![]() Music, music, music everywhere! My father said he sang to me in the womb! That’s how early I was listening to the voice and all! I have a cassette tape of her singing there with her two brothers. We play at the Knickerbocker in Westerly to this day, another place I grew up musically when I got a little older. And I’d see my brother – my brother was in the band. I be sitting in there – he’d be babysitting me – and through osmosis picked up on his teachings of the voice which was great. That was also his studio where they rehearsed. So, my whole life I just played around with those instruments and heard my father give lessons. In the 1940s, Ray’s uncles on his mother’s side, Tony Genese (top left) and Frank Genese (lower right), performed with a popular Country & Western band, The Roving Ramblers, associated with the Eddie Zack organization. ![]() I could slip down during the week because they left their instruments set up down there and there’d be a big string bass, a piano and guitar and I would fiddle around with that stuff. When I was going to bed, I’d hear a band rehearsing down in the basement and it was my family band playing jazz tunes of the day – General Business I guess you’d call them. My mother sang jazz and they would rehearse at my home. My two uncles on my mother’s side played guitar and bass and my brother played piano and my father was a vocal coach and piano teacher in the school systems. It was a nice way to grow up and, musically speaking, as I was a kid. As I grew up, my aunt lived there, my uncle lived here – we didn’t have to drive to anything, picnics or whatever, it was a wonderful kind of way to grow up, the farmhouse being the focal point of the property – the red farm house on the hill where we had Sunday School and we all sang. I was three years old, my grandparents bought a farm in Connecticut, an 80 acre farm, and they had the whole deal, the cows, pigs, chickens, you know, selling milk and all that, but I was a little bit too young to remember those days, but those 80 acres got broken down into sublot divisions for family. Then we moved to Pawcatuck, Connecticut – sometimes I call it Stonington, Connecticut, they’re connected, you know. The first three years of my life I lived in an Italian neighborhood so that I really don’t remember much about those years – on Oak Street in Westerly. SR: I was born in Rhode Island – Westerly, Rhode Island at the Westerly Hospital. How are you today, Ray?ĪO: Can you tell us a little bit about when you were born, where you were born, your family and your neighborhood? Today we’re interviewing Sugar Ray Norcia at his home in Exeter, Rhode Island. My name’s Al Olsen and this is Rick Bellaire and we’re working for the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame. (Video of full interview appears at bottom of page)ĪO: Well, hello folks. RHODE ISLAND MUSIC HALL OF FAME ORAL HISTORIES PROJECTĬONDUCTED AUGBY ALLEN OLSEN AND RICK BELLAIRE INTERVIEW WITH RAYMOND “SUGAR RAY” NORCIA This is one of those rare cases in contemporary music where, as Aristotle put it, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” Their current release at the time of their induction, 2014’s Living Tear To Tear, was nominated for an incredible seven Blues Music Awards. In fact, the group keeps getting better and better and more popular with each new album and tour. Nor is this an act which rests on its laurels. Friendship, loyalty and dedication all play their part in the continued success of The Bluetones. Although Ray is the focal point – the band’s principal composer, harmonica soloist and lead vocalist – these five musicians are world-class players with a common goal who have succeeded in creating and sustaining a true artistic co-op within which each member is an integral and essential component. Sugar Ray & The Bluetones are not your average blues band with a front man and backing musicians. Although the longevity of The Bluetones is surely attributable to hard work and perseverance, there is much more at work here. A quick look at the current personnel in other acts with similarly long careers which have mined similar territories shows The Rolling Stones operating with three original members, Fleetwood Mac with two, and Roomful of Blues and The Fabulous Thunderbirds with just one each. Maintaining a partnership of this length is no small feat in the world of popular music. The “newcomer” to the band, guitarist “Monster” Mike Welch, was celebrating his 16th anniversary in the fold. At the time of their induction into the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame in 2016, Sugar Ray & The Bluetones were closing in on their 40th anniversary with a lineup boasting four original members: vocalist and harmonica player Raymond “Sugar Ray” Norcia, drummer Neil Gouvin, bassist Michael “Mudcat” Ward and keyboardist Anthony Geraci.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |