Michael Ray, DIVE BARS & BROKEN HEARTS Arrives

THINGS MICHAEL RAY’S COUNTRY IS MADE OF
Dive Bars & Broken Hearts is Real Life in Six Tracks
Taking it from East Nashville’s The 5 Spot to 26,000 Fans on a Beach in One Week
“For Ray, It’s All About The Songs...” – The Tennessean

Sometimes you just follow your heart, even when you’re not sure where it’s taking you. For Michael Ray, who grew up going to – and playing at – the juke joints and hole in the walls of Central Florida with his father and grandfather, he didn’t realize he was going not just in a circle but coming full circle until he’d finished the tracking sessions for Dive Bars & Broken Hearts.
 
Six songs, recorded with multi-Platinum CMA Album of the Year producer Michael Knox, Dive Bars & Broken Hearts traces a boy coming into his own, chasing life and girls, getting his heart broken and learning to man up, carry on and evolve. Portraying coming of age for Ray – and so many young men (and women) just like him, it’s easy-going in places, moody and dark in others; it’s almost a love song to being willing to face life as it comes, know there’s solace in the jukebox and a better day if you’re willing to reach for it.
 
“Life is sometimes a lot simpler than we make it,” says the dark-headed vocalist. “And we have a lot more power to accept what doesn’t work and grow, or to create the best possible life than we realize... And that’s where some of the best country songs come from. For me, Dive Bars is about all that, without ever giving up or losing your sense of the right thing to do.”
 
Covered by a lot of media including American Songwriter, Apple Music, The Boot and PEOPLE, Tennessean critic Marcus K. Dowling summarized it best, writing, “For Ray, it’s all about the songs... Successfully navigating the honesty and precision required to age both gracefully and suddenly... his time inside of home and mind combined with the best of the genre’s decade long pop-aimed sounds and styles created appealing material.”
 
“I don’t know if it’s pop so much as ‘80s and ‘90s country,” he reflects, laughing, “which to me was pretty traditional. Keith Whitley, Merle Haggard, Hank Jr. – and yes, the Allman Brothers, ‘cause I am a Florida boy. Once Michael and I got started, I knew I wanted this music to sound like what country music had always been to me. Talking to the Tennessean, Marcus got it.”
 
Subtitled, “Talk of Willie, Waylon, wisdom and an ‘old-school country’ mentality highlight a conversation with the Florida-born multiple-time country chart-topper” pretty much says it. The profile cites Ray’s co-written “Don’t Give A Truck” for the way it “modernizes parents stoking their children’s wanderlust for frontier life by mentioning how his grandparents always warned his family members, ‘don't give a truck to a boy.’”
 
“There are pieces of me in all these songs,” Ray explains. “It’s how I grew up, what I learned, how I became a man... and how I was raised to always try every day to be a better man. But even more importantly, we didn’t shy away from having to man up and not just react, to recognize that you’re gonna make some mistakes along the way. More importantly, for me or anyone listening, there’s friendship and getting through even the tough stuff; you hear Meghan Patrick singing ‘Spirits & Demons’ with me, that’s everything life and country music is: temptation, melody, knowing better, getting tougher and being real.
 
“Setting this project up, we’ve been in some dive bars, the Grand Ole Opry, playing some really big festivals. All I know is everywhere we go, people are responding to these songs like they do ‘Whiskey and Rain’ and ‘Think a Little Less.’ When you can do that with new songs, that says something... But whether it’s just how good these songs feel, or the fact I’ve lived all of them and a lot of other people have been in the same situations, the live crowds feel like they know what I’m singing about!”
 
Recorded largely live with key road players from Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney and Jason Aldean, Dive Bars & Broken Hearts is here. Grab a cold one – and listen.
 
About Michael Ray
Forged on the small stages of Florida’s rural communities, Michael Ray has created an impressive foundation. Four No. 1 songs – RIAA Platinum-certified “Think a Little Less,” RIAA Platinum-certified “Whiskey And Rain,” RIAA Gold-certified “Kiss You in the Morning,” RIAA Gold-certified “One That Got Away” – with over 1 billion global streams, over 650,000 album equivalents and over 150 million YouTube views, he is a true country star who’s performed at the Grand Ole Opry more than 70 times. Looking to expand his sound, Ray sought out CMA Album of the Year Award-winning producer Michael Knox. The pair have taken his brand of country to a new level for Dive Bars & Broken Hearts, Ray’s six-song EP arriving June 23 via Warner Music Nashville. Currently on the road headlining shows through the summer, he’s taking his music where it matters: to the people. For more information, visit MichaelRayMusic.com or follow him on Instagram and Twitter @MichaelRayMusic and
Facebook.com/MusicMichaelRay.

Michael Ray's Spirits & Demons Include Meghan Patrick

MICHAEL RAY WRESTLES “SPIRITS & DEMONS” –
 Duet with 2x Canadian Country Music Female Meghan Patrick
Unleashes a Tempest in a Power Ballad

Photo Credit: Connor Morss

Country music has always been about harnessing the drama that is real life. That authenticity of having been there, witnessing those moments whether harrowing or hallelujah, imbues the best songs with a larger force. For Michael Ray, who’d come of age playing central Florida’s icehouses, dive bars and honky tonks, when he heard “Spirits & Demons,” he knew he had something that melted down the tangle of how heartache makes you drink, booze makes you hurt and forgetting is the hardest thing to do.
 
“Sometimes you hear a song, and it hits you: that’s just how it is,” marvels the smoldering maverick. “You play enough bars beyond the city limits, you see it all go down. Really good people who get in their feelings, the way a good time or a way out becomes a bottomless pit. The more I listened, the more I thought it needed something else...”
 
That something else was a woman’s voice, both as a counterbalance and the echo of what was gone. Not quite a voice of reason, but certainly a measured reflection of how far gone, how deep the pain. Working with Dive Bars & Broken Hearts’ producer Michael Knox, they talked about and listened to many female vocalists, seeking a voice that was just the right amount of passion, fire and raw ache to match the song’s emotional charge.
 
“We went through so many thoughts and names; they were all great, but nobody felt quite right,” Ray now laughs. “And it’s funny, because the answer was right under my nose. I’ve been friends with Meghan for years, in the way you’ve got your ‘Hey, I’m off the road. Wanna grab a beer?’ friends when you’re home for two or three days.
 
“So many of us are out there weeks at a time, chasing the dream. When you’re always gone, those friends who get you and get the commitment it takes, where you pick up right where you left off? They’re gold. Meghan’s not only a friend and a great hang, no matter who’s around, she’s got a voice that can blister concrete – and a gift to reach right into a song and rip its heart out, put it in her throat and meet you line for line with some intense emotions.
 
“Not only do I have the woman, who like so many things on this record, is exactly what I heard in my mind, but I’ve got someone who’s actually one of my friends. To be able to sing with her, that’s awesome; and to see how people responded at The 5 Spot, when we’d never sung it in front of people, that tells me everyone else feels what she brings to this song, too.”
 
With Dive Bars & Broken Hearts available for pre-order, fans have been enjoying three songs already. A decided return to Ray’s harder country roots, Macon-born producer Knox upped the stakes in emotional engagement and how hard these songs hit. Already landing four #1s on the Country Airplay chart, Dive Bars & Broken Hearts reinforces a specific kind of country that comes from classic Hank Jr., Merle Haggard, Conway Twitty and an era of men of contrasts, both strong and sensitive, aware and tough.
 
After his sneak Dive Bars & Broken Hearts debut at The 5 Spot and his 71st appearance at the Grand Ole Opry, Ray and Patrick recaptured their magic at the Warner/Yeehaw Brewing Co. show to close out his CMA Fest. Now he’s back on the road, heading to Wildwood, NJ’s Barefoot Country Music Festival June 15 as direct support to Jon Pardi, People’s Natural Park in Johnston, PA June 16 and rejoining Pardi for WBCT’s Birthday Bash in Grand Rapids, MI June 17.

Michael Ray's 5 Spot Surprise: DIVE BARS + BROKEN HEARTS Debuted for Full House

MICHAEL RAY DEBUTS DIVE BARS & BROKEN HEARTS –
 Intimate CMA Music Fest Kick-Off Event Shares Entire EP
6 Songs, 2 #1s and a Whole Lotta Fans at E. Nashville’s The 5 Spot

Photo Credit: Connor Vaughan Morrs

Over the last year, Michael Ray has been honing his craft, focusing his sound and going deeper and deeper into the kind of country music he was raised on in the heart of central Florida. Working with CMA Album of the Year-winning producer Michael Knox, the pair doubled down on a lean, working man’s country sound that pulled traces of Conway Twitty, Merle Haggard, Vern Gosdin, Hank Jr. and Alabama.
 
Thursday night, at East Nashville’s locals mostly The 5 Spot – where Lady Gaga famously kicked off her own Dive Bar Tour in support of her back-to-roots Joanne – the no frills songwriter treated his own fans to the first front-to-back performance of Dive Bars & Broken Hearts. The six-song EP explores the phases of life, the emotions that define how we live, the reality of where we find ourselves for good times and bad.
 
“I had been wanting a way to play this to the people who’ve been part of my life and my career from the beginning,” says the dark-headed vocalist. “CMA Fest brings country music fans together from not just across North America, but all over the world. So many of my fans come every year, this seemed like the perfect way to debut all this music as a whole collected work without playing favorites and picking a city.”
 
Hunger for his new music was high. Tickets for the intimate rock bar show were gone in less than 18 hours; the fans started lining up before daybreak. With a line down the block and around the corner, spirits were high among those lucky enough to get tickets – and on Knox’s bus were the band, who’d been dropping a few songs into their set, would finally get to put it all together.
 
“Songs on a record are one thing,” Ray said. “But songs in a bar with real people are something else. Not until you get into that room and hear the people do you know. And growing up in Eustis, with my Grandpa working all day, coming home, getting dressed up and heading out to where the music was, I learned the power of that pretty young.”
 
With the teaser tracks “Workin’ On It” and “Get Her Back” drawing the strongest response, as the crowd sang along at full voice, even the unfamiliar songs seemed to hit home. From the opening “Dive Bars & Broken Hearts,” Ray drew the crowd into a world of short-circuiting neon, young bucks acting up in their trucks, heartaches that drive you to drink and the idea that beyond perfection is the happiness of trying to be a better person every single day.
 
Dive Bars & Broken Hearts is available for pre-order now. Three of the six tracks will be instantly available; June 23, the rest of the project will be completed. For fans of how real life creates great songs and reasons to hang on and get through it, Ray understands. With four chart-toppers of his own, he performed “Think A Little Less” and “Whiskey & Rain” as the cherry on top of the new music sundae. With stops at the Grand Old Opry June 9 and the Warner/Yee-Haw Brewing Co. show June 10, it’s all about getting the music into the hands of the ones who deserve it the most: the fans.

Final Taste of Michael Ray's DIVE BARS & BROKEN HEARTS Hits Home

MICHAEL RAY DROPS ANOTHER TASTE –  
 Title Track of Dive Bars & Broken Hearts Hits Midnight 6/9
EP That’s Been a Lifetime in the Making Arrives 6/23

It’s been a long time coming for Michael Ray, who’s always let his music do the talking. With four #1s – including his Platinum certified “Whiskey and Rain” and Platinum “Think A Little Less” – before the pandemic shut the world down, the smoky-voiced purveyor of country songs had plenty of time to think about what he wanted his music to stand for.
 
Coming into CMA Fest, he decided to drop one last taste of his June 23rd Dive Bars & Broken Hearts for all the country music lovers pouring into Nashville to celebrate the best of what life siphoned into songs represents. “Dive Bars & Broken Hearts,” the third and final track released from the Michael Knox-produced EP, could be a master’s thesis on all the things that define country music.
 
“When you were raised on ‘80s and ‘90s country, and even older stuff, some things just are,” says Eustis, Florida’s favorite son. “The way the acoustic guitar comes up out of the mix, the smell of cigarette smoke, pawn shop diamond rings, Haggard’s ‘Misery & Gin’...All those things and a beat you can dance to is a big piece of playing for tips.
 
“Knowing that, when I was trying to decide what to call this project, I wanted something that stripped it back to the frame. Dive Bars & Broken Hearts is me getting to the sound I’ve always heard in my head, something that’s played on a jukebox or a bandstand in a bar somewhere just outside of town.”
 
With a wide-open arrangement, the shimmering, back’n’forth midtempo measures the way some things go together in spite of themselves. As Ray sings, “I’m just a Jones’ song and you’re my steel guitar/ We’ll dance on forever to that broken record...” before waking up alone, it’s a witness to the way bars bring people together again and again, even if they’re gonna fall apart.
 
“Dive Bars & Broken Hearts” comes with a video from Cypress Hill/Good Charlotte director Spidey Smith, who picks up where the life-embracing “Workin’ On It” left off. But instead of it being a party, Smith catches Ray at Nashville’s original losers lounge: Springwater. While there are the usual suspects – grizzled bar denizens, a girls’ group, a couple of a certain age – “Dive Bars” focuses on Ray in his native habitat. Playing the unadorned postage stamp of a stage, sitting on a bar stool, talking to the barkeep, there’s a spark, but the focus remains how he inhabits the song and delivers a knowing excavation of the emotions that are country’s bedrock.
 
“I really wanted to pull the reality and the music together,” Ray says of the clip. “I want people to understand where I come from, how I got there, why I love watching country music come to life from all those bandstands I was on growing up... And I wanted people to realize all those things I sing about aren’t just things on a checklist, but stuff I have grown up around.”
 
With CMA Fest fixing to happen, Ray’s going to do his part. Not only will he be doing a series of radio remotes, look for him making his 71st appearance at the Grand Ole Opry on June 9 and at the Warner/Yeehaw Brewing Co. show on June 10 at 6:15p.m. “I love all things that throwback to my heroes, Conway, Haggard, Jones. Being part of music fest is keeping their traditions alive, which is what Dive Bars & Broken Hearts is all about.”
 
About Michael Ray
Forged on the small stages of Florida’s rural communities, Michael Ray has created an impressive foundation. Four No. 1 songs – RIAA Platinum-certified “Think a Little Less,” RIAA Platinum-certified “Whiskey And Rain,” RIAA Gold-certified “Kiss You in the Morning,” RIAA Gold-certified “One That Got Away” -- with over 1 billion global streams, over 650,000 album equivalents, and over 150 million YouTube views, he is a true country star who’s performed at the Grand Ole Opry more than 65 times. Looking to expand his sound, Ray sought out CMA Album of the Year Award-winning producer Michael Knox. The pair have taken his brand of country to a new level for Dive Bars & Broken Hearts, Ray’s six song EP arriving June 23 via Warner Music Nashville. Currently on the road headlining shows through the summer, he’s taking his music where it matters: to the people. For more information, visit MichaelRayMusic.com or follow him on Instagram and Twitter @MichaelRayMusic and
Facebook.com/MusicMichaelRay.

Truth & Misdirection: Michael Ray Video Sets The Record Straight

When Michael Ray delivered “Get Her Back,” a track from his upcoming Dive Bars & Broken Hearts, he knew he had a song that leaned into the difference between how people feel and how they act. Recognizing that life sometimes stings, the dark-haired traditionalist from the heart of Central Florida also knows that most people don’t have to act on their impulses.
 
With a line that sidesteps acting out or trafficking in bitter gossip – “I wasn’t raised like that” – the terse power midtempo reflects on how things go wrong and what happens in the aftermath. It’s an exercise in self-awareness and a vocal performance that works a triple entendre from recognition to reflex to rejecting the obvious response. It’s also a masterwork in country music’s ability to misdirect the obvious not just once – clamoring to get the girl back turning into craving retribution – but twice – that desire to strike back cooling to the reality the last thing the singer wants is the person who’s done them wrong.
 
“I was raised on country songs that turn what you think on its head,” Ray explains. “You think you know what the song’s all about, then you hear the hook – and it’s something completely else. That’s what the greats like Haggard, Cash or Conway were all about. So, when I heard this, the way it flipped the script twice, I knew I had to cut ‘Get Her Back.’ The way it’s written is so tight, and then what Michael Knox did in the studio? The track is so sexy, he really intensifies that sense of what’s going on here...
 
“And it made me wonder, how could we do a video that has that same kind of ‘think it’s one thing, but it’s actually something else’ kind of appeal? It wouldn’t be easy.”

Enter Spidey Smith, the photographer and director who’s worked with a litany of today’s most barrier pushing stars across genres from Eminem to Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Good Charlotte to Cypress Hill to Duran Duran. With a dark, saturated palette and a set of detectives with flashlights, the director behind Ray’s backwater brimstone and business “Holy Water” conjures a storyline that appears one way but is distinctly another.
 
And at the center of it all, Ray delivers the truth of his song to a wizened, heard-it-all cop in a bare-bones debriefing room with the video running and an observation window that provides a second perspective. Balancing footage of what was and what’s unknown, the ponytailed interrogator leans into the potential suspect’s narrative, weighing his truth as he hands over black and white pictures from the scene of the crime.
 
Beyond the moments of the former couple’s life together, there are the unknown to both men scenes of the woman with her friends, with her dog, with her phone fraught and incessantly yelling into a voice mail of someone who’s not picking up. It is there that the crux of the video unfolds. As the woman stumbles, Ray is loading a truck with firewood unaware of all that is happening elsewhere – and when he returns the call, there is... no answer.
 
“Leave it to Spidey to find the edge and the mystery,” Ray says with a laugh. “He understands that place where you want to snap, but then you settle down and you just move on. To be able to find a way of showing how far you can stand from the fire – and still get burned, how you can do the right thing, which sometimes is nothing, and just keep moving? It’s a tough line to walk, but he did. And for everyone who’s ever been in a position of not wanting to look back, well, this clip’s for you.”
 
About Michael Ray
Forged on the small stages of Florida’s rural communities, Michael Ray has created an impressive foundation. Four No. 1 songs – RIAA Platinum-certified “Think a Little Less,” RIAA Platinum-certified “Whiskey And Rain,” RIAA Gold-certified “Kiss You in the Morning,” RIAA Gold-certified “One That Got Away” -- with over 1 billion global streams, over 650,000 album equivalents, and over 150 million YouTube views, he is a true country star who’s performed at the Grand Ole Opry more than 65 times. Looking to expand his sound, Ray sought out CMA Album of the Year Award-winning producer Michael Knox. The pair have taken his brand of country to a new level for Dive Bars & Broken Hearts, Ray’s six song EP arriving June 23 via Warner Music Nashville. Currently on the road headlining shows through the summer, he’s taking his music where it matters: to the people. For more information, visit MichaelRayMusic.com or follow him on Instagram and Twitter @MichaelRayMusic and
Facebook.com/MusicMichaelRay.

Michael Ray Road Hones DIVE BARS & BROKEN HEARTS

Eustis, FL country singer Michael Ray grew up in the Sunshine State’s many dive bars, juke joints, honky tonks and the storied Sunshine Opry. For him, country music was the thing where people drinking after a long day, a tough break-up, a big win or just the need to get out of the house found their music mingled with neon, cigarette smoke, cold beer and enough heartache and high octane to siphon off whatever might be on your heart.
 
Coming from a family of working-class folks who know the meaning of “40 and OT,” there’s no faking how Ray gets his country on. After spending a few years as a teenager going to school, playing bars and splitting cable, he decided to chase a crazy dream to Nashville. The result was four No. 1s, including his most recent platinum, two-week chart-topper “Whiskey And Rain,” as well as a reputation as one of those artists who can hold down any stage, anywhere.
 
“There’s nowhere I’m more alive than playing to a roomful of people,” Ray explains. “To me, that’s where country music comes to life. I love being in the studio, putting a song into just the right instruments and frame. But if you want to really understand how a song works, go play it somewhere big enough to get loud, but small enough to feel the people.”
 
Having teamed with fellow force of Southern rock meets country Macon, Georgia’s Michael Knox, the pair have been bulking up Ray’s beer joint roots and streamlining his classic country song sense for what is becoming one of the most anticipated pieces of new music this spring Dives Bars & Broken Hearts. Culled from the way life puts you in places you never knew you were going to go, the six song EP creates a sense of how it feels to be a man, hold your own space and make your own way.
 
“When the songs are this strong, you know you’ve got something,” says the dark-headed musician with a laugh. “And when you were practically born playing this kind of music with your family, literally grew up in the bars and little roadside theaters, you can’t help yourself. It’s like a fast car, you wanna take it out and see how it handles. You know, playing new music in these kinds of places ain’t for the faint of heart; but when you’re not afraid, you bring songs this good, it’s amazing what happens.”
 
Under the radar, beyond the city limits, Ray has been playing several songs that are part of Dive Bars & Broken Hearts for the last few months. Currently dropping anywhere from three-to-five new songs into his set, he’s been amazed by the fan response to showcasing what has always been the sound in his mind.
 
Having enlisted the man behind 28 No. 1s, 50 million singles and 25 million albums sold, Ray drew on the best of what Knox brought out in 3x Academy of Country Music Entertainer of the Year Jason Aldean, Hank Williams, Jr., Montgomery Gentry and Thomas Rhett. Knox understands the potency of making music for people who work hard, who hit the bars and forget what’s bothering them with straight up country on the jukebox or the bandstand.
 
“When you came up punching it out in bars, there’s a different kind of energy. Michael let me record with live players, sing about things I knew – and trusted that who I am is who all the people I’ve been playing for since I was a kid are, too. We kept finding songs that felt right for who I am, and we kept singing live and pulling the heart out of the songs. It’s been an amazing process. When we’ve been playing, you can feel the difference with the new stuff... so we’re now using the road to really dial in what Dive Bars & Broken Hearts is gonna be.”

Photo Credit : Connor Morss

Michael Ray 2023 Tour Dates

April 13           Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial                   Athens, OH
                         Auditorium    
April 14           Del Lago Resort & Casino – The Vine                      Waterloo, NY
April 16           Moo & Brew Festival                                                 Charlotte, NC
April 20           Cherokee Hotel & Casino West Siloam Springs        West Siloam Springs, OK
April 21           Haute Spot                                                                  Cedar Park, TX
April 22           The JL Bar Ranch, Resort & Spa                               Sonora, TX
April 25           Propst Arena at the Von Braun Center                      Huntsville, AL
April 26           Temecula Stampede                                                   Temecula, CA
April 27           Stoney’s Rockin Country                                           Las Vegas, NV
April 28           Clovis Rodeo                                                             Clovis, CA
April 30           Rolling Hills Casino & Resort*                                  Corning, CA
May 6              Key West Songwriters Festival                                  Key West, FL
May 19            Grizzly Rose                                                               Denver, CO
May 20            365 Sports Complex                                                   Inman, KS
May 26            Waterside Music Series*                                            Solomons, MD
June 1              Moonshine Beach                                                       San Diego, CA
June 3              San Bernadino County Fairgrounds                           Victorville, CA
June 4              Morongo Casino Resort and Spa                                Cabazon, CA
June 15            Barefoot Country Music Fest                                     Wildwood, NJ
June 17            B-93.7 Birthday Bash                                                 Comstock Park, MI
June 23            WYRK Toyota Taste of Country                               Buffalo, NY
June 24            Catskill Point                                                              Greendale, NY
June 30            Lazy Gators                                                                Lake Ozark, MO
July 1              Baldwin Golf Course                                                  Baldwin City, KS
July 15            Willow Tree Vineyard – Summer Sounds                 Ham Lake, MN
Aug. 9             Greene County Fair                                                    Waynesburg, PA
Aug. 26           Country In The Burg                                                  Cedarburg, WI
 
*with Dustin Lynch
 
About Michael Ray
Forged on the small stages of Florida’s rural communities, Michael Ray has created  an impressive foundation. Four No. 1 songs – RIAA Platinum-certified “Think a Little Less,” RIAA Platinum-certified “Whiskey And Rain,” RIAA Gold-certified “Kiss You in the Morning,” RIAA Gold-certified “One That Got Away” -- with over 1 billion global streams, over 650,000 album equivalents, and over 150 million YouTube views, he is a true country star who’s performed at the Grand Ole Opry more than 65 times. Looking to expand his sound, Ray sought out CMA Album of the Year Award-winning producer Michael Knox. The pair have taken his brand of country to a new level for Dive Bars & Broken Hearts, Ray’s six song EP arriving June 23 via Warner Music Nashville. Currently on the road headlining shows through the summer, he’s taking his music where it matters: to the people. For more information, visit MichaelRayMusic.com or follow him on Instagram and Twitter @MichaelRayMusic and
Facebook.com/MusicMichaelRay.

DIVE BARS & BROKEN HEARTS: Michael Ray + Michael Knox Finishing Up Anticipated EP

“I took some time to really think about what I wanted,” says Michael Ray, who’s spent the last year balancing road shows and songwriting appointments. “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.”
 
Enter the Macon, Georgia-born groundbreaking producer, responsible for 28 #1s, 50 million singles and 25 million albums sold. Known for his work with 3x Academy of Country Music Entertainer of the Year Jason Aldean, as well as Hank Williams, Jr., Montgomery Gentry and Thomas Rhett, Knox understands the potency of making music for people who work hard, who hit the bars and forget what’s bothering them with straight up country on the jukebox or the bandstand.
 
“The more we talked, the more I knew he understood where I came from,” Ray says. “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 playin’ in.
 
“That’s a whole different way to do this, and Michael got it. Just like he knows how dive bars and broken hearts are a lot like George Jones songs and steel guitars – they go together.”
 
To mine that ‘80s/’90s edge that had captured Ray’s ear growing up in the rural part of the Sunshine State, Knox brought in the crème de la crème of live players. A large number of Aldean’s touring band, Tim McGraw’s lead guitarist Adam Shoenfeld and Kenny Chesney guitarist/utility player Danny Raider made up the core tracking band. The focus of the tracks was to capture the moment and the performance, looking towards the energy and chemistry on the takes.

Michael Ray in the studio finishing Dive Bars & Broken Hearts, set for release June 23 via Warner Music Nashville. | Photo Credit: Conner Morss

Ray sang with the tracking band on the several songs, allowing their playing to mold to his interpretations of the songs that will become Dive Bars & Broken Hearts, which draws on the phases of how people grow up, fall in love, fall apart, figure stuff out and move on. Evoking many of his favorite vocalists – from Earl Thomas Conley to Ronnie Milsap, Haggard, Jones and Alabama’s Randy Owen – there’s joy, gravitas, failure, regret, adult moments and yes, even some good times.
 
“Good ole boys grow up to be pretty good men,” Ray says. “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.”

About Michael Ray
Forged on the small stages of Florida’s rural communities, Michael Ray has createde an impressive foundation. Four No. 1 songs – RIAA Platinum-certified “Think a Little Less,” RIAA Platinum-certified “Whiskey And Rain,” RIAA Gold-certified “Kiss You in the Morning,” RIAA Gold-certified “One That Got Away” -- with over 1 billion global streams, over 650,000 album equivalents, and over 150 million YouTube views, he is a true country star who’s performed at the Grand Ole Opry more than 65 times. Looking to expand his sound, Ray sought out CMA Album of the Year Award-winning producer Michael Knox. The pair have taken his brand of country to a new level for Dive Bars & Broken Hearts, Ray’s six song EP arriving June 23 via Warner Music Nashville. Currently on the road headlining shows through the summer, he’s taking his music where it matters: to the people. For more information, visit MichaelRayMusic.com or follow him on Instagram and Twitter @MichaelRayMusic and Facebook.com/MusicMichaelRay.