Thurston Ray + Fingers DelRay + Smith & 9th Ward @ The Way Station

8pm- Thurston Ray
Genre: R&B/Soul
For fans of: Jill Scott, Meshell N'degeocello, Bobby McFerrin, Rahsaan Patterson, Tortured Soul

Smooth, soulful, and jazzy are a few words that may describe the musical style of singer-songwriter Thurston Ray. It may also be described as romantic, optimistic, and uniquely familiar. However it’s described, the Thurston Ray sound has been crafted to take the listener on a journey through emotions, melodies, and sweet inspiration. Thurston Ray is a bass baritone vocalist who blends groovy soul music, jazzy chilled vocals, and uplifting spoken word about real life and love. Thurston Ray's most recent project, “Becoming Thurston Ray: A Human Experience”, was made to stand as a soundtrack to the ups and downs of anyone’s life and love. It marks life’s imperfect journey, but reflects on its fresh new beginnings.

Thurston Ray will return with featured musicians, Bryan Percivall, Steve A. Williams and Oskar Häggdahl, to perform songs from his most recent album along with some brand new grooves.

www.thurstonray.com
https://www.youtube.com/user/ThurstonRay
https://twitter.com/ThurstonRay
https://www.instagram.com/musicbythurstonray/

9pm- Fingers DelRay
Genre: Blues, Boogie Woogie
For fans of: BB King, Mose Allison

Toby "Fingers" DelRey developed his hot stylings while a lad at the St. Ignatius Orphanage for Wayward Sinners. Sister Serenity, a crusty old nun with a musical bent, sensed the child's prodigious talent and, taking him under her wing, tutelaged him with a combination of Jelly Roll Morton, Johann Sebastian Bach and a strict regimen of dowsing the keyboard of the rectory piano -- a 1911 Flambe-Carbone upright -- with a solution of molasses and 190 proof corn liquor, setting it ablaze with the cherry of her White Owl and forcing the young genius to extinguish the flames with his speedy scales.
As Finger's remarked recently in a rare moment of verbal lucidity: "The blues is in my blood, the stride is in my soul and the fire is in my heart."

"Thanks a lot for sending me your album. I've been playing it on my show...lot's of good tracks!" - Norman Davis "Midnight Flyer" syndicated radio host (streamed from KYOU San Francisco, CA)
"One of the best piano players of the last ten years in the blues self release scene.......Fine style, great musical taste!" - Simone Bargelli (dj for "Rock n Blues Today", Italy)

Soul Bag (France-Le Magazine Francais du blues et de la Soul #198, Avril-Mai-Juin 2010) Toby "Fingers" Del Rey **** 4 stars!( Excellent, un disque sans déchet. Ou presque...)

"Kind of avante-garde blues with a touch of Chico Marx!" - David Bennett Cohen, pianist with Country Joe and the Fish, Elvin Bishop, Hubert Sumlin and Jimmy Vivino

fingersdelrey.com
https://soundcloud.com/rgfh10/sex-thing
https://soundcloud.com/rgfh10/blueschoir-frontdoorwoman-3-31
https://soundcloud.com/rgfh10/money-therapy
http://www.youtube.com/user/FingersDelRey

10pm- Smith & 9th Ward
Genre: New Orleans Blues/Funk/Jazz
For fans of: New Orleans Jazz, Blues, Funk and Brass Band music

SMITH & 9th WARD is a combo in the New Orleans, funky and soulful tradition. We channel the likes of Dr. John, James Booker, Allen Toussaint and Professor Longhair to bring you New Orleans grooves with a Brooklyn attitude. We consist of members of the OUTER BOROUGH BRASS BAND and we love playing funky NOLA tunes, traditional jazz standards and low-down blues. SMITH & 9th WARD: New Orleans grooves with a Brooklyn attitude.

“Leyton-Brown’s physical stance at the keyboard comes closer to Joe Strummer than Dr. John, but she’s got skills that would make Mac Rebenack grin that trademark grin. Allison injected some old school stride into “Don’t Think Twice,” and her vocals on Crescent City classics like “Big Chief” and “Mardi Gras in New Orleans” were right on point. But it’s the little differences she brings that make her a not-so-secret weapon, like the Fender Rhodes sound she brought to the funky Scatassa original “BQEeze,” or the sizzling Clavinet vibe she conjured up toward the end of the second set that was straight out of Billy Preston’s “Outa Space.” Maybe the traditionalists might freak, but it’s a Brooklyn thing! They wouldn’t understand!” – J Hunter “Nippertown”

“After the bass drummer unexpectedly decided to lead a secondline into the bar room, which freaked out most of the people there, they came back in and kicked things up another notch. By this point, those of us who were dancing stopped caring about what the room full of lazy people thought, and we got up and got down in front of the band on a rousing finale.” – a fan

http://smithand9thward.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ams4STP1-0g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ofQyQW1EDA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLdEeWfHkbM#action=share