Audio Remembering Dave Ray (story audio) Picture Has Faded - Dave Ray and Tony Glover Downtown Blues - Koerner, Ray & Glover Looky, Looky Yonder - Koerner, Ray & Glover Photos Koerner Ray and Glover in recent years Koerner Ray and Glover with Big Joe Williams in 1964 More from MPR Word of Mouth Resources Dave Ray's Web page First Avenue Red House Records Respond to this story Talk about this story in the MPR News Forum Submit a commentary Help us cover this story

Remembering Dave Ray
by Euan Kerr, Minnesota Public Radio
December 13, 2002

(l-r) John Koerner, Tony Glover, and Dave Ray began playing together in the early 1960, and continued gigging together until last month. While they never made it big, they are widely credited as influencing some of the biggest names in the music business. (Photo courtesy of Red House Records, Gib Ahlstrand, photographer)

Family and friends are gathering in Minneapolis to remember Dave Ray. He died on Thanksgiving after a battle with cancer. There will be many stories and a lot of music. Dave Ray was a third of Koerner, Ray, and Glover, the trio that few people outside of Minnesota now know. Yet everyone from John Lennon, and the Doors to Bonnie Raitt and Beck cite them as influences.

Minneapolis , Minn. — In the early 1960s Koerner Ray and Glover were at the forefront of the folk revolution. They specialized in the blues: finding and performing great American songs they thought were on the verge of being lost. They also wrote their own material.

	Koerner Ray and Glover with Big Joe Williams in 1964

Between 1963 and '65 they released three seminal albums: "Blues Rags and Hollers", "Lots More Blues Rags and Hollers" and "The Return of Koerner Ray and Glover".

They were never much concerned with making it big, though. Opportunities came, and just as quickly went. In recent years they were fixtures on the Minnesota scene, as comfortable playing in bars as at the Guthrie, still occasionally sought out by blues afficionados passing through town.

The albums were recently re-released by Red House Records. In 1999 Dave Ray and Tony Glover came in to MPR to talk about them with Word of Mouth's Euan Kerr. At the time Dave Ray admitted he was uncomfortable as he looked back at the recordings.

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