Rays

April 3, 2006 - Michael Nesmith has just released his latest album Rays; a cinematic journey of sound with elements of swing, jazz and instrumental funk that come together to form what he calls "New Century Modern". Once again, Nesmith pioneers a new genre, contributing fresh, inventive and timeless dimensions to our current musical landscape. This beautifully packaged album comes with a 9 X 14 inch poster of the Drew Friedman Art Nez had commissioned for the album!

"For a time I thought Rays had come together differently than any other project I had worked on, until it dawned on me all the various works I had been involved in had happened the same way and doing Rays was simply the first time I had seen it. Rays was my own personal Copernican Shift. For years Rays laid around in bits and pieces, and there were long periods when I would put them all away, like disparate parts of disparate building blocks. As if one was a recipe, another was a blueprint, another was a map. I couldn't see how they fit together. I kept going, as much for not having anything else to do as for the curiosity of how it would all turn out, but I did keep going, and I'm glad I did. It was when I was putting on the horn parts, dreaming of Memphis and Stax Volt that it all came together. It was as if I had come into the garage one evening, and was looking at the detritus of a failed effort laying all over the floor, when suddenly there was this array, a kind of order to it that I had never imagined. That was exciting. It felt new, and gave me the inspiration I needed to finish. This after four years of wandering in darkness --- which actually happened to be one of the lines from Rays. I had always imagined "emergence" as the gradual appearing of something that already exists but was just unseen. Rays was the first time I ever actually saw that happen. And now that I've seen it I am aware that all the past works have happened the same way."

"I love to put Henry Mancini's music on in a convertible with the top down. He's one of my favorite composers the theme from "Mr. Lucky," or you know, those great movie and TV theme songs he did. I put the top down on the convertible on a nice sunny day and drive along a country road somewhere, and I am literally and figuratively transported to another place. That's what I hope will happen when people listen to Rays. That it's evocative, it's transporting. The listener will find themselves in a place they can't get to any other way. And they're really happy to be there, and the next thing you know, they move in, they plant a garden, they start hanging out there, and they got a little second home there, in Raysland."

- Michael Nesmith