Everyone here at jambands.com wants to thank Natalie Guinlser for her work on the site. She's been directing the midwest section from the very start. However, she has decided o focus on her writing (you can expect more on her i the months to come). To replace her, we brought in not one but two individuals, both of whom are familiar to people within the Ekoostik Hookah community- Todd Justus and Tim Ward. Here is their opening statement followed by a piece on Ray's Music Exchange. Enjoy!

Do you remember what first got you involved with all of this?

Was it a Dead bootleg your older sister made you listen to as she drove you to school? The Widespread cd the guys in the kitchen listened to on repeat when you waited tables last summer, maybe. Perhaps it was a single chord from Trey, a soulful cry from Gregg Allman, a lyric from Dave Katz.

For Tim and me, it all began with an affinity for the Grateful Dead in the late 80s and early 90s. And while we both attended Ohio University, it wasn't until several years later that we met through a string of ekoostik hookah shows. We had the good fortune of meeting each other through our mutual appreciation of the jamband experience in Ohio, independent of jambands.com. We learned that as fans of this genre, we share a collective identity and truly are a big family, whether we've toured for years or recently found the love in a used records bin. We're happy for the opportunity to help this family keep growing, and we're looking forward to sharing your experiences as well. Please feel encouraged to submit any show reviews or features regarding music in the midwest to us at midwest@jambands.com. We'll see you at the show.

Tim and Todd

Rants for Ray's

by Pat Gillespie

My favorite way to judge a band is by monitoring their rate of progression musically. Part of the fun of discovering some of these lesser known jambands is so that you can watch them get better as time goes by. I've spent much time checking out various smaller acts, waiting for them to get just a bit better and break into that next level. Nobody has absolutely blown me away by how they continually improved. That was until I discovered Ray's Music Exchange a year or so ago somewhere in Ohio. Ever since that night I've been astounded again and again at how terrific they are getting. Without a doubt they are the quickest improving band I've ever seen, and they were totally amazing the first time I saw them.

I'm not here to rant about how Ray's Music Exchange is the best band around. Listening to their music is the best way to judge that for yourself. I just want to recap some of the past year's achievements, because some of this stuff is definitely worth noting. Before I do so though, a little about the band :

Ray's Music Exchange is a seven-piece jazz-funk fusion band from Cincinnati, OH. This instrumental fusion septet originated on the campus of the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music. The band is composed of Paul Hogan on various vintage keyboards and electronic music devices, Brad Myers on lead guitar, Joe McLean on rhythm guitar, Nick Blasky on bass, Jason Smart on drums, Matt Hawkins on all the percussive stuff, and Michael "Mad Dog" Mavridoglou on trumpet and flugelhorn.

Now that you know the band, here's 1999 in a nutshell:

- Ray's opened for Leftover Salmon on February 1st. All the guys sat in with Salmon at various points in the show. The "Funky Mountain Fogdown" with Paul, Jason, and Michael was especially smoking.

- In early March Ray's opened for New Hampshire's Percy Hill in Cleveland, OH

-The guys ended April by doing a three-show run with Moon Boot Lover of New York City. The two bands sat in on each others sets a few times. The highlight being Moon Boot's Peter Prince sitting in with Ray's and singing the 1960's soul hit, "Your Love Keeps Liftin' Me (Higher and Higher)".

- Memorial Day weekend was the special York St. Cafe show in Newport,KY. This show was the brain child of Paul Hogan who composed and arranged the whole thing. Ray's was joined by a six-piece string section, poets, and vocalists. Many new songs were introduced that night and several old favorites were played in a whole new light.

- July 4th weekend was spent nestled deep in the Sierra-Nevada Mountains at the High Sierra Music Festival in Bear Valley, California. Other notable acts to take the stage that weekend were : Widespread Panic, Leftover Salmon, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, String Cheese Incident, Karl Denson, Deep Banana Blackout, The Slip, and Sector 9.

- On July 22nd, Ray's opened for former Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart's band, Planet Drum, at Nelson Ledges Quarry Park outside Cleveland, Ohio.

- The guys got to open for another former Grateful Dead member, Vince Welnick. That gig with The Missing Man Formation was on August 13th in Cleveland as the boys were headed to Massachusetts.

- The highlight of August, and perhaps the entire summer was The Berkshire Mountain Music Festival in Great Barrington, MA. Ray's played in the evening on the third and final night of the festival. Oteil Burbridge, of Aquarium Rescue Unit and Allman Brother fame, sat in with the guys for a rousing rendition of Freddie Hubbard's, "Gibraltar".

- Ray's opened for Victor Wooten, of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, on three separate occasions in the month of October.

- On November 22nd, their album, "Alivexchange", won album of the year at the Cincinnati Entertainment Awards held at the Emery Theatre in Cincinnati.

- On December 17th, I got to see my personal jamband dream concert. Ray's and Connecticut's, Deep Banana Blackout, split the bill at Lynagh's in Lexington, KY. Deep Banana's Rob Somerville, Volo, and Fuzz sat in with RME for the Joe Zawinul classic, "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy". Brad and Michael jammed with Deep Banana for their cover of "Pass The Peas" by Maceo Parker. Jenn Durkin of DBB said during their set, "We listen to Ray's all the time when we're traveling across the country, they keep us happy on the road."

- 12/31 : RaY2K. The band begins the new year by making strides towards the Ray of the future during their millennium beginning improvised jam. This followed an entire set of covers ranging from Miles Davis', "Bitches Brew", to "Infernal Dance of King Katchei" by Igor Stravinsky, to the medley at the end of Abbey Road, to "Black Market" by Weather Report.

The guys have done well for themselves this year. So many of us are so very proud of them. The band just continually improves and the "Ray's Family" of devoted open-armed fans grows right along with them. Ray's Music Exchange has been the center of so much fun in 1999. I want to personally thank the band on behalf of all the Ray's kids in the Midwest, for generating all the good times, for helping new friends get acquainted, for being one of the nicest overall bunch of guys around, and for being the sickest band around.

Happy New Year.