Joshua Ray Summey

So, not that many of you care but my Gamecocks are in the Final Four! I can’t tell you how exciting this is! We in the Summey/Case family are very stoked about the whole thing!

I know I haven’t had a new entry in a while… Learning to Father and all. 🙂

So a quick catch-up:

Lina is 14 months old tomorrow!! She looks like this:

She is baptized now 🙂 Her god parents are two of the finest human beings I have ever had the pleasure of knowing: Maria Rayas, and Edwin Chacon

Ryan Patrick & I have been perfecting our acoustic duo in Hazy Ray’s absence and it has become something special! If you are in New Orleans and you want to see, go here: Joshua Ray & Ryan Patrick: Acoustic Performances

Though we are going our separate ways this summer, we intend to do at least two acoustic tours a year until we get tired of each other!

Lust Story is still very much in production. There is a teaser for my little musical confessional under the music tab of this blog entitled “Just Good Sex”. Oliver Watkinson & Scott Graves have already gotten the fully produced “Consider Me Gone” on the way; Composer/Arranger/Vocalist/Hyphenation Extraordinaire, Michelle Rene Johnston-Richards 😉 will be applying her not-at-all-minuscule talents to this song. “Consider Me Gone” is the ballad I am most proud of writing to date, and nothing worth accomplishing should be done alone.

This Wednesday, Oliver & I will be getting together with the a prodigious Jeff Jani to see if he is a good fit or even interested in “The Door” in Scotty’s absence! It is a fast pased Latin-feeling rock chart in 3/4 that will require chops for days. I am excited, because let’s face it, I LOVE GREAT DRUMMERS!!

As always, nothing I do in the studio would possible without one amazing Mike Tristan

I was also allowed to help fill in for Grant at a Retrofit (Scott Graves, Oliver Watkinson, Christopher Dibenedetto, Grant Hudson) at Banks St Bar in Mid-City this past weekend! It was a good time!

On to less secular matters, the aforementioned Michelle has invited me in to her creative endeavors…FINALLY! This brilliant woman has put up with me for a year and change as I have tried to learn how to be a good useful tenor (the exact opposite of a lead singer) in her choir. In this pursuit, I have publicly and privately enjoyed the fruits of her lifetime of disciplined labor, and used it for my own selfish gains MUAHAHAHA (lead singer).

She has made me a better singer through her knowledge and acceptance. She has unknowingly made me a better guitar player just by allowing me to participate in a musical offering involving so many people. Finally, she has returned me to a level of attention to detail in my own compositions I have not seen for some time. (bands are the MOST fun, but they can make a writer lazy:)) She has done this simply by setting an example of diligence, and a straight-up-inability to settle, ever. It has brought the same traits in me from a recessive position to it’s previously unnervingly dominant state, for which I will be forever grateful.

As I get closer to being a full-fledged Catholic, I couldn’t help but feel more and more guilty about how I just take take take from this woman… Hmm, I wonder if those to things are related? Who knows? Anyways, she invited me into her creative world yesterday so I am overjoyed at the chance give a little something back. More to come on this later! 🙂

Not to make it pedestrian, but Linda is the most amazing wife/mother/teacher ever. When things are 100% consistent, they just seem boring in writing. I assure this last bit is the best part 😉

Be good to each other!

-Josh Ray