Hudson valley guitarist RAY DETONE has big shiny balls. Monstrous, shiny, impressive, glowing balls. Why? Because he released a technically proficient guitar shredding disc in 2001.
You might be asking why that's such a ballsy move. Well, because no one's buying guitar-hero albums these days...especially in this country. Of course, there's a minor revolution going on in the music business right now with all of the 80's hard rock bands reforming for one more run at the money... But that's not Ray's gig.
Ray Detone has a lengthy, if not impressive list of credentials, including recording with members of Steve Vai's band, Richie Blackmore's Rainbow, Iggy Pop's band, members of Billy Joel's band, and more. He's also toured with Ronnie Spector and Paul Dianno(formerly of Iron Maiden)..which if I were Ray, I wouldn't brag about, because no one this side of Kentucky gives a shit what either Ronnie Spector or Paul Dianno are doing.
Strange World is a thorough display of Ray's chops and songwriting ability.
Oddly enough, the title track, "Strange World" (one of the few with vocals) is one of the weaker songs on the disc. It's your basic late-80's Yngwie Malmsteen-esque hard rock riff, combine with vocals by Ric Prince.
On track 5, "Hard Drive", Ray jumps into fusion mode, and adopts more of an Eric Johnson sound (a la Cliffs of Dover).
To add to his already impressive range as a guitarist, smack in the middle of the disc is the haunting "King's Court", an acoustic instrumental which shows off Ray's melodic side.
Given Ray DeTone's diverse ability to interpret any number of styles of playing, I'm guessing he's not going to be out of work any time soon. If anything, he'll always get work as a session player...and if that fails, he can always audition for Paul Schaffer's band (just listen to track 9, "Miles Deep"...and you'll understand why I think he should be playing with Dave Letterman's band).
Once again, Ray has huge balls for continuing to play this kind of music in such an unaccepting climate.
