Charles R Martin is an award-winning songwriter and recording artist from Gainesville, FL. His musical experience encompasses rock, rockabilly, country and opera. He took voice lessons from Elizabeth Elliott (director Opera Ft. Collins, CO) and sang in a number of this company's productions including Carman and Don Giovanni. He fronted the rockabilly band dblWiDE whose 2006 CD "Casa Del Fuego" received rave reviews. In addition to song writing and performance, Martin produced the CD.
He is now front man for the garage/psychedelic rock band The Righteous Kind (www.TheRighteousKind.com). Think Beatles meet the Hives meet Sly & the Family Stone meet Amy Weinhouse. The Righteous Kind's debut CD 'Some Are of Love' has three of Martin'ss award winning songs. Martin produced this CD too. He writes rock, folk, country and rockabilly songs.
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Charles Ray's Recent Songwriting Awards
1. Winner - Outstanding Achievement in songwriting, 10th Annual Great American Song Contest 2008
"Righteous Man"
2. Finalist - 10th Annual Great American Song Contest 2008
"I didn't have love"
3.Honorable Mention - 3rd Peacedriven.com Songwriting Award, 2008
"Show me the day"
4. First place - Lyric writing contest sponsored by Broadjam.com, December 2008.
"The first rock-n-roll song"
Charles Ray
Charles Ray Martin is a multi-award-winning songwriter from Gainesville, Florida, a hotbed of musical activity that has produced artists as diverse as Tom Petty, Against me! and Sister Hazel. He is also a guitar player, singer, recording artist, music producer and band leader. Charles Ray writes rock songs in all of its genres, as well as folk, country and rockabilly songs. He won the 10th Annual Great American Song Contest 2008 in the rock/alt category for his song "Righteous Man," and won first place in Broadjam.com's December 2008 lyric writing contest for "The first rock-n-roll song." In addition, he was a finalist in the 10th Annual Great American Song Contest 2008 with his song "I didn't have love," and won an honorable mention with "Show me the day" in the 3rd Peacedriven.com Songwriting Contest 2008. His songs have also been selected and published for film and TV placement through Taxi.com.
Charles Ray took voice lessons from Elizabeth Elliott, director of Opera Ft. Collins (CO), and sang in a number of that company's productions including Carman and Don Giovanni. After moving to Florida he fronted the iconic rockabilly band dblWiDE, whose 2006 CD 'Casa Del Fuego' received reviews like "an infectious blast of rockabilly that'll shake the shack like a tsunami." In addition to song writing and performance, Charles Ray produced the CD.
He is now fronts a garage/psychedelic rock band called Charles Ray and the Righteous Kind (http:www.Myspace.com/TheRighteousKind). They have been described as a 21st century meeting of the Beatles, Kings of Leon and Sly and the Family Stone. The Righteous Kind just released their debut CD entitled 'Some Are of Love.' Three of his award winning songs are on this CD. Charles Ray produced this CD too.
Charles Ray is actively promoting his songs through numerous outlets and is a very hardworking and motivated songwriter.
CharlesRay67@gmail.com
Find Charles Ray Martin on Facebook
352-271-9605
Righteous Kind Bio
Award-winning singer/songwriter Charles Ray Martin leads an all-star cast of rock and blues musicians in a rock-n-roll revival called The Righteous Kind. Hailing from Gainesville, FL, a hotbed of musical activity that has produced artists as diverse as Tom Petty, Against me! and Sister Hazel, The Righteous Kind has an innovative garage/psychedelic rock sound that is influenced by both classic-'60s and modern-alternative rock. The band features superior song writing and has tremendous stylistic range - from garage to alternative to classic to psychedelic to pop rock. The Righteous Kind are superb showmen, and their live shows are more than anything else fun.
Three of the songs on the band's debut CD entitled 'Some Are of Love' won songwriting accolades, including 'Righteous Man,' a winner in the 10th Annual Great American Song Contest. 'Show me the day,' their tribute to the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., won honorable mention in the 2009 Peacedriven.com songwriting contest.
Joining guitarist and front man Charles Ray are Tom Miller, formerly of Chicago blues sensation Vini and the Demons, on bass, and Larry Thompson, from the ionic country-rock band dblWiDE, on drums. Rounding out the group is B.B. Brashear, BBB, on the Hammond B3 organ.
"Rock 'n' roll fans will get a kick out of The Righteous Kind at the Atlantic on Saturday night. Featuring the one-of-a-kind Charles Ray Martin on guitar and vocals and one of Gainesville's best rhythm sections, these guys bring back riff-infused rock 'n' roll with a strong psychedelic presence."
Dante Lima, Music Editor, Gainesville Sun, July 9, 2009
Learn more about The Righteous Kind at www.myspace.com/therighteouskind
Find the Righteous Kind on Facebook
Buy a CD at www.CDBaby.com/charlesray
charlesray67@gmail.co
Righteous Kind Long Bio
Press Release, August 6, 2007. The Justice Department today disclosed that Gainesville, Florida, long known as a center for the alternative lifestyles that defined the Sixties, provided a haven for four influential personalities from that era, each long thought to be dead. Astonishingly each, unknown to the others, had lived under an assumed identity for decades, and only realized the similarity of their situations after joining a band devoted to playing Sixties music. The disclosure is the result of months' of negotiation between law enforcement officials and Charles Ray, Slam Gunther, Larry California and B. Burrhus Bran, now members of the band The Righteous Kind. "We felt that we could not make this music unless we were honest about who we really were," Ray said.
Of the band, the disappearance of Charles Ray is the most famous. In June, 1968, Ray's band, Charles Ray and the Ravers, had both the number one album "Ravelations!" and the number one single, "Righteous Man," in the country. Ray appeared to be at the beginning of a long music career. Unknown to even his closest friends, Ray was already planning his exit. On August 18, 1968, Ray staged his own death. "It was so easy! I had a fancy Porsche. I put some of my clothes and some drugs in the back seat and pushed it over a cliff on the PCH. The Malibu cops assumed that I was high and naked, and that was it," Ray said. "I had had enough. I just walked away from the whole thing."
Ray, who had never attended college, enrolled under the name of Charles R. Martin, ultimately receiving a PhD in Chemistry and going on to a distinguished career in academia. Recently, that has not been enough. "War! Intolerance! The same damn things we protested in the Sixties! I knew it was time to put a new band together and take a second shot at spreading the message through my music."
In a series strange coincidences, each of the musicians Ray contacted had also abandoned Sixties celebrity and was living under an assumed identity. The artist/bassist Tom Miller was in fact Fritz Schlager "Slam" Gunther, German artist-provocateur, best known as the creative force behind the controversial LA band Squatting Dogs. When the bands' explicit anti-war message became the focus of an FBI investigation, Gunther, who was also sought by German authorities, went underground.
Larry Thompson, the Righteous Kind's drummer, was actually Larry California, one of the most respected drummers of the Sixties and a member of the supergroup, Circus McGurkus. California was forced to change his identity following several public indecency arrests with the 17 year old daughter of a powerful state official with apparent ties to organized crime. Organist B. Bruce Brashear was actually the controversial philosopher Prof. B. Burrhus Bran, best known as the author of Translating the Universe, condescendingly referred to in the Sixties as "The Hippie's Bible." Bran, a reluctant guru, dropped out to find the peace and calm he needed to complete his philosophical works. "I left it to Tim Leary to take the heat," Bran said.
After the band began practicing, it was not long before they learned of each other's past. They ultimately contacted the Department of Justice. DOJ representatives were initially skeptical. "We thought the whole thing was some kind of publicity stunt, but we investigated each story. As strange as it first appeared, we found all of it to be true," said Tess Tracy, the assistant district attorney assigned to the case. All charges in the U.S. and Germany have been officially dropped.