Jen&Ray

Howdy!  We're Jen and Ray.  Collectively known as...wait for it..."Jen&Ray" (clever, huh?).  I know the song says “we’re not that different,” but Ray and I, we’re pretty different.  I am a tree-hugging hippie from Austin, Texas…and Ray, well, he is not. Ray is a simple, meat-and-potatoes guy from suburbia, North Carolina.  Adventurous to him is trying a bite of garbanzo bean salad (and trust me, that took a lot of work).

Ray knows way more about music than I do.  He’s always talking about things like “the 1, the 4, and the 5″ (or something like that) and picardy thirds (eh?).  He insists that it’s important that I understand these things, and so he’s always trying to explain them to me.  I just smile and nod.  ‘Tell ya what, Ray, you understand what we’re playing, and I’ll just play it.’  I told him that if I ever have trouble sleeping, though, I will be sure and call him so he can teach me some music theory.

We are an unlikely duo, for sure.  The great thing is, most of the time our differences make for really great balance and ‘musical chemistry.’ But then there are those times when we want to kill each other. If you’ve ever tried to write a song with someone, you know what I mean. But don’t worry, we’re not gonna pull a Civil Wars on ya (hopefully).

What matters the most, though, is that we both really love music. Listening to it, playing it, writing it, living it. And we love that we get to share it with other people.

What genre of music do we play, you ask?  Well, yes.  We don't really fit into one neat genre, because our music draws from a lot of different styles - blues, folk, pop/rock, jazz, even a little bit of country (though we don't often admit this) - so we typically end up sticking with 'catch-all' categories like "acoustic" or "singer-songwriter."  We've been performing together around the Sarasota, Florida area for the past few years, playing at restaurants/bars, festivals, farmer's markets, private parties...you name it, we play it.  Earlier this year we headed up to Nashville, where we recorded our debut, self-titled EP (released April 5th) at the legendary Sound Emporium Studios.  It was the fulfillment of a life-long dream for both of us, and we can't wait to get into the studio again.  In the meantime, we are playing music whenever and wherever we can (and trying not to kill each other)!