Ray Schinnery

Ray Schinnery is a multi-talented artist who can stir your soul with his vocals, move you to hilarity with his lyrics and woo you with his guitar. Ray has been dubbed a “Blues Singer” but he is much more; his range is unbelievable, from passionate, soul stirring ballads about friendship and love lost and found to hilarious blues tunes about heavy women and hound dogs.One fan was quoted, “Ray can move you to tears one second and have you laughing out loud the next.”Ray was born on St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, came to New York in 1951 to live with his mother and older brother. Raised in New York City with Southern influence Ray has been playing the guitar since 1947 and performing professionally since 1954. Ray was largely influenced by his uncle who made a guitar for him when he was just a boy. At the tender age of fifteen Ray recorded an album for RCA under an alias, Ray Smith, with a group called the Sonics he also recorded for Old Town Records.Over the years he has played many venues in New York and the east coast, some of which include the Audubon Ballroom, Renaissance Ballroom, Small’s Paradise, the Baby Grand, the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York and Mt Airy Lodge, Kutch’s Country Club; he has also played the Gullah Festival in Buford, South Carolina and the East Coast Jazz Festival in Savannah, Georgia. Ray has also played on Grand Bahama Island and Paradise Island in the Bahamas.Ray has played on the bill with such notables as Jerry Butler, Gladys Knight, Holmes Brothers, Gloria Lynne, Nancy Wilson, King Curtis, Jimmy Witherspoon, Bobby Blue Bland, Lou Rawls, Lionel Hampton, James Brown, Gerald Albright, Irene Reid, Chuck Jackson, Etta Jones, Stanley Turrentine, Lou Donaldson, Kenny Burrell, Joe Williams, Percy Sledge, Gene Chandler, Tom Jones and many others.Ray has also played with such personalities as Tiny Grimes, King Curtis James Brown, Jimmy Witherspoon, Tom Jones, Lionel Hampton, Chuck Jackson, Irma Franklin, Big Maybelle, Big Momma Thornton, JJ Jackson, Paul “ Mr. Hucklebuck” Williams, Arthur Prysock, Maxine Brown and Doris Troy. In 2008 Ray toured Europe with the Holmes Brothers, performing in approximately thirty (30) shows in two months to very enthusiastic fans.Ray has developed his own unique style that always has the crowd begging for more. Ray Schinnery is a “Master Showman”; one of a kind, you will be humming his tunes long after the show is over.
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