http://jimiray.com/blog.cfm Tue, 06 Dec 2011 12:44:46 GMT http://bandzoogle.com http://jimiray.com/blog.cfm?feature=2473114&postid=1586448  I must admit-i have hard time giving sometimes--tithing has never been easy, but i'm faithful.  The not being easy part is the enemy telling me not to.  However, I know God takes care of his children.  He's always taken care of me and my family. I know his promises in his Word are true also.  I trust him for every need I have. So I will always tithe.  When I can I will give more above that.  Don't be afraid. Trust God with what you give. He will take it and multiply it. He will use it in the lives of others. Tue, 06 Dec 2011 12:44:46 GMT 34AC209D1C43A6BDB142D9C386D732E4 http://jimiray.com/blog.cfm?feature=2473114&postid=1570358  During this upcoming Christmas season, I think about all I have.  I am truly blessed.  I have everything I could ever wish for but yet I still complain and wish for more. Much of it is human nature.  Much of it is society. Much of it is greed.  I know better!  I don't need anything. What I need is to find my identity in Christ, not music, not writing, not performing, nothing. Until we learn to be content in all things, whether little or alot, and learn that stuff will never fill the void inside, we will never hit the mark.  When I look around at others struggling, when I read about people losing everything, I know what I have.  On those days when it's so cold outside its unbearable, I remember I am just a few feet away from climbing on my comfy red chair, turning on the gas logs, pouring myself a coke and doing nothing, I know I have everything!   Fri, 02 Dec 2011 02:03:46 GMT C705B126B2D039184945874ACEF5DA4A http://jimiray.com/blog.cfm?feature=2473114&postid=1245637  Back in my days of being a college student (early to mid 80's) there was a local band called Sugarcreek that was pretty dang great. These guys played covers like Journey, Night Ranger, Loverboy, etc and then had a slew of original music that was awesome as well.  Recently they reunited to play a reunion show that I missed, unfortunately. My JRH partner Michael was a part of that band in their heyday. Memories are great things. Great memories are even better. If you play music you never know what memories  you are creating for someone. And it could just be that someone is listening to your tunes and one day will go.."remember when ______used to play at _________?"  "Man those were great days".  People change and come and go in our lives. Music is one of the constants that will always be around. Every so often I will be at the beach and remember Sugarcreek's "What A NIght" or "Rock The Night Away" and so i just pull it up on my I-Pod and the memories come crashing back. I will be listening to Loverboy and my wife will say.."that remind's me of the Creek!".   Make your music count. Make it fun and enjoyable for those listening. LOVE your audience. Heck they are giving you the courtesy of listening!  You never know...one day when you reunite as a band or decide to play again after a long hiatus, someone may show up that you had a hand in making great memories for. My old band Age of Faith have talked and talked about doing something again. We never have gotten any furher than that though. But maybe one day.  Maybe one day... People change and come and go in our lives. Music is one of the constants that will always be around. Every so often I will be at the beach and remember Sugarcreek's "What A NIght" or "Rock The Night Away" and so i just pull it up on my I-Pod and the memories come crashing back. I will be listening to Loverboy and my wife will say.."that remind's me of the Creek!".  
Make your music count. Make it fun and enjoyable for those listening. LOVE your audience. Heck they are giving you the courtesy of listening!  You never know...one day when you reunite as a band or decide to play again after a long hiatus, someone may show up that you had a hand in making great memories for. My old band Age of Faith have talked and talked about doing something again. We never have gotten any furher than that though. But maybe one day.  Maybe one day...]]> Tue, 30 Aug 2011 23:29:28 GMT 07B980DD4B1E3E9395F36D72C1932562 http://jimiray.com/blog.cfm?feature=2473114&postid=1130239 For the last decade or so, at least since the demise of AOF I have been very unclear about the direction my life should take on certain things. Now that's not every area of my life but rather direction on career situations. Music has always been my mainstay and my "career" and that's been for the last 25 years. As I get older it gets harder and harder to have the desire to continually fight that battle that it takes to continue to make music the #1 focus career wise. Songwriting is my passion but creating a great living at it is so hard. And I am so far ahead of the game than most folks and it's still so very hard. The politics, the "smoozing", the networking, and so forth just makes me tired.  Two years ago I had the thought of going back to school to get another degree. I already have a B.A. in Religion which honestly is pretty useless for me. Yea i earned it and i can say i graduated from college and it does add weight in some areas. Now two years later i have even felt the pull more and more to go back and earn another. So to make a very long story short, this August 22 i will begin classes for what will become my next Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology. My emphasis will be on substance abuse. I am enrolled at Liberty University in Virginia (Go Flames..that don't sound right!). For the first time in over a decade i have never had this kind of direction and focus in my life. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is what i'm suppossed to be doing. I want to help the addicted. I want to help ease the chaos that their lives have become. I will still write. I will still play out live. And because of this focus i now have, my music will take on a whole new freshness. That's it in a nutshell. MOre to follow..... my mainstay and my "career" and that's been for the last 25 years. As I get older it gets harder and harder to have the desire to continually fight that battle that it takes to continue to make music the #1 focus career wise. Songwriting is my passion but creating a great living at it is so hard. And I am so far ahead of the game than most folks and it's still so very hard. The politics, the "smoozing", the networking, and so forth just makes me tired.  Two years ago I had the thought of going back to school to get another degree. I already have a B.A. in Religion which honestly is pretty useless for me. Yea i earned it and i can say i graduated from college and it does add weight in some areas. Now two years later i have even felt the pull more and more to go back and earn another. So to make a very long story short, this August 22 i will begin classes for what will become my next Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology. My emphasis will be on substance abuse. I am enrolled at Liberty University in Virginia (Go Flames..that don't sound right!). For the first time in over a decade i have never had this kind of direction and focus in my life. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is what i'm suppossed to be doing. I want to help the addicted. I want to help ease the chaos that their lives have become. I will still write. I will still play out live. And because of this focus i now have, my music will take on a whole new freshness. That's it in a nutshell. MOre to follow.....]]> Tue, 26 Jul 2011 08:24:19 GMT 25395B0EB38CB0163BB3F5BE6BA319B2 http://jimiray.com/blog.cfm?feature=2473114&postid=1084334  God has shown himself, once again, faithful. In my last post i mentioned "it" was so very much out of my hands. And once it went out of my hands, it was taken care of. My hands only cause a mess. These hands only cause stuff to make no sense and they cause things to break. God has also pointed out some very real direction in my life that to be quite honest has not happened in many many years. I'm excited to share that with everyone soon, when the time is right. Right now just know that God has a plan. And ya know...it's even a plan that is exactly on his timing, even when i wasn't looking for it. And for my hands....i just pray that i can let everything be removed so that something real and good can be done. One of all time favorite mini-series was on HBO called "The Corner". It followed the true story of a family living in the ghetto of Baltimore and basically living the life of drug addicts.  One of the main characters is Fran (now clean and sober).  One day she sees her ex-husband Gary (now dead from an overdose) and a few friends on the back of a truck. She simply says, "whatever they're up to ain't gonna end up nothing but a mess" (my paraphrase).  Oh how God has taught that to me in the last month. Whatever Jimi is up to ain't gonna end up nothing but a mess." So I'm gonna try to let someone else take control that knows how to make the mess something good!..JR Wed, 06 Jul 2011 09:15:01 GMT 39D582413461B370C90C5BC5E4A0F815 http://jimiray.com/blog.cfm?feature=2473114&postid=1059178 Ok--I'm not going to go into alot of detail at all here. As a matter of fact I''m not gonna go into any detail! But I'm out of choices in a particular situation. I'm out of answers. I'm out of options. I'm out of luck! Yea there's been times in my life where I've been in similar situations but this time I'm completely at a stand still. The Hand of God will have to move on this one. How it moves and when and where it moves is totally out of my control. All I know is he promised he would never forsake me or never leave me. He has promised to see me through (Oh, and soon you're gonna hear a new song with those words in the lyrics..it's just about finished!). So just know that something is up. And it's not a little mattter at all. But God is not a little God. Stay tuned... ]]> Sat, 25 Jun 2011 05:44:05 GMT 0BCF7BB6B046EC4484B9F6DEE62FD589 http://jimiray.com/blog.cfm?feature=2473114&postid=1048372  Ok--i'm really and honestly having a tug of war with the direction my music needs to flow. First of all I'm a writer. And when I create I need it to be something that helps, inspires, comforts, and so forth those that listen to it.  As most of you know at this point I also do a variety of cover tunes just because I can! But honestly my heart isn't totally and exactly there. Heck I even released a covers CD here on my site for fun. But I believe it's time to get back to doing what I was created for in the first place. That is creating music that does what i mentioned above. SO-what does that mean for what I'm doing now? I don't really know yet. Still thinking and praying through it. BUT you can bet that I will be putting up new music very soon that won't necessarily be cover tunes..Many of you have requested certain songs of mine. I will try my best to put up versions of those. And thanks to all of you that have supported me in the music world for so many many years. Tue, 21 Jun 2011 10:17:22 GMT AABF97F4B607A34CD47352B428717C4D http://jimiray.com/blog.cfm?feature=2473114&postid=1039701  Most of you know that i suffer from depression. It usually hits me everyday...different times as well. I hate it. It's been a thorn in my life for a very long time. I wrote a book about it called "I WIsh It Would Rain" which I'm re-releasing as an updated version and also as an audio book this summer. I can wake up and feel fine. Then without warning it hits. And sometimes it leaves me jaded, other times it knocks me down. It robs me of so much. I can't write. I'm totally un-creative. I simply don't wanna do anything. If you understand, please feel free to write me back. Today has not been one of those days. But i know it's just around the corner. So, i'm saying that i understand how you feel. I completely get it! Fri, 17 Jun 2011 08:30:00 GMT 5B196A7C143F815CACC4F2CED2FA69E6 http://jimiray.com/blog.cfm?feature=2473114&postid=1016105 Muisc is the greatest gift. Through the years I have sung and played my guitar in just about every place imaginable. And I've played in alot of churches. For you that know me you know I'm a believer and follower of Jesus. I've written songs about my faith and I've written songs about my life. The best songs are songs about life and faith. Here's the thing. God uses music regardless of whether I'm singing songs about him or about the life he has given. I can write a song about the fact that I trust God's hand to move in a situation in my life. I can also write a song called "What Did I Do To Deserve This". That song is about what happens when life doesn't go as planned. But it's still based on my faith because its about life, which God gives. I'm gonna continue to write and sing what is in and on my heart. They won't always be blatant songs for the church. But they will be faith based and life based, which at the end of the day, is still God based. ]]> Tue, 07 Jun 2011 10:04:14 GMT A4D8632F800572B42795822C7B28BAF2