Ryan Cannon Ray

The Who really did a great job last night at halftime of Super Bowl 44. If you don’t agree… well… then something is seriously WRONG with you. I watched their performance last night and loved everything about it. The song choices, lights, stage, the custom Who cymbals…Maybe it’s just that I love good, classic, rock and roll. I noticed many people’s dissatisfaction with the halftime show and thought, ok that’s fine but why? What could have made it better for SuperBowl 44? Then I heard it driving back from my internship today…The final straw in my frustration. (more…)

I know it’s been a few days since 2009 ended, but I still wanted to compile a list of my favorite stuff from 2009. For my life, and from my perspective, it was a great year. Somehow I continue to be blessed by good health, great friends, and awesome opportunities to do what I love.  2009 didn’t always go the way I wanted. My girlfriend for the most part is always about 386 miles away from me. My family situation is always frustrating, I got a few bad grades, etc… But those negative things of the year didn’t keep me down, and they sure didn’t outweigh the positive. I turned 22, a wise old age… got to travel quite a bit with John Tibbs and company, made our own cd, t-shirts, etc…  He’s got a lot going for him. I continued to be able to film and take pictures, exploring more and getting to push my creativity to new ends. You can see that soon in my porfolio that’s being built at the moment. Met new people from all over the country and am glad I can call them friends.  Growth is happening continually for me, and I’m glad I haven’t become stuck in a rut physically, spiritually, mentally, etc… I thirst for all of these things. So what encapsulated me in 2009? Read on to see.

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I know a certain SOMEONE will love to hear that I bought a new drum set, and I think it’s funny that it’ll be a “surprise” through my website. But I did indeed buy a new drum set. For those who care it is an OCDP kit. Orange County Drum & Percussion, they’ve been my dream drum set since I’ve started playing. It’s weird to finally own one because at the time I was in Junior High watching people like Travis Barker, and Adrian Young play on their OCDP kits. I loved their sounds, especially snares, so I was excited about their drums until I noticed their price tags… OUCH. Now that I’ve gained employment and have been playing a lot of drums for John Tibbs, I thought it time to upgrade my kit. I haven’t told any of my band members that it’s here, so SURPRISE to you as well. (more…)

Just when you thought all you were getting for Christmas were some free iPhone/iPod Touch games. I’m back to bring you more free stuff. This time it’s in the form of music from iTunes. It’s actually in their new LP format and is some of the newest and best Christmas song covers out there. Make sure to definitely add this to your classics. I’ve got a pretty sweet smart playlist going on that is managing all of my Christmas music, in fact… (more…)

There’s a category on my site that hasn’t been used yet, and we’re going to put that to an end today. Music, one of the great loves of my life. Always there, and if you have the right taste (up to personal subjection), it’s always great. I believe myself to be pretty knowledgeable about music, that’s in more ways than one too. I played guitar and trumpet for the earlier part of my life, and I’m still slamming away at the drums to this day. To play these instruments I had to learn a lot about music. Now I don’t know everything, but I understand how songs and song crafting works. I’ll be learning until the day I die about music, that’s a fact. (more…)

Well this post marks the end of the six week tour I was lucky enough to be a part of. There was so much good music and good times,  I already  miss it. Hopefully come next summer we will be doing the same thing. It’s an awesome blessing to travel with great guys, meet great people, and play music. If Todd and I weren’t fixing things we’d just often sit around and talk about music. Reminisce of days gone by. It was so good. (more…)