Ray Bailey
OOP Album: Satan's Horn
1995
Label: Volcano
ASIN: B000008NKG

1. Back to the Movies
2. Bad Times, Sad Times
3. Did You?
4. Cold to the Bone
5. Miss Mean
6. Satan's Horn
7. You Sold Your Love
8. Saturday Night Special
9. Love Her With a Feeling

Here's yet another unknown but great artist lost in time. It's amazing that talented artists like Ray Bailey struggle to reach their deserved notoriety. Most likely, you've never heard of Ray Bailey but since my first listening I was blown away by the quality of the playing and singing. The quality of the lyrics is another story that I'll address in a moment.  This isn't some bar room hack that you'd find in any Texas Blues hall. I think most of those bar room players are technically good but they lack the hook. Ray's got both the technical capability and the right feel for the song. This album has feeling and emotion. Ray's voice and guitar playing are both at the top of the range, and all the other musicians involved in this recording are playing equally well. Real blues with no intents to show-off but played with passion.

Ray had something on this first (and only) release that guitar players sometimes work their whole lives for and never find: a completely unique sound. B.B. King has it. T Bone Walker had it - that quality that you can immediately spot the artist by the sound of his instrument. I have no idea what happened to Ray Bailey. Why didn't he succeed? There must be a sad story.  Well, I don't know the story but I have my suspicions. Ray's lyrics are pretty raunchy and it leaves little to the imagination. Here are some sample lyrics . . .

"One leg to the East, One leg to the West, And me in the middle doing my best".
"She blows all night on Satan's horn"
"I'm a 38 special, if she sqeezes my trigger, she'll shoot me off"

So my guess is that most record companies didn't want to be associated with vulgar blues - they had enough trouble getting the blues into the mainstrain. So along comes Ray, singing about women hiking up their skirts for him, and it probably just wasn't a good fit at the time.

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