Local country singer Ray Whitton has said his latest album will be his last.
“It’s such an emotional roller coaster that I don’t know if I could continuously put myself through that,” he said. “I want to show it off, but at the same time it’s like, how much do I want to show? It’s like baring your soul and having everyone and anyone who can hear it be privy to that information.”
Since starting his music career at 30, Whitton has seen more success than he ever expected in the last nine years. He’s played in dozens of shows and performed in front of thousands of people. Surprisingly though, he has only released one other album several years ago.
He said that first album was recorded over a weekend while this one was done over the course of a few months. While he says the quality is still just as good, that one wasn’t as well-marketed and was more of a mixture of his songs. This one was more co-ordinated in terms of theme and atmosphere and the strongest songs were placed at the beginning.
“I would say the first album was, ‘Hi, my name is Ray Whitton’ and the second album is, ‘Come in, sit down, have a coffee or a chat.’ They’re literally night and day,” he said. “I’m proud of both of them, but this one is more about growing for me and if you listened to both side by side, you’d hear the difference in terms of the style-writing aspect of it.”
By taking his time with it over a few months, Whitton was able to really shape it the way he wanted to get it perfect. It starts out slow and romantic, then escalates to a faster tempo before finishing with another slow love song.
He said his music is a representation of his own inspiration (as opposed to the singers whose music is meant to inspire others), which he said has been easier to find in Humboldt.
“It’s quieter here, there are fewer distractions, and I feel that people are a little more honest here. There’s no mask, no facade, but people are pretty real here,” he said. “To have the opportunity to write about things from that aspect, whether it’s a country song about a small town or a girl or whatever, it just seems to come from a more honest place.”
After all the time and effort he put in, Whitton was especially relieved to finally have completed this album because of the stress he endured towards the end. The CD had been mastered and was all set to go when his designer and photographer quit on him. He had to find someone else to quickly fill that role and he was fortunate enough to get a good recommendation from a friend. Now all that’s left is for him to sit back, cross his fingers, and hope for the best.
“I just want them to take from it what they want. I want them to enjoy the songwriting end of it and get up and dance every once in a while. But ultimately, if they like it, that’s good,” said Whitton. “Songs are like babies. You birth them, you write them, and during the recording process, you feed them goodies, whether it be the mandolin or banjo, and you want them to grow up ... Ultimately, five years from now, I want people to put the record in and still feel like it’s new.”
