On Thursday April 15th, the legendary Ray Condo passed away from a heart attack.
I’m not sure how many dopers are familiar with him. I once saw him play to several hundred people at Bumbershoot, so he must have had some kind of grassroots following. He had a giant impact upon the Canadian (and North American) Roots scene. Since the late 70’s, Ray and his bands, The Hard Rock Goners, The Ricochets, and most recently, The Geezers (and probably a half dozen more), have been performing some of the best Western Swing music you could ever wish to hear. Nobody, but nobody, ever did it better. He was a consummate musician and songwriter. You don’t get to call to many people “the real deal”, but Ray was all of that and much more. In addition, he was a true gentleman… in the very best sense of the word. Ray will be greatly missed, and if you had a chance to see him perform, you were very fortunate,
Here’s a slightly outdated link to some of his work (Ray and the internet were not really compatable)…
Rockabilly Hall of Fame