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.”
“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
