Houston National Forest. Being home is where he collects his thoughts, grabs on to some more of that regional way of life and just like an unspoken muse siting next to him on his front porch the art takes shape. A prime example is one of Ray’s songs “Lafayette” which captures the down home atmosphere that resides within the community. His vivid descriptions make it easy to envision the lifestyle as he presents the lyrics in an upbeat tempo with the proper emphasis in place. Moving beyond Lafayette, Southeastern Texas and Southwestern Louisiana still to this day have blues jukes. There’s nothing like them anywhere else in the world. Folks still have barbecues, smoke meat, make a batch of gumbo and have a ball. Great folks, great food, great music and Ray captures the essence of the gulf coast in his songs. Ray Cashman tours England, Ireland, Holland, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Hungary and in the USA he performs starting in the gulf coast region all the way to and including Canada. Take a listen and hear the music of Ray Cashman. To learn more about Ray and his music visit: www.raycashman.net
The Real Deal - Ray Cushman Some folks play the blues while some write about it and present it as their own because it is. A blues man from Montgomery, Texas named Ray Cashman is the later. This guy is the real deal. His songs are on the radio around the world, and his European show date list alone would be the envy of anybody looking to expand internationally. Yet the man who had moved away to Austin and then on to Nashville returned to his roots in Southeastern Texas. The music down his way is referred to as Gulf Coast Gumbo, as it is made up of multiple regional influences both current and from the past. As a young man Ray felt these influences and sought out down home mentors. His youthful odyssey led him to the heart of the Gulf Coast sound and as they say the man is a natural and they accepted him and taught him well. What’s cool about Ray is that his music does not pull any punches. He writes and presents his message on topics such as a woman that stays stoned all day long “Reefer Headed Woman”, while his subdued “Moon Over Orleans” was made into a moving story telling video produced by Relaxing Blues. Ray’s new album just came out and it’s beginning to hit the airwaves right now, Palmetto and Pine. It’s jam packed with eleven tracks
and the man’s regional influences are all over this baby. By the way this is not Ray’s first rodeo, he has seven complete albums to his credit. Another of Ray’s releases is an album titled Houston Electric and Houston Electric stayed on the charts for weeks and was aired by over 200 radio stations worldwide. His sound, his lyrics, the presentation of everything the man turns out is this real deal Southeastern Texas music that is unique to the region. It was interesting to learn that Ray felt the call to move on years ago and like a moth to a flame he made the rounds into quite a number of blues clubs out of town and out of state. It was exciting, it was educational, and Ray learned from that exposure that others far away from his roots love this sound too. Then Ray came to realize that he needed to be home for his soul to be at rest and he returned to just outside of Montgomery, Texas to live in the Sam
30 Rock and Blues International • November 2020
