30 years in the making

Denison artist to put out new project

By Michael Hutchins Herald Democrat

While music has always been a passion for Ray McCarthy, he wasn’t able to pursue it when was younger. In the 1980s, he had to step away from the business and take up other work in order to support his daughter, who was diagnose with cystic fibrosis.

But, 30 years later, the music has returned. Americana and Country musician Ray McCarthy recently released his first studio album, Thru a Child’s Eyes, a collection of his own songs, after stepping away from music in the 1980s.

“My story musically is that my daughter had cystic fibrosis …, and it got to the point where she needed a liver transplant and constant care,” he said. “So, I had to kind of get away from the music business to take care of her and help her with her liver transplant.”

“It was a lot more complicated back then than it is now,” he added. “At the time, ironically the down payment for a liver transplant was $90,000. You know, I was just a poor old road musician, I didn’t have nothing.”

While his friends in the music business were able to help offset some of the cost, including raising as much as $30,000 in a single night, he still needed to step away and find consistent work.

“I had to quit the music business and I got into the car business,” he said. “I went to work for a holding network for Bonham Chrysler for years.”

Over the years, McCarthy was able to play casually at home and through his church. However, his retirement in 2016 allowed McCarthy to spend more time on his craft and passion projects like his music.

“When I retired, I still had music on my mind, so we did a live album there in Denison at a bar the was all cover stuff,” he said.

McCarthy’s musical ambitions took another turn in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic closed many live venues and outlets for many musicians. This ultimately led him to start writing his own material in hopes of a studio album of his own work.

“i kind of waited till late in life to start writing, but with covid, there was not much else I could do,” he said, noting that it took 18 months to complete the albums, “So, I wrote eight songs and Fred wrote five and we put them all on this album.”

The album is a part of a double album alongside songs written and performed by Fred Spears. More than half of the songs were recorded at Split Window Studios in Denison.

“Once you are a musician at heart, you are always going to be a musician,” McCarthy said. “You can try to put it on the backburner, but when I retired and didn’t have to go to work every day, it freed me up to go ahead and start doing my passion again, which has always been music.”

Together with Spears, McCarthy recorded more than a dozen songs for the double album, with his half titled Thru a Child’s Eyes and Spears work titled Summer Flowers & Summer Not.

“We’ve done some live albums, and Fred is quite the writer,” he said, noting that he has known Spears since the 70s. “When he was young, he played with Sammi Smith and spent several years on the road with David Allan Coe.”