Morss
