Michael Ray noticed a statistic years in the past that stated it was simpler to be a beginning Main League Baseball pitcher than have a No. 1 tune.
Ray simply celebrated “Whiskey and Rain,” his fourth No. 1 hit, final week with a celebration in Nashville, and he stated he feels the assertion to his core.
“It actually places into perspective how blessed we’re to do that,” Ray stated. “It’s like catching lightning in a bottle to do it one time. For this to be our fourth, after I pulled in (to the social gathering), all of it sort of hit me.”
Josh Thompson and Jesse Frasure wrote the tune, the primary single from Ray’s seven-song EP “Larger Schooling.” Whereas Ray didn’t write it, the tune’s conventional nation sound and themes have bloomed in his coronary heart since he was a toddler. Ray began to be taught guitar from his grandfather at 8 years outdated. Even then, Ray liked Merle Haggard and George Jones, and he funneled these influences into “Whiskey and Rain.”
He recorded the tune throughout the pandemic, and since all the studios had been closed, he had to make use of his producer’s closet as a vocal sales space. The pandemic wasn’t over when the tune hit radio, and since touring was halted, as had been radio exhibits, he had only a few alternatives to put it on the market. However, “Whiskey and Rain” stored going.
“My staff knew from soar road that we had one thing particular,” Ray stated. “They by no means wavered. By no means as soon as. They had been like, ‘This can be a profession tune, and it’s going to occur.’ The 30s (on the radio airplay charts) had been like driving a two-wheel-drive by the mud. You’re barely getting by however we’re seeing some mild. They simply hammered it down. I simply know the way laborious individuals labored by the toughest instances of their lives. All of it hit me without delay. It was a Rocky second. It occurred, and we did it greater than we anticipated.”
“Whiskey And Rain” was Ray’s first two-week No. 1 tune and has garnered greater than 200 million world streams with greater than 1 million observe equal gross sales. His new single “Holy Water” is at nation radio now.
