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                                                                    MICHAEL RAY

                                                              "Holy Water" 

                                                              Warner Music Nashville

 

 

 

 

Michael Ray has been on a hot streak since he first burst onto the scene in 2015 with “Kiss You In The Morning,” but over the past year and a half he’s picked up a tremendous amount of steam thanks in part to his Honky Tonk Tuesday livestream series and the release of his latest EP Higher Education

The EP yielded new songs such as “Just the Way I Am,” “Picture,” and his most recent #1 charting single, “Whiskey And Rain.”

He now returns to radio with the next official release from the EP, “Holy Water.”

Although the song is written by Ashley Gorley, Hunter Phelps, Ben Johnson and Michael Hardy, in many ways it mirrors Ray’s own family history of his grandparents running moonshine, which helps him find the honest connection to the lyric while giving his vocals the opportunity to boost this gritty, swampy guitar driven melody to the heights needed to uphold the underground feel of the story being told.

The classic country storytelling of this song does everything right as it first describes the setting in vivid details so that it comes to life before your eyes as you listen: it’s somewhere in the back Florida pines in a town with Choctaw name, at a little white church that sits at the end of a grain field in a tight curve, etc.

While these lyrics give us the setting, the story comes into motion as the preacher character starts to develop in the second half of the opening verse where it’s revealed that he’s selling a little more than the Word, in what he refers to as being “Holy Water.”

The story progresses with each line keeping you on the edge of you seat as we see the preacher getting closer and closer to being caught by his deacon’s due to his own greed foiling his operation. So, then the real questions are whether they catch him, and if so, do they turn him in once they figure it all out? That’s just something you’ll have to click play on the video below to find out for yourself.

Though most of the song does rely on darker, swampy tones to carry the melody, in true Michael Ray fashion when the chorus hits you’ll find yourself with an arm raised into the air, bouncing it up and down through the tilt of the melody.

The true genius of the lyric, though, comes in the final lines when he sings, “And a sign out front with some letters reading John Chapter two, verse one through eleven,” referencing the familiar Bible story of the wedding in Cana where Jesus performed his first public miracle of turning water into wine.

“Holy Water” absolutely keeps Michael Ray’s smooth, rich vocal as its signature centerpiece, but the overall vibe of the song really shows his versatility by venturing just enough outside of his normal lines to keep us intrigued into something a little different.

(Review Written By: Jeffrey Kurtis)

 

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