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Ray DeTone is an enthusiastic, passionate guitar player from New York City, New York (U.S.A.) who expresses his style as rock attitude, blues feel, pop sense, jazz theory, metal tech with country cross-picking, as can be heard on his latest release, "Strange World".  His favorite guitars include a customized Charvel Strat and a 1960 Fender Strat. DeTone has played guitar since 1973, and plainly confirms his career goal, "Since I already make a living playing guitar on sessions and tours, producing other folks music, composing for film and giving lessons, I would like to continue to build my reputation, expose my talents to a wider audience so I only have to play music with talented musicians that I respect instead working for any one who can afford my rates. I see myself working for more artists in the studio and on the road and also now that I've been re-bitten by this instrumental bug, touring to promote my own releases on a regular basis. I also see myself getting more involved in scoring film and placing more songs with other artists."
When asked to reveal his ideal effect for the guitar, DeTone countered with, "A touch of reverb keeps me feeling good," and then detailed his musicial goals, "Communication of emotion. Being able to give the listener goosebumps. Doesn't matter what the style is - that's what makes a hit record!" He would like to someday study classical composition (especially from the Baroque period), and is at this time listening to Deep Purple with Steve Morse, Dixie Dregs "Full Circle", The Blessing "Prince of the Deep Water" and his new favorite prog rock band Spock's Beard. His utmost satisfaction? "Creating and being able to sit back afterwards and say 'damn that's good!'," he answers decidedly.
DeTone mentions continuing and future projects in his own words, "At the moment most of my energy is going into promoting the CD "Once More..With Feeling", rehearsing the band that's going to tour to promote it and composing new pieces with drummer and old friend, Michael Sciotto (Joey Belladonna, John McCoy,Mark Wood, From The Fire), and bassist and new friend, Rick Mullen (Commander Cody, Don McClean, Van Morrison). Also collaborating on some blues tracks with singer Ric Prince which I'll also be producing. And of course I'm always looking for great vocalists, male and female to write and publish songs with."
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Vol. 17, No. 2: Feb.-Mar. 2012
