With the exception of one track, all songs on Lewis Ray Cammarata’s release Carry Your Own Water were recorded in his home studio during an 18 month period. Cammarata played all the instruments and handled all vocals himself. This was a decision born from a combination of pragmatism and a sense of self-reliance. The lone exception to this being “This Girl’s Got Murder on Her Mind,” which was recorded at friend Bob McCarrol’s studio as a late substitution for a track he decided didn’t fit the new album. All the mixing was done on Cammarata’s “humble software.”
As for the songs themselves, Cammarata rarely writes from personal experience and says “It’s not that my life is uneventful. I just find it difficult to relate the events in a context that doesn’t come off as metaphorically cumbersome.” So instead he works from the viewpoint of an observer. Inspiration comes to him from books (Elmore Leonard), television and movies (pop culture rules), and he says “snippets of overhead conversations (barroom intellectuals), and observational reconnaissance (the deaf couple on the beach watching the fireworks display).” He adds “In the end this may speak of cultural copyright infringement. But as a great man may possibly have once said, “You take your inspiration where you can get it, stick it in your pocket, and take it to your grave.”
On Lewis Ray’s first release “Lemme Outa Here“, we see Lewis break out of his musical shell and dive into the world of the blues. And this is no exception to his ability to produce a rare and gritty sound. Out of Phoenix, AZ, Lewis Ray gives a whole new meaning to the dry heat of the desert with songs like “See You In Hell” and “Desperate Rose”.
“Slip and slide along the wild and wily blues highway with talented guitarist Lewis Ray Cammarata. Fun, fast, and at times furious, his playing’s up and down the blues-music map, nodding in the direction of Ry Cooder as well as surf maestro Dick Dale, Tom Waits, and even moody soundtrack man Ennio Morricone.”
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