Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ray Cooper. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Ray, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
I love being a member of The Music City Hayride in Nashville! It’s a wonderful show at the Texas Troubadour theater that the proceeds go to benefit veterans.
Ray, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I got started in the business a couple years ago I came to Nashville to be an entertainer just like anybody else and through the learning process I wanted to be a singer, and I learned from a dear friend who’s already in the entertainment business that that was where my strong suit was, it was to be a comedian so I was very thankful for that tidbit of advice, and I’ve worked on my craft over the years that I’ve been doing it, I do churches, events, senior centers, wherever the need is to bring joy I love it it’s one of the most powerful things that we have in this life is to laugh. It breaks the ice . I’m very thankful for all the things that I’ve got to do this last year I got to do the way the fair in Wilson County, which was an awesome thing to get to do like I mentioned before I got to. I am a cast member on the Music City Hayride Asheville Tennessee. It is a nonprofit goes to all the proceeds go to the Veterans so it’s awesome. I love doing it like I said, I have yearly appointments that I’m starting to book up and I really enjoy it no matter what the event I’m ready to go. I don’t really have product as of now I’m working on I do parodies of the old country star hits , many you member Patsy Cline I’ve got her song Crazy and mine is titled lazy so I’m hoping to have a CD out in the next coming up maybe year and I would love to get that out on the product tables when I go to a show the things I’ve learned, I’ve learned to value every appointment I’ve learned to value the negative as well as the positive. It’s a life lesson when you’re in any type of entertainment to be able to take the negative critique with the positive, and I’ve also learned through my journey to Not let the entertainment value what you have at home your family you know a lot of us that when you do this type of thing it over values what you have at your home life whether it be your spouse, your father, your significant other whatever and I’ve learned to put my priority straight as my journey continues
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
You know that’s a good question I would’ve loved to have known about all the different websites and stuff that you can go on to find gigs. I very I guess you could say I was a dumb blonde at heart lol and I have found a lot of places to go to find gigs and to look for resourcesand social media of course
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
I love is an artist being able to reinvent myself as many times as I want to. You know sometimes in life we get a rut with anything and being an artist is a creative wheel. That’s always spinning. It never stops. A lot of people want to put a timeframe on being an artist and there’s no timeframe. I’ve always been question you know I’ve done it for a couple years and they’re like well you’re no farther than you are but you are far you just have to be thankful for every step along the way, you have to be able to reinvent yourself to the situation like I said previously in the article that I have done a lot of churches well I also do the Music City Hayride and a lot of the country events so you know the crowd is different. The jokes are different, but I have reinvented myself and I’m so thankful for that.
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Image Credits
LaDonna Ann Cooper Padrion Scott Paul Rubin