Paul RAY

1942 - 2016

RAY, Paul
Paul Ray, for four decades the beloved voice of KUT and KUTX's Twine Time, died on Friday, January 15, his wife Diana at his side and with a band of angels to carry him home. His passing leaves a void in Austin's collective heart, as he spent his life singing for Paul Ray & the Cobras, as radio host, and longest-running emcee of the Austin Music Awards. That painful emptiness is quelled by an award-winning legacy informed by a lifelong love of rhythm & blues and jazz.

Paul Henry Ray was born August 12, 1942 in Dallas, Texas to Charles Lewis and Vera Evans Ray, also passed. He was affectionately known as "Tarzan," the eleventh of 12 children, including surviving brothers and sisters Robert, Thomas, Butch, Marian, Harriette, Ellen, Patty, and Carl, and deceased siblings Dorothy, Johnny, and Billie Lou. A zillion other relatives, nieces and nephews love and remember him with respect.

Paul Ray's singing career began in his teens in the late 50s in Dallas, where he graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School. He witnessed Chitlin Circuit acts and regional R&B stars whose names and music he would remind the world of throughout his life. In early acts such as The Playboys, he wore a suit and tie like a big band leader. His warm, supple voice with built-in vibrato crooned ballads and punched rockers, making him a first-call vocalist in the burgeoning Metroplex and the righteous music cultivated between Fort Worth and Dallas. By the late 60s, he'd attended University of Texas and North Texas State University and befriended Jimmie Vaughan and Doyle Bramhall, migrating with them, Denny Freeman, and families to Austin in 1970 to form Texas Storm.

Ray's personal retinue now included Diana Thomas, a leggy blonde he'd met in 1968 and married in 1975. Their romance bridged decades with heart-tugging tenderness; Ray dedicated a song to her every show and faithfully played Motown songs on her birthday. They traveled together, supported each other, worked together, played together and helped revive Hank Ballard's career, and on Saturdays after Twine Time, he'd pick up food on the way home for 1am dinner with her. On the bittersweet New Year's Eve of this year, Paul and Diana fell in love again, the lingering note to an endless romance.

Austin might have danced to Paul Ray & the Dallasites at the OneKnite, Soap Creek, and Antone's, had Doyle Bramhall not suggested the name of his first band, the Cobras, after a La Cucaracha gig where no one showed up. Thus, the first Paul Ray & the Cobras boasted a mixed race lineup featuring Dallas guitarist Denny Freeman and bassist Alex Napier with locals John Henry Alexander on drums and Oscar "Bubu" Watson on percussion, the latter replaced by Rodney Craig on drums and adding Stevie Vaughan on guitar and later Joe Sublett. This classic Cobras lineup that won Band of the Year in the Austin Sun's 1977 Music Poll, a remarkable feat during Austin's Cosmic Cowboy days, facilitating Vaughan's explosive rise to stardom and the first in decades of Ray's awards. Other players in Paul Ray's Cobras lineup included Jim Trimmier, Larry Lange, Bob Dolgan, Paul Constantine, and Ed Vizard playing long-forgotten clubs such as the IL Club and Joker's Lounge. Paul Ray fronted the Cobras until throat trouble forced him off regular singing gigs in the late 70s, returning years later for annual Christmas reunions at the Continental Club in the 2000s.

Besides singing the first song at the opening of the Armadillo with Ramon Ramon & the Four Daddios, Paul Ray produced An Austin R&B Christmas in 1979 and Lou Ann Barton's Read My Lips in 1989. In 1978, he'd started co-hosting KUT's Twine Time and took Bill Bentley's slot permanently in March 1980, turning the show into the land of 1000 dances all year long, with New Year's, Mardi Gras, and Christmas specials, featuring female vocalists for Mother's Day and male singers for Father's Day. Paul Ray's Jazz and Just Jazz programs were hosted by him also, but Twine Time was so beloved that when Prairie Home Companion flexed muscle to move it, Austin stood up for its hometown hero. Inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame in 2009, Paul Ray also received an Addy Award in the 90s for a local commercial, the GHR from his high school buddies, and numerous Austin Music Awards himself during the 24 years he hosted the Austin Chronicle's Austin Music Awards. His familiar presence brought continuity and gravitas to the dozens of categories and musical genres reflecting Austin's musical past and present. Many a winner over the years commented, plaque in hand, that the true honor was meeting Paul Ray.

But ah, it was his voice. Nothing bespeaks the capital city quite so much as the "Ooh! Ah! Ooh ah, ooh ah!" call of Twine Time's theme by Alvin Cash & the Crawlers. 52 weeks a year he ruled the weekend airwaves, the soundtrack of Saturday night in Austin, blasting Texas R&B from taxicabs, inside bars, out of restaurant kitchens, from cruising cars, darkened parking lots, shouldered jamboxes, and home stereos, spilling into Austin's streets, later to the world, and always rising to the stars. He resonated with authority and knowledge, emphasizing the best in vintage rock & roll, R&B, rockabilly, blues, and soul. Paul Ray's music presided over countless kisses, breakups, makeups, weddings, funerals, births, but that voice could steal your soul.

Diana Ray would like to thank Dr. Don Counts, Ellie and Joani for being Paul's earthly angels and her "three musketeers," Jimmie Vaughan, Denny Freeman, and sister Nancy Schuele. She also wishes friends and fans to know Paul Ray's homecoming celebration will be announced in the near future. In lieu of flowers or other gifts,a fund has been set up at https://www.youcaring.com/diana-ray-504662 with 100% of all donations going to funeral, medical and living expenses. Paul would want ya'll to keep on rockin'. Keep loving one another.
"And that's all this week for Twine Time, featuring music from World War II to Watergate. Good night, Austin."