I’ve been a Hook fan for a while, but had never seen Ray
Sawyer live, and hoped that someday; he would do a tour of Ireland or England,
where I could catch his act. The opportunity came about a year ago when I went to one of
the concerts on his farewell tour.
There was a support act, and then Ray came on about 8.15 pm... Cayce his
son was playing drums. Ray was 77, and he was looking a bit frail but still
full of life! His hair was now long and
grey. I know that for some years, his
voice has been declining in quality, but I was thrilled to have the chance to
see him, in the flesh.
I knew that I was going to enjoy it. He still has the verve and outgoing warmth
that have made him such a delightful performer. Ray always will be a
showman. When he sang the first 3 songs, I thought that although his
voice wasn’t perfect, he was still pretty good.
His voice then began to decline and roughen a bit, but overall I loved
him. I always loved the way that he has of throwing himself into performances. I can’t remember all the songs, but he
started with Walk Right in and finished with Sylvia’s Mother.
Other songs were the “Wonderful Soup Stone”…and “You make my
pants want to get up and dance” and “Cover of the Rolling Stone” and “Baby
Makes her Blue jeans talk”. He spoke a
few times about Shel Silverstein...He finished up about 9.30 pm but then came
back on, and did about 3 or 4 more songs... Including Sylvia’s Mother and his
old blues favourite “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay”. He finished with his
usual last song “Goodnight Sweetheart it’s time to go”.
He was in fine form
and it was a delight to see him. I love
Dr Hook and Ray was a lynch pin of that band, and I’m glad that he managed to
have a successful post band career. And
I now hope that he has a long and happy retirement.
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