partridgefamilybus-flickr
Michael Ray says that his family band is like a redneck Partridge Family. ”I’m from a town called Eustis, Florida, and my family had a band. It was like the redneck Partridge Family. My grandfather played lead [guitar]; my dad sang lead and played rhythm; my uncle played bass, sang harmony; my cousin played drums; my other cousin sang as well. They were playing from before I was born, they played all through Florida. They would do festivals or community centers or private parties, whatever it was. So they brought me on stage when I was a little kid, like five or six, holding a little fake guitar. And then they kind of dispersed, families and jobs and everything started coming in. But my grandfather, he continued to play, so about age nine was when I started actually really learning how to play guitar and playing songs, and I’d go and play with groups that he was playing with three or four nights a week since I was nine.”
(source: radio.com/photo: flickr)