For this most creepy time of year, I’d like to share a recording of Ray McAuley and Wild Country singing a Buck Owen’s classic, “A Monster’s Holiday.” These guys were one tight band, as good live as on record.

Ray McAuley Promo Poster – photo courtesy of Edna McAuley

Ray was from a family of country singers and guitar pickers from Douglastown, Gaspé, Quebec. His family moved to Montreal when he was a teenager and Ray later moved to B.C., where he formed a country band with Ed Molyski called Wild Country. Ray was the lead singer and rhythm guitarist and Ed wrote the songs and played lead guitar. The band were somewhat of a sensation in Western Canada in the mid-1970s, releasing one album on R.C.A. records, “Sometimes Good, Sometimes Bad” (1977), and appearing on the Tommy Hunter and Ronnie Prophet shows. They were were poised to begin a recording contract in Nashville when Ray died of an aneurysm in 1978 at 33 years old. He was awarded the 1978 Entertainer and Male Vocalist of the Year at the B.C. Country Music Association; the Association’s “Ray McAuley Horizon Award,” was named in his honour.

The recording of “Monster’s Holiday” comes from a mid-1970s live performance taped on reel-to-reel. Ray McAuley’s sister Edna sent this reel to Brian Morris who digitized it a few years ago. Brian is a guitarist and a good friend of mine in Montreal whose family is from Douglastown. Ray used to visit Brian’s father when he was growing up in south-west Montreal.

A special thanks to Edna McAuley of Prince George, B.C. for sharing this recording and her collection of pictures and newspaper clippings with us.

Trick or treat!

Ray McAuley and Wild Country – photo courtesy of Edna McAuley

Fonds: Edna McAuley (EM-OR-001)