User:Mwinog2777/Ray Herndon

Ray Herndon (born July 14, 1960) is an American country singer/songwriter and guitarist known mainly for playing with Lyle Lovett's Large Band and McBride & the Ride.

Ray Herndon grew up in an Arizona musical family. His father, Brick Herndon, was a musician and band leader who owned a Scottsdale, Arizona, club, the Handlebar J, that played country music. Herndon's older two brothers were also musicians; by age three he appeared with them on local television, singing, dancing and playing instruments. After studying jazz at Mesa Community College, he joined a Phoenix houseband, J. David Sloan and the Rogues. The Rogues were invited to play at the 1983 Schueberfouer in Luxembourg. He met Lyle Lovett there and invited him to sit in with the band. This led to a long relationship with Lovett; he played guitar on many of his recordings and toured with him, off and on, from 1983. He had some success as a founding member of the country group McBride & The Ride. After the band split up in 2002, he released a solo album, Livin’ the Dream (with musical guests including Lyle Lovett and Clint Black) in 2004. His major songwriting successes were Kenny Chesney's Me and You and his own  My Dog Thinks I’m Elvis, which was used in a television commercial for Radio Shack. Besides Chesney, he has written songs for Aaron Tippin, Lee Greenwood, Linda Davis, Sonya Isaacs and McBride & the Ride. After his time as a Nashville songwriter, he returned to Arizona to help his family run the Handlebar J, where he and his bothers do a weekly gig.