You’ve probably seen Michael Ray’s name and face popping up all over our social media sites recently as we couldn’t be more excited to have him playing our 3rd Annual New England Country Music Festival presented by The Harbor Agency. We’ve been fans of the Florida native for a while now, and his success comes as no surprise. Ray’s career took off in 2015 when his major-label debut single, ‘Kiss You in the Morning’ went Number One on the country charts. He’s since opened for artists like Brantley Gilbert and Darius Rucker before setting out on his own headlining tour last year. Michael is undeniably talented, and while his songs may be climbing the charts, he’s one of the nicest, most down to earth guys in the business. We caught up with the singer while he was out on his Think a Little Less Tour before his show at Mohegan Sun’s Wolf Den.
When we sat down with Michael, he was on the verge of his second Number One with ‘Think a Little Less.’ The song originally appeared on one of Ray’s earlier EPs and was officially released as his third single in April 2016, but the song had always been one of the singer’s favorites as it had felt special to him. “Sometimes when you’re in the studio, things just kind of magically happen, and we felt like that happened with this song,” Ray explained. “I loved this song since the first time hearing it. A couple of my buddies wrote it.” The single was written by Thomas Rhett, Jimmy Robbins, Jon Nite, and Barry Dean. “It’s been pretty awesome to have a song that they wrote, that they trust me with,” said Michael who has been blown away so far. “It’s been fantastic seeing the response from fans and the response from country radio. It’s creeping into the top five right now so it’s pretty awesome!” The single eventually made it’s way all the way up to Number One on March 20th.
Michael has also been astonished by the incredible response to the music video for the single as well. The director of the video is Jack Guy, better known for his work as the Marlboro man throughout the 80s and 90s. They shot the video at Guy’s Malibu home, Michael explained. “We only had one day. It was a last minute thing,” Ray recalled, “We were actually in Dallas, Texas when we got the call, we bussed home, I got home and left the next morning for Malibu and we shot the video. We started at like 6:30 in the morning because we wanted to make sure we could get there as the sun was rising and get those colors in. So we shot from about 6:30-7:00 to probably until about 8:00-9:00 at night. It was a long day but it was awesome, very worth it!” Michael described how he had to step outside the box and tap into his acting skills for the video. “What I was seeing was not a model, it was a dude holding a camera,” he laughed. “It was the polar opposite of what you’re seeing in the video though, so it was really cool.” Despite being a hesitant about giving up some control, he couldn’t be happier with the finished product. “Jack’s a professional and my team at Warner, my management team is really great at that stuff, and together they created a video that I’m very, very proud of.”
As mentioned, Michael was out on his first-ever headlining tour named after the single. The Think a Little Less Tour kicked off in October 2016 and took him throughout the fall. High demand from fans prompted the singer to extend the tour with an additional leg in early 2017 stopping in markets he hadn’t previously hit, like up here in Uncasville. “Everything about this still doesn’t seem real to me. That people would show up in Connecticut or anywhere for that matter outside of my hometown. Every day is like, holy crap, people are here!” he laughed. “It’s been amazing. It’s just been awesome to grow. And it’s all of ours, as a band’s, first headlining tour so it’s fun to experience that with your buddies.” Michael is hoping to take what he’s learned from the tours with Brantley and Darius and carry it over to his own. “My main thing is, I told Levi this is our tour, this isn’t just mine. I want people leaving this show going, ‘Man I’ve never heard of Levi Hummon before but I’m going to go see him next time he’s at Mohegan Sun,’” Ray said. “I want to just create that vibe that gets everybody’s mind off of anything else going on in the world – except for their significant other, their friend, their drink, whatever – and on country music.”
We’re hoping he brings those vibes with him to New Hampshire this summer when he plays our festival, and Michael can’t wait to get back up here. “We actually had Andrew’s bachelor party in Gilford!” Ray said with excitement. He explained how they originally planned to do his manager/drummer’s bachelor party on a beach somewhere but couldn’t make it happen with their busy schedule. “We were like, ‘hey, we have two nights in Gilford, New Hampshire and it ended up being a blast! We hung out on the pier, and then someone told us of a local spot to go to, so we closed that down,” Michael recalled, assuring that the guys couldn’t wait to spend more time in New England this summer especially considering the festival takes place at a brewery. The festival also gives Ray the opportunity to do a show with his label mates. “It’s fun to get into a show and support your family members, your label family, and to catch up with them,” he said. “William signed with Warner kind of the same time I did, just shortly after I think, we don’t have a long gap between when we both got signed. So it’s been awesome to see him grow. And Frankie’s just incredible. This is going to be awesome, it’s going to be a good time!” We have no doubt about that!
Michael is also planning on having some new music to share before the festival. “We’re getting back in the studio so I’m working a lot on the record when I’m home, focusing a lot of time during the week on that,” he explained. “I don’t know the timeframe… But we go in at the end of this month to cut and I’m pumped for the new stuff.” As of right now Michael has yet to share any new music with fans, but is planning to have new material ready before August 6th. “We’ll definitely have some new stuff for then. We’ll test it on the crowd there, what better way, right?” he said, with no objections on our end. We’re already counting down the days until Michael takes the stage in August and we’re so excited to hear what he’s been working on. Given what we’ve already seen from the 28 year old, we’d be willing to bet he’s got many more number one hits in his future.
You can purchase tickets for the 2017 New England Country Music Festival presented by The Harbor Agency by clicking here.