Brian Ray Debuts Here For You and Cinnamon Girl / Mr. Soul on The Time Machine

Rocker and singer-songwriter Brian Ray returned to The Time Machine to share his brand new single "Here For You" and his cover of Neil Young's classic song "Cinnamon Girl" with a bit of Buffalo Springfield's "Mr. Soul" tossed in for musical fun. The digital single is available from Little Steven's record label Wicked Cool Records. Brian shared with radio hosts Tanya Teal and Michael McCartney that the single's A-side "Here For You" is a hopeful message written for Ray’s young nephews. Ray confided, “This world has gotten a little bit crazy, dark and unpredictable lately and in the midst of all of that I wanted to send a message of hope and positivity to two young boys starting out on this magnificent voyage we call life.”

Brian Ray has been a guitarist in Paul McCartney's band since 2002. He was also musical director for Etta James for over a decade and written and performed with artists such as Smokey Robinson, Rita Coolidge, Michael Steele, Shakira and Adam Lambert.

Brian shared with the Maui radio audience that the B-side to the digital single has an interesting relation to Brian as Neil Young actually wrote "Cinnamon Girl" about Brian’s sister Jean, who was seeing Neil at the time.

“I was going to a boarding school in the 7th grade in Ojai, California and I remember hearing 'Cinnamon Girl' for the very first time and I was just knocked out by it," declared Brian. "It was gritty and tough but it had grace and beauty in the melody and the lyric along with an almost haunting relentless energy to it. Imagine my surprise when later on I learned that the song was written by Neil Young for my sister, Jean Ray. Apparently, unbeknownst to me at the time, they were seeing each other, even though each of them were involved with other people.

"That song and the story behind its inspiration have always made me curious about playing it and while I was recording the basic track for ‘Cinnamon Girl’ with just me and a great drummer named Matt Laug, I came to the end of the song where Neil goes into his sort of solo ad lib guitar tantrum on his single version, I just started playing a revved up, crazy version of his great Buffalo Springfield song, ‘Mr. Soul’ in that moment as sort of a laugh. Matt joined in immediately and I decided it sounded cool and I left it in.”

Music was also heard on this Maui afternoon radio aircheck from The Bayonets and Paul McCartney.







Click here to listen or download the radio interview with Brian Ray



Offical Website for Brian Ray