Ray davies stroke

Ray Davis, a radio broadcaster who was the host of bluegrass music shows for more than 60 years and played a key role in making the Mid-Atlantic a leading center of traditional Appalachian folk music, died Dec. 3 at a hospital in Frederick, Md. He was

The cause was leukemia, said his wife, Nona Davis.

As a boy growing up on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Mr.

Davis had aspirations of being a broadcaster and practiced speaking into the resonant water barrels on his family’s chicken farm. After landing his first job in radio at 15, he soon began to champion the music that later became known as bluegrass.

He spent more than 35 years at WBMD-AM in Baltimore, broadcasting for much of that time from a used-car lot.

His sponsor, the owner of Johnny’s Used Cars, was such a dedicated fan of country music that he built Mr. Davis a studio next to the Oldsmobiles and Chevys.

“Yes, indeed, folks,” Mr. Davis said in a broadcast from December , “the Stanley Brothers are coming to you live today from Johnny’s at Harford Road in Baltimore.

We’ve got Santa Claus with us, we’ve got good food for the family, candy for the young folks and we’ve got for you right now, Ralph Stanley.”

Patsy Cline, Ernest Tubb, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs were among the other acclaimed performers who appeared on Mr. Davis’s show.

Ray davis bluegrass biography Ralph II to play the Opry in honor of Dr. I have a couple of Stanley Bros. I very rarely overdub because I want the music to have a live feel to it. You can hear guys clearing their throats, blowing their noses, tuning up, telephones ringing in the background, instruments getting banged around, Ralph and Carter do some "commercials" and endorsements

He went on to become a fixture on the bluegrass scene nationwide as a promoter of concerts and festivals, where he often acted as emcee.

After joining Washington’s WAMU-FM in , Mr. Davis broadcast his “Bluegrass Country” program every weekday afternoon for 16 years. It generated the second-highest amount of donations from listeners during the station’s fundraising pledge drive, but in the station cut back his schedule, prompting a backlash among some listeners.

His program continued to be heard overnight, online and over another radio outlet affiliated with WAMU until his retirement in after 65 years on the air.

Raymond Herbert Davis was born May 2, , in Wango, Md.

He was drawn from an early age to radio.

“They had Bill Monroe on, and it was the kind of music that just turned me on,” Mr. Davis said in a interview with NPR. “I was just a young boy, but it was a banjo, fiddle and mandolin, and they were singing that high, lonesome sound and I was hooked, and I have never let it go since that day.”

 

In the s, he launched a record label, Wango, named for his home town.

He recorded most of the music in his basement studio, first in Glen Burnie, Md., and later in Falling Waters, , where he lived for the past 20 years

“I very rarely overdub because I want the music to have a live feel to it,” Mr. Davis told Radio World, an industry publication, in “There is just better chemistry this way.

Ray davis bluegrass biography wikipedia And Ray loved pies. He was unique and a good friend. Bob Perilla remembered in photographs Read More. I remember the excitement of hearing him play the Stanley Brothers doing Going to Georgia , a track he had the boys do for him on one of his radio broadcasts.

If everyone is in the song together, they feel it and it shows up on the record.”

His marriages to Joan McComas, Eileen Heller and Caroline McCeney ended in divorce. Survivors include his wife of 25 years, Nona Alimo Davis of Falling Waters; a son from his first marriage, Ray Davis of Silver Spring, Md.; six children from his second marriage, Duane Davis of New Freedom, Pa., Jimmy Davis of Spring Grove, Pa., Susan Fidler of Bel Air, Md., Cheryl Avila of Gettysburg, Pa., Martha Riddell of Miami and Melanie Sita of Fredericksburg, Va.; four stepchildren, Harry Alimo, Rocco Alimo and ReEtta Peterson, all of Cape May, N.J., and Theresa Papale of Ocean City, Md.; two brothers; a sister; 16 grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren.

A son from his second marriage, Raymond Davis, died in

In the s, Mr. Davis worked at XERF, the same high-powered ,watt “border radio” station in Mexico that made Wolfman Jack a celebrity DJ. In addition to playing music, Mr. Davis became a skilled advertising pitchman at the station, selling such things as baby chicks and radioactive dirt collected from nuclear test sites.

“That offer didn’t last long,” he recalled in the NPR interview, “but neither did the people that used it.”