Ray Goren’s– “Slaves To The Money”

When music is great you want to hold it into the moment. Let it be told that L.A. has its own guitar slinger , Ray Goren. He accomplishes greatness that is emphatic but not ostentatious… He keeps it real.Prepubescent guitar greats.. Jonny Lang, John Mayer and Kenny Wayne Sheppard  who’ve wanted to duplicate the aural blues templates of Jimi Hendrix, Duane Allman, Prince and Stevie Ray Vaughn; which is not necessarily a bad thing.But, another part of growing up is moving past the overcompensation of  youth, which is the true test of a great artist.. of which the young Goren has successfully accomplished. Frequently, with young guitar prodigies it’s tough to know which part of their personality is a  front for something that may have misgivings. Goren’s music has holistically  matured  and the great thing is you can’t hold his age against him.. He grew up by”teething” a guitar and listening to the blues with all its moonshine wisdom. At a very young age he’s played along side blues greats.. B.B. King, Eric Gales and Buddy Guy. There’s no “shredding” too loud and no stage too big for Goren! You think logically how could this be? Just listen to his recent E.P., “Slaves To The Money”and you’ll be reckoning his greatness; not as a white boy stealing the blues but a young man delivering great music.

So many hugely successful and talented musicians have died at age 27 that it almost seems reasonable to believe the number represents some statistical coefficient of talent and tragedy.But several decades before Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Brian Jones or Amy Winehouse left us too soon there was Robert Johnson… the man who pioneered this urban legend by selling  his soul to the devil for the blues… died in 1938 at age 27 under mysterious and likely by violent circumstances… He was already a legend and his story of meeting Satan at the crossroads to make an exchange for his extraordinary talent had already permeated popular culture and became ingrained after his death… making him the world’s first Rock Star by playing the blues! Not all of this may be true but one thing is for certain… No Robert Johnson… No Rock and Roll..This too is another legend that rock and roll progeny has no problem seeking the tantalizing story of Robert Johnson.. Urban mythology has gone as far as to extrapolate that Clapton,  Page, Richards and  Van Halen have all made their peace with Satan. Unlike these greats, Goren has the sanctity of righteousness and purity…. we are witnessing greatness.

..  .. The Crossroads….

We had the pleasure of interviewing Goren and he gave us great insights…

Rock Bands of L.A:

“Slaves to The Money” was a huge leap in your songwriting skills.. The beginning of last year you re-released “Save My Soul” and later you launched “Slaves To The Money”… how did this metamorphosis come to be? You break your teeth doing blues songs and then you drop a perfect “pop” driven record; yet you don’t hold back on your guitar playing.. Are you a bluesman first? You play with so much swagger. To think you are only 16! Being a“bluesman” is a life style. Whether its affected by drug or alcohol how do you stay true to the blues? It’s something that you don’t read in a book.

Goren:

I’m a musician first. I listen to the music and wherever the music wants to go, that’s where I take it – regardless of the genre. I started off with Jazz and Blues music. Blues is based on great feel. It is a great musical basis. All the great rock greats and many R&B greats all started with the blues. I did not decide to pursue blues than another type of music, the music takes me, I only facilitate….