Biography
Born in 1914 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, Ray spent his early years in St. Louis. During the 1930s he began singing blues there, modeling his delivery on Peetie Wheatstraw; the two appeared together as a duo from 1935 until Wheatstraw’s death in 1941. Under the billing ‘Peetie Wheatstraw’s Buddy,’ Ray entered the studio in 1942. Once discharged from military service he relocated to Chicago, performing nightly in clubs and cutting material for J. Mayo Williams, who may have arranged the Hy-Tone 78 that bears his name. His final session took place in 1949 and yielded one number patterned after Charles Brown plus three others cast in Wheatstraw’s manner; two were direct covers of Wheatstraw songs, while the original ‘President’s Blues’ paid tribute to Truman. Ray kept working Chicago clubs into the early 1960s, at which point cancer compelled his retirement.