LISTEN TO “SAINT MISBEHAVIN” // “SOUL FOOD COOKIN”: HERE
“It’s a pair of high-energy tunes…complete with bitchin’ rockabilly guitars,
a heavenly walking bass line, a driving beat and fun tongue-twister lyrics sung
with just the right amount of twang.” Parade Magazine
Nashville artist Boo Ray has released the third installment in his ‘BooCoo Amigos’ 7inch duet series, with celebrity chef Sean Brock via Soundly Music on all streaming platforms. The digital release will be followed by a physical vinyl release on August 24th featuring two original songs “Saint Misbehavin” and “Soul Food Cookin.” You can preorder the vinyl HERE.
The making of this particular installment all started because of the internet. Boo Ray and Brock struck up a fast friendship on Instagram due to their mutual love of food and tattoos. Both of these things served as inspiration for the 7inch. One day, Brock spotted a photo Ray posted to Instagram of a tattoo from Athens, GA artist Mitchell Atkinson (Twins of Pain), via the hashtag #MitchellAtkinson. Brock was so impressed to find a like-minded admirer of Atkinson’s work the photo left a lasting impression him, and he started to follow Ray on social media. As luck would have it Brock spotted Boo Ray, recognizing him from Instagram, at the East Nashville coffee shop Barista Parlor. The two struck up a conversation and immediately hit it off. What resulted are two high-energy, rockabilly tracks that fit as the perfect example of who they are individually and their friendship as whole.
When they started to write and make music together, they came back to the source of how they first met for ‘Saint Misbehavin.’ “Sean and I discovered that we had an Athens Georgia tattooist in common,” says Boo Ray, “a wild rebel soul named Mitchell Atkinson that was one half of Twins of Pain Tattooing. After talking guitars, Jerry Reed, Billy Gibbons and Southern Culture On The Skids, we figured we ought to write a number about Mitch, bemoaning ‘the foolish ways that take our friends before they’re old,’ and since it’s Chef Sean Brock I’m working with here, the obligatory ‘Soul Food Cookin’ song was natural as a hiccup.”
“Saint Misbehavin’” is also cleverly named after the Patron Saint of Body Art, “Saint Theresa the Tatted,” a mystical character who lived in the war torn state of Kosovo in the early ‘90s. Legend has it that she kept an entire convent of nuns alive during the war by smuggling them food under her clothes, hanging the items on her body piercings. “Watching Boo Ray magically turn our ideas into something you can play on a turntable was the songwriting equivalent of ‘farm to table’ cooking. These songs were made to crank up with the windows down and the throttle wide open,” says Brock.
This is the third installment of Boo Ray’s ongoing ‘BooCoo Amigos’ 7inch duet series that sees him collaborating with some of his favorite artists. Prior releases in the series include duets with Lilly Winwood (Steve Winwood’s daughter) which featured both an A and B side that Cowboys & Indians called “a fun, whimsical track that utilizes its steel guitar, organ, and bluesy guitar licks to emphasize Winwood’s unique voice and Ray’s signature eccentric style.” The Holiday duet with Elizabeth Cook “All Strung Out With Christmas Lights” was praised by The Country Note, No Depression and Rolling Stone County, who called it “a boozy bedrock of electric guitar, pedal steel and barroom piano.” Additional praise for the series has also come from Wide Open Country, Battered and Brewed, Glide Magazine, Nashville Music Guide, The Alternate Root and more.