words and music by Joey "G-Clef" Cavaseno as performed by the Yalloppin Hounds, featuring G-Clef, rap vocals, Vickie Natale, vocals

Rhyme: Blood brother, you was more than just a drummer, we had the same vision cut short by the evil schisms of life's realities-- you saw them too cold...too close-- too real to ever live to grow old. Jeremy Bacon, Herman Clark, and Zaid Nasser , they all here with me, to make sure that you live after your physical, and I will find your little seed.. and show her that her daddy was a true genius indeed... Verse: If you had lived to see today.... Oh Sun Ray.... We'd share this treasure with the sky... You left so suddenly we never did say goodbye... But its seems as though, You're still everywhere I go... I don't know how you still live in my music, I can feel you now. I hope you found a better way.... Oh Sun Ray.... You were so troubled in your time.... The bitter and the sweet are often hard to combine.... Strange as it may seem, I must go on to live our dream... And know for every pale moon beam there'll be a Sun Ray!!!

This is a dedication to my former drummer and close friend, Ray Anthony Holmes. Ray Holmes was a great, very creative, swinging drummer who grew up near me in West Hempstead. He attended the International Art of Jazz workshops when we were all in High School. Also attending those were Yalloppin Hound members Herman "X" Clark and Zaid "Alienhound" Nasser, as well as myself. Later on we had some good groups, including one with current Hound, Jeremy Bacon. He played, on occaision, with Milton Hinton, Lou Donaldson, and Cecil Bridgewater. Everyone who knew Ray knew him to be a caring, intelligent person, with a wealth of great ideas and natural talent. Unfortunately, the jazz life introduced to him drugs at an early age. Due to a cold admixture of non-support for his musical endeavors from his foster parents, and the drugs of the 1980's, he became a bit isolated in his life. By the time he was about 23, he committed suicide, survived by a daughter he barely knew, who must be about 14 by now. Supposedly, he left a suicide note, but his family never contacted me that I might read it. All I ever got was a phone call from some family member I never knew telling me that "Ray is dead". This song is my tribute and message to him wherever he is now. Had he not passed, he'd be playing on it. I open it up with a rhyme over the piano/bass figure, then Vickie tells us the story.

copyright 2001, Ghetto Philharmonic Music( ASCAP ) ( Leosong)