Ray Sanders - Feelin' Good Is Easy

In this week's episode, we're featuring the first solo album from Kentucky-born Ray Sanders: "Feelin' Good Is Easy" (1969). During his college years at Texas Western in El Paso, Sanders began working for radio station KHEY and picked up personal appearances around the Southwest. He must have done all right too, because in 1959 he was recruited by Ray Price to lead The Cherokee Cowboys and to sing harmonies with Price himself. Ray Sanders was with The Master until 1961 or '62, during which time he was on several hit Price records. After his stint with The Cherokee Cowboys, he went solo and released a myriad of singles without a huge amount of success until '69 and "Feelin' Good Is Easy". The album's quality saw him take home "New Male Artist Of The Year" at the ACM's at that time, and the stage seemed set for this hard country stylist to hit the big time. However the big time never really happened for Ray Sanders - after 1970 and years of minor hit making on labels including Imperial, Republic and Hillside, Sanders settled into the California club circuit, then moved to Honolulu and partial retirement. Our feature album, though, demonstrates the honky tonk quality of Ray Sanders output at his peak - highlights include two early Red Steagall cuts in "Lonely Eyes" and "Beer Drinkin' Music", a faithful rendition of Charlie Walker's "Who Will Buy The Wine" and the buckle-rubber "Gotta Find A Way". Solid material.