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Ace guitarist, collaborator, and rock & roll solo artist
Brian Ray has amassed a wealth of high-profile credits throughout his multi-decade career which began in the mid-'70s as the musical director and guitarist for soul legend
Etta James. His years of touring, doing session work, and writing his own songs eventually led to his best-known role as guitarist and bassist for
Paul McCartney, a gig he took in the early 2000s and retained throughout the following decade.
Ray launched a solo career with a pair of tuneful power pop albums including 2010's
This Way Up, and later formed the garage rock band
the Bayonets, who released an album in 2014.
Growing up in Southern California,
Ray began playing guitar at the age of nine, inspired by the rock & roll albums in his older sister Jean's collection. Along with her husband Jim Glover, Jean Ray found success during the folk boom as the duo Jim & Jean, and has been cited by
Brian as being a great influence on him. By his late teens,
Ray had landed a steady gig playing guitar for Bobby Pickett of "Monster Mash" fame and through this gig came into the orbit of
Phil Kaufman, who in addition to his work as a producer had gained notoriety for stealing and burning the body of late country-rock musician
Gram Parsons in the California desert. As part of
Pickett's Crypt Kicker 5,
Ray played at a 1973 benefit show to help offset the legal debts
Kaufman had accrued for this deed and was soon taken under the producer's wing. Through
Kaufman,
Ray met soul singer
Etta James, who at the time was mounting a comeback. Throughout the remainder of the '70s and '80s,
Ray served as
James' guitarist and musical director, touring the world and sharing the stage with heavy hitters like
John Lee Hooker,
the Rolling Stones,
Van Morrison, and
Bo Diddley. In the late '80s he formed a songwriting partnership with
Steve LeGassick and the two landed a hit for
Smokey Robinson, writing the title cut for the Motown legend's 1987
One Heartbeat album. In the '90s,
Ray spent some time working in France with French-Canadian pop singer
Mylène Farmer and French rock legend
Johnny Hallyday.
The next major phase of
Ray's career began in 2002 when he heard that
Paul McCartney was looking for a new guitarist who could also handle the bass.
Ray had played some bass in the past and quickly brushed up on his skills. A one-song performance of
McCartney's "Freedom" at a Super Bowl pre-game event in New Orleans served as his induction to
the Beatles' live ensemble and he was promptly hired to join their
Driving Rain tour. Over the next decade,
Ray was a mainstay of
Sir Paul's team, appearing on live albums like Paul McCartney in Red Square (2005) and
Good Evening New York City (2009), as well as studio albums like
Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (2005) and
Memory Almost Full (2007). While the
McCartney gig served as his primary job, he also appeared on mainstream pop albums by
Shakira and
Kelly Clarkson.
After years of playing for others,
Ray made his own solo debut with 2005's
Mondo Magneto, a rousing power pop album which featured a guest spot from
Etta James on the bluesy "Soft Machine." He followed up in 2010 with another solo outing,
This Way Up. One of his collaborators on these albums was
Oliver Leiber, son of songwriting legend
Jerry Leiber. In 2011, the two formed a garage-driven power pop band called
the Bayonets and released their debut full-length,
Crash Boom Bang! in 2014. He remained active with
McCartney while also managing more creative pursuits, returning to solo work with the 2017 single "Here for You" b/w "Cinnamon Girl/Mr. Soul," followed in 2018 by a pair of collaborations with
Smokey Robinson. ~ Timothy Monger