When critics sit and listen to CD's they try to find signature sounds to compare the artist to.  Usually this is easy enough for the critic because they have an ear for music.  With Jeff Ray's Sophomore CD June Generation (Peace Stream Records) the routine review becomes an egregious task.  The various influences and mixture of sounds resembles so much, and yet becomes something very unique.

"A Quiet One" was dedicated to George Harrison.  It begins with the lines, "All things can wait, but the search for God can't... Love one another - please."  This is central to what Harrison dedicated his life to; the search.  He believed that is was pointless to search for cures in life and waste all that money, it would be better spent looking for what happens after we die.  This is something that many fans of Harrison have adopted into their own thoughts and beliefs.

Jeff Ray's music influences are Bob Dylan, The Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin, and George Harrison.  Each show up in its own way, but Jeff mixes their sounds into a fluid motion of music.  The best song on the disc, "Samadhi" is influenced by Harrison, but is an UnHarrison-like instrumental.  It teeters on different genres, but rests in a sitar laced guitar jam.  Before you make assumptions on Jeff's sound though, "Alabama Goodbye" follows the Beatles to the Allman Brothers, if that is musically possible.  The organ resonates in the Gospel-influenced "Like A Rolling Stone" mode that Dylan used and was heavily copied in the early seventies... By the Allman Brothers.
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