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Artist
Kenny 'Blue' Ray
12+ albums
blues rockguitarbluesrhythm and blues
about
Kenny Ray was born in Lodi, California on January 11, 1950. His interest in music was forged by his father, who plated guitar, harmonica, accordion, piano and fiddle. Seeing Elvis perform on the Ed Sullivan show in 1956 sealed Kenny's passion to play guitar. His father bought Kenny his first guitar in 1958 for $7.00, a Danelectro, who Kenny named "Stella." After paying his dues, his dad later bought Kenny his first real guitar, a 1959 black Danelectro for $38.50. This sowed the seed that was to grow and blossom into one of today's great blues virtuoso's, "Mr. Tone," Mr. Cool," aka Kenny Blue Ray. Kenny's obsession with the blues was triggered by the infamous Wolfman Jack, when as an eleven year old, Kenny would lie in bed listening as his older sister played the radio to the sounds of Jimmy Reed and Howlin' Wolf on XERB-FM, from Chula Vista, California, and was inspired by music that Kenny claims "just totally blew my mind." The hypnotic sounds that came out of the tiny speaker hooked Kenny on the Blues forever! He was mesmerized. Ever since that time, Kenny has practiced, honed and perfected his Blues and guitar skills. Kenny and his friends would skip school to learn Albert King's album, "Born Under A Bas Sign" and B.B. King's live album, "Blues Is King." They eventually became good enough to make their professional debut in 1965 at a high school dance. Serving in the Air Force from 1969-72, Kenny was based in London, England, where he hooked up with ex-JR Walker band m
