Ray Bonneville - from Quebec to Austin - "I Really Just Drive for A Living"

  This episode of the Tasty Brew Music Podcast brings a conversation with Canadian born, Austin based Roots Musician Ray Bonneville. Ray had a former life as a Marine in Viet Nam, a bush pilot in the Canadian wilderness and the leader of a garage blues band. Ray’s music came to me at the suggestion of fellow KKFI DJ John “Junebug” Stuerke, host of the weekly Blues Kitchen Show. He said I should check out Ray’s “Bad Man’s Blood;” that it would be a good fit for The Tasty Brew. He was right! Some years later,  I wrangled Ray into the radio station for a live interview and performance in between private showcases during a Folk Alliance International Conference in Kansas City. I don’t think I’ve missed a Ray Bonneville performance in Kansas City since. His music is blues informed but greatly influenced by the musical gumbo found in his former home of New Orleans. The tones he accomplishes with just a guitar and harmonica are uniquely his own. Before a recent Kansas City show,  we had a wide ranging conversation in the Green Room, next to the railroad tracks, at Knuckleheads Saloon in Kansas City…that at times was accompanied by train whistles, steel on the rails,  horns and the country band doing sound check in the Gospel Lounge below us. Now THAT’s Americana! Enjoy a conversation with the incomparable Ray Bonneville.