About Wendell Ray

The Story

My grandfather used to preach every Sunday from a wooden pulpit in a small town: streets of gold, the narrow road, stay on your knees because life gets hard. He told us how to be blessed. It wasn't until he passed that I found out he smoked cigarettes. The same man behind the sermon had his own battles he never brought up on Sunday. Turns out the best sermon he ever gave me wasn't something he said out loud. It was watching him be both things at once, blessed and broken, and still be worth loving.

That's the album. That's kind of been my whole life, honestly.

I've spent many years running: from places, from people, from myself. Writing songs about it seemed like the only honest way to figure out if grace was actually real or just something we say in church. Blessed & Broken is nine songs about that question: the ones who leave when they shouldn't, the ones who get left and don't know why, anyone who's ever laid awake at 2 a.m. wondering if they're still forgivable. I didn't write it to have answers. I wrote it because I needed to ask.

Musically, it's country at the core with a pop pulse running through it: California country-rock energy, songs that don't sound the same but somehow all get along, and choruses with melodies that stay long after the song ends. Harmonica shows up here and there, not as a gimmick but because I've put in the years on it, and when it's there, it means something.

I've gotten to make this record with people I grew up admiring, and I've earned my calluses the old-fashioned way too: over 275 shows a year, stages from Southeast Asia to across the U.S., opening for John Legend and Uncle Kracker, playing harmonica alongside Tanya Tucker.

But none of that's really the point. Grandpa carried his own burden quietly, hid it even from us, because he believed what he preached enough to feel ashamed when he fell short of it, and yet it never once made God love him less. Some of the best lessons come in the humblest forms, passed down through love and imperfect examples. This album is my version of "Amazing Grace." It's for anybody who's ever needed to hear that the second part doesn't cancel out the first.

Thanks for listening. I mean that.

Wendell Ray

Career Highlights

• Harmonica Player for Country Music Hall of Famer, Tanya Tucker.
• 8.5 month festival tour across S.E. Asia
• Opening artist for John Legend tour and Uncle Kracker tour
• Over 275 shows booked annually