''Michael Ray'' is the debut studio album by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

artist Michael Ray, and his second overall. It was released on August 7, 2015 via Atlantic Nashville. The lead single, "Kiss You in the Morning", was a number one hit on the US ''Billboard''

Country Airplay Country Airplay is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States since October 20, 2012, although the magazine also retrospectively recognizes the Hot Country Songs charts from January 20, 1990, through October 13, 2012, ...

chart.

Content

Ray has writing credits on only one song on his debut, "Run Away with You", which he co-wrote with

John Rich John Rich (born January 7, 1974) is an American country music singer-songwriter. From 1992 to 1998, he was a member of the country band Lonestar, in which he played bass guitar and alternated with Richie McDonald as lead vocalist. After depa ...

who first recorded the song as part of

Big & Rich Big & Rich is an American country music duo composed of Big Kenny and John Rich, both of whom are songwriters, vocalists, and guitarists. Before the duo's foundation, Rich was bass guitarist in the country band Lonestar, while Kenny was a sol ...

for their 2014 album, ''

Gravity In physics, gravity (), also known as gravitation or a gravitational interaction, is a fundamental interaction, a mutual attraction between all massive particles. On Earth, gravity takes a slightly different meaning: the observed force b ...

''. Their version was released as a single on January 19, 2015 and was a Top 20 hit on the Country Airplay charts.

Track listing

Personnel

* Dave Cohen –

Hammond B-3 organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created from rotat ...

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

* Perry Coleman – background vocals * Charlie Judge – Hammond B-3 organ, piano * Troy Lancaster –

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

* Tony Lucido –

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

* Jerry McPherson – electric guitar * Russ Pahl –

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a console steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings, enabling more varied and complex music to be played than with other steel guitar designs. Like all steel guitars, it can play ...

* Danny Rader –

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

* Michael Ray – lead vocals * Mike Rojas – Hammond B-3 organ, piano * Adam Shoenfeld – electric guitar *

Nir Z Nir Zidkyahu (, , born November 1967), also known as Nir Z, is an Israeli studio-session drummer, and the brother of Blackfield's drummer Tomer Z. He joined in spring 1997 with Genesis, he played in eight tracks for their last album ''Calling A ...

. –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

Chart performance

The album debuted on the ''Billboard'' 200 at No. 21, and the Top Country Albums chart at No. 4, with 11,300 copies sold in the US in its first week. The album has sold 51,000 copies in the US as of January 2017.

Album

Singles

References

{{Authority control 2015 debut albums Michael Ray (singer) albums Atlantic Records albums Albums produced by Scott Hendricks